AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Excitement rose up as he thought of it. South, toward the sun, while they looked for him in the soggy Northwest. But west first, toward the coast. Dump the banger he’d stolen only the day before, get himself a truck. He could leave the fucking feds some bread crumbs so it looked like he headed north toward Washington State.
But he’d double back south. South toward the sun.
Where he could think, where he could plan.
Now he smiled out at the rain as he brought Morgan’s face into his head.
Sitting in that big-ass house, thinking she’d beaten him. Thinking she’d won.
“Enjoy the rest of your summer, bitch, because I’m coming.”
Now he was the one who laughed.
Miles reached for her when he woke Sunday morning. When he found the space beside him empty, he opened his eyes, studied what had become her side of the bed, at least on weekends.
And realized he didn’t like that empty space. He’d gotten used to having her fill it, gotten used to the way she slept. On her left side, one hand under the pillow as if she held herself in place.
Annoyed, and more annoyed to find himself annoyed, he sat up and noted the dog had deserted him, too.
He got up, pulled on a pair of gym shorts with the vague idea of working out after coffee—better yet, after sex. Downstairs, as he walked toward the kitchen, he caught the mutter of the great room TV.
One of those home improvement shows, he identified. The woman loved HGTV.
And there she was, in baggy shorts, a baggier T-shirt, standing at the counter she’d littered with bottles, whole and juiced-out lemons and oranges. His grandmother’s big cut glass pitcher glowed a deep, almost purple red with whatever she’d mixed in it.
Now, with one eye on a bunch of people ripping out ugly, shit-brown kitchen cabinets, she sliced an orange.
“What’re you doing?”
Still slicing, she glanced over. “Morning. Why, I’m waxing my surfboard, of course.”
“Ha.”
He went straight to the coffee maker.
“I’m making sangria. The flavors need time to blend. I was going to make it when I got home last night, but you had other ideas, so I’m getting it together now so it’ll have blending time.”
He looked over his shoulder as he reached for a mug. “I had other ideas this morning.”
That got a smile as she dumped the orange slices in the pitcher.And picked up a lemon. “That’ll have to wait. We have a dinner party to prep for.”
Coffee. Coffee. Coffee, he thought as the scent of it brewing made him yearn. “It’s not a dinner party.”
She’d said the same, she remembered. But now she embraced her ladies’ definition.
“We’re having people over for dinner, that we’re making. Hence, dinner party. And I know I’m more wound up about it than you are, but I don’t get to do this kind of thing often. Mostly at all. The last time…”
She slid the lemon slices in, started on the lime. “The last time was when Nina and I made dinner for Sam and the man I thought was Luke Hudson. Today’s going to wipe that one right off the books.”
It mattered, he thought. What he considered just a casual summer evening with family mattered to her. For so many reasons.
He stepped away from coffee, stepped to her, wrapped his arms around her.
“Is that the biggest pitcher you could find?”
He felt her laugh, felt her relax.
“You’re thinking that while Nell may have one glass out of solidarity, the guys are going to stick with beer, because your balls may shrivel up if you drink something you consider too fussy and girlie.”
