AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What are you doing here? Did I forget a project meeting or something?”
“I’m sorry; I don’t know why I’m here. Let me let you go.”
“No.” She places a hand on my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“I shouldn’t be here; it was stupid of me to come.” I can’t look her in the face. I rub my forehead in frustration.
“Stop that,” she chides. “I have a few minutes; what’s up?”
I hesitate, momentarily distracted by her touch, how caring she sounds, and feeling stupid for bringing my marital problems to her door.
“You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important. Talk to me.”
“I’m not sure I should be talking to you about this.”
“This newfound friendship of ours won’t work if you don’t talk to me. Whoever heard of friends without words? What would Words With Friends be without them? Come on.” She tilts her head, pushing me toward my truck. “Let’s get into your truck where there are no little and big ears and eyes to take it all in.”
I tell her the whole story. Her hand flies to her mouth halfway through. I’m sure she is holding her breath. When I get to the painful, embarrassing end, she’s almost speechless.
“I don’t know what to say. Sorry seems appropriate, but not...” Her mouth opens and closes, clearly nonplussed. What would you say in a situation as this?
“Go with sorry. I’m sorry I had to walk in on it. I’m sorrier my son had to witness it.”
She rubs a hand on my arm. Immediately her warm touch does something for me. Steadies me. Her warmth calms my jittery nerves. It might not be the right thing, coming here, laying my problems at her feet, but it feels right being here with her. She gets me. She knows what I need without even knowing she’s giving it to me. Her. Her touch.
“Sorry, you had a shitty morning, sorrier for Jackson it was the shittiest.” I smile at her choice of words. She smiles back, because we both know she rarely uses cuss words. I cover her hand with mine, keeping it still against me so I can feel her skin against mine. A simple moment of understanding between us, no words necessary.
It’s amazing how long we’ve been apart and yet here, alone with her, it feels like time has hardly passed. Her lips brush across the back of my hand. I turn my head and look into her eyes, with slow, steady, deep breaths. She comforts me in a way no one else can. She always was my calm in the storm. Seems she still is. Before I do something stupid to ruin this, I clear my throat and take my hand from hers.
She sits back, also clearing her throat. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why my lips keep touching you.”
She bites down on her lips, and I chuckle. “You don’t ever have to be sorry when you’re with me,” I say reaching over with my thumb, gently pulling the lip I desperately want to kiss from between her teeth, purposely brushing my thumb across her cheek before dropping my hand. “I’m sorry for showing up here with my problems, holding you up from getting to work.”
“I’m late, but I don’t mind. You needed me. I wish I could stay longer.” She sighs. Looking at her watch. “I gotta go. Sam is understanding, but I don’t want to push it too far. As soon as I get off tonight we can talk, if you still feel like it?”
“Even better, let me drive you and pick you up at the end of your shift?” Yeah, this is my way of trying to see her a second time today without seeming too emotionally needy. “It’s the least I can do for making you late and listening to my morning of utter chaos.”
“Well...” she bites her lip, and just when I’m convinced she’s going to say no, she nods. “Okay. I get off at 7:30 p.m.”
Emptying the water bottle Triggthrew me, I slam it down on the counter. He raises a brow at me when I say, “Hit me with another one, barkeep.”
He grins, shaking his head. “You’re going to need something way stronger if you want to temporarily erase your morning of horrors.”
“Don’t I know it.” I crush the plastic in my hand. “I’m not angry she’s moving on. I understand everyone needs someone to make them feel something. Hell, that’s how we met. Me needing to feel something—anything— for as long as it took me to get off. Can’t be upset with her for that.”
“Then what’s the real deal here? I know you and Bree are technically still legally married, but it’s been over for a long time.”
“We’ve only been keeping up appearances for Jackson. He asked me some questions after I picked him up from practice. I had to tell him his mother and I weren’t together anymore.”
“How’d he take it?”
“Not sure. He said okay, and then said he was ready to go inside with his mom.”
“He’ll be okay. You both are great with him—way better than my crap parents were with me. He’ll be fine as long as he has both of you. Little dude knows he can talk to you when he’s ready to get shit off his chest.”
“I’m going to hang around the house some more with him when Bree’s there—make sure he knows he’s a priority to us—and I’ll push back moving out of the house.”
He picks up a cup and wipes it off. “Sounds like a plan. What ya gonna do about, Lacey? How does she fit into this?”
