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I put down the rag I’d been scrubbing so diligently and let my head fall back as Aerosmith hit the high notes in “Dream On.” I threw my arms out and then drew them dramatically back to my chest along with the lyrics.
Dream on, dream on, dream on.
I spun around, ready to throw my arms out again when I saw Reece standing in the hallway, arm leaned against the doorway, watching me.
“Oh!” I yelped, reaching out and steadying myself against the counter.
He was smiling. “Sorry to interrupt. Just wanted to know if you wanted any lunch? I’m gonna go grab some and feed Bessie her midday bottle.”
“Oh!” I picked up the cleaning rag, feeling my cheeks flushed pink. “Oh. Um. Shouldn’t it be me getting you the lunch?”
He frowned and laughed, then gestured around at all the bags of trash. “Looks like you’re getting more done in here than I am back there wrestling with those pipes. But feel free to take a break for lunch.” Then he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, “Or however long you want, obviously. I had no idea you’d get so much done, frankly.”
“Oh, I haven’t even really gotten to the kitchen yet,” I said. “There’s about a decade’s worth of grime to get off that stove.”
He just paused and smiled a little quizzically at me. “Where on earth did you come from, Charlotte…” He trailed off at the end, like he was waiting for me to fill in my last name, but I didn’t.
I just held up my now-brown-formerly-yellow sponge. “Well, I guess I better get back to it. I’ll have whatever you’re having for lunch if you wanna bring me back a sandwich.”
He nodded. “Sure thing,” he said, but for another long moment he just stood there, watching me with his head tilted like he was trying to figure me out. It was a little unnerving.
“What?” I finally asked and he blinked like he was embarrassed to have been caught staring.
“Nothing. Sandwiches. Right. Got it. Aye aye, Captain Charlotte.”
I laughed at him when he swept up his hand in an over-exaggerated salute before heading out the door.
I didn’t miss that he left his music behind for me.
Wow, he was sweet.
And sexy, cut in a foreign voice in my head. A voice I’d all but forgotten.
Holy crap, was this what it felt like to be… to be attracted to a man? I blinked, and not just from the astringent cleaner I was using to degrease the oven.
I was attracted to this guy. I thought of the way his muscles had bulged when he’d leaned against the wall.
You’re married, said another appalled voice.
To an abusive asshole. Who I never intended to ever see again, in my entire life. Besides, I’d considered myself his wife in name only for most of our nine-year marriage. After he— After he—
Well, some things were unforgivable, and that was that.
Familiar pain lanced through my chest and defiantly, I shoved it away.
No. I wasn’t going to sit and wallow in my pain anymore, not here in this new life.
My eyes strayed towards the rickety door Reece had exited through.
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” came on, blaring throughout the trailer. Now that I’d cleared it out, the music echoed around the room to greater effect.
And I had a wild hair of an impulse, because dear God, I wanted to fly too, for real.
No more strings holding me down, no take backs. What if I did the one thing that would erase Jeff forever? Exorcise him from my body.
I wanted to claim this future for myself, in a way that would actually make me believe it was real.
Tomorrow I’d take Ruth up on her offer and have her drive me in to Austin. I’d hit the city early in the morning, look for work, find myself a women’s shelter to stay at if I had to while I figured things out.
