AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I exhale, clenching my hands into fists. “I didn’t plan-... It wasn’t like I-... Ugh, fuck, you know what? I’mgladyou’re here. I didn’t want to be alone tonight, and now I get…you.”
“Mm,” she snarks. “Lucky you that I’m always here to help.”
“Yeah,” I exhale harshly, lifting my hand behind my head and falling back against the pillow. “Lucky me.”
Chapter 4
Thea
“Jesus Christ,” I mumble under my breath as I wipe the drool from my mouth, trying to build enough motivation to get out of my car and go inside my brother’s house. Yet, here I am pretending to finish a phone call so I can sit a minute longer and look. Just look. Look for one more minute, so I can bring this image up when I create all new imaginary stories in my head about him before I fall asleep tonight.
Fuck, I thought I was past this, but no. Of course not. No matter how well I’m doing at ignoring it, he always has to come back and do some knight in shining armor shit, and my crush comes roaring back in.
“Goddammit!” I curse, chucking my phone in my bag and shoving the door open before I’m stuck sitting here staring forever.
I take the few steps it takes to walk up Trevor’s driveway where Mack is carrying another bag of mulch to the bushes in front of the house, wearing only his jeans and work boots. “Hi,” I wave awkwardly, not being able to avoid him since I have to get to the front door.
“Hey,” he says, surprised, chucking the bag down and brushing off his hands. “What are you doing here?”
“Just dropping off Trevor’s laptop. He left it at my place last week, and I haven’t had a chance to stop over until now,” I say, pausing to swallow as I take in the sweat running down his stomach. I dart my eyes back up to his face before he notices. “It’s hot out here. You need some water?” I ask, making a fool out of myself.
Dammit, Thea. Pull yourself together.
“I could use a water break. Trevor’s inside on a work call. Fucker’s enjoying the a/c while I do all his dirty work.”
I laugh as he follows me to the door. “How’d you get roped into this anyway?”
“You know, I’m just such a good friend, and also, I have no life.”
I snort-laugh. “Yeah, not going to argue with that.”
“Yeah, of course you won’t,” he says, washing his hands off and pouring us both a glass of water. “Not you though, huh? Is that a new car out there? You start a new job or something?”
“New to me,” I mumble, taking a sip of my water. “We can’t all be instant successes in our career.”
“And what career are we talking about?” he asks, prying on the initial question that I avoided.
“Must be nice not having to have any real talent but still being able to sell whatever you want because of the dimples you were born with,” I tease, still side-stepping the question.
“Fuck you,” he laughs. Teasing him always helps me get out of answering questions. It’s something I learned very early on. “Did you take it to the mechanic before buying it? You know you could have called me? I could have taken a look. You never know with used ca-”
“I have it handled, Mack,” I cut him off. “You don’t need to take care of me.”
“Yes I do,” he says without hesitating.
Fuck.
I freeze up, losing all my thoughts and trying to come back to the present. He watches me the whole time, knowing we’re both thinking back to Friday. He doesn’t even realize how much he saved me. I would have been a mess today if I would have ran into Ryan by myself. I know that’s why these feelings are coming up again.
Mack is my constant. No matter the chaos going around in my life, he’s always there if I need him. He’s there even when I don’t want him to be there.
He was there the first time I decided to leave Ryan. He wasn’t supposed to be. I called Trevor because I was scared, and the rest of the guys just showed up. Ryan’s yelling escalated further than it ever had before. I think it was because I never pushed issues before. I knew bringing stuff up would make him mad, so I’d avoid confrontation with him. But what he did was too far.
That day was a blur. It started like any other, and I went through the motions just trying to get through the workday. I had been feeling off all week, but I attributed that to working too much and needing a vacation. I remember feeling lightheaded midmorning, but I tried ignoring it because it was almost lunch time. I figured I just needed food.
The last thing I remember is feeling woozy, looking out the window and seeing the wind blow through the trees. The next thing I knew, ten people were crowded around my body on the floor, and my co-worker, Cindy, was panicking and telling me she called 911.
It felt like I was living a dream for a little while, and I was still in a weird fog when the doctor was talking to me. I couldn’t understand what he was trying to ask me. He kept bringing up diabetes medication, and I thought he was trying to diagnose me.
