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I remained quiet.
“It wouldn’t have worked,” he stated. “You are too naïve.”
Before he could get going, the door opened, and I immediately jumped when I noticed Oscar. I saw the confusion and disbelief on both Clark and Prescott’s faces. Oscar was my next-door neighbor. He was on the older side. Tall with broad shoulders and a very symmetrical face that had me tongue-tied the first time I met him. Crinkles around his light eyes and peppered hair.
“Baby girl,” he whooshed as he wrapped me in his arms.
Safe. I felt safe for the first time tonight, and that made me want to cry, but I held it in.
“I’m okay,” I told him as I patted his chest.
He turned around and walked up to the guys.
“Thanks, officers,” he told them as he extended a hand to shake theirs.
Clark looked at Oscar’s hand, but didn’t make a move to shake it. Prescott, on the other hand, did.
“Let’s go home.” I pulled Oscar outside with me.
As soon as we were in his car, I felt like I could properly breathe again.
“What happened?” Oscar finally asked as he began to drive away.
For the first time today, I opened my mouth and explained everything, down to the embarrassing fact of stalking Clark Carson.
When we pulled up to our apartment complex, I felt drained.
“Go to sleep. Come by in the morning to get Lucas. He and Sammy had a blast tonight.”
“Oscar, you think I can have that spare key you keep?”
He rolled his eyes, but gave it to me.
Who knew this would come in handy?
* * *
My head hurt. I imagined my headache was due to yesterday’s events. Gah, all I wanted was to lay in bed. Put a pillow over my head and pretend none of it had been real.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that. I had responsibilities. I made my way out of bed, not knowing what the time was. The first thing I did was reach for my tablet so I could check. I scrunched my nose when I noticed it was almost noon. How lovely.
“Please tell me you have drugs!” I moaned as I opened the door to Oscar’s place.
I needed painkillers, and I was out.
“Oriiiiii, you back!”
I winced at the gleeful sound of Lucas’s tone as he came barreling down the hall toward me.
“Hi, baby.” I knelt in front of him. “Did you have fun with Sammy?”
Before he could answer, Sammy’s excited yelling could be heard.
“Hi, Ori!”
“Did you guys behave? Or are your dads going to give me lots of complaints?”
The little girl gave me a guilty smile.
