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And that did manage to shatter my little bubble of perceived safety. I removed the message and blocked the sender—there was no information on the user page about the stalker, only an image of a raised middle finger. I reported it. In my gut, I knew it was the red-haired guy that had followed Hank and me in the white pickup truck. With an Arizona Cardinals hat. I shivered.
Thursday morning, I joined Dillan on the back deck for a workout. He did a double take when I came out in my high-waisted yoga pants and sports bra. Well, Dillan Lee, frumpy college girls have something under all those floral prints too.
I kept an oblivious smile on my face. “Mornin’, Dillan,” I said and hopped on my new exercise bike. Dillan put on upbeat rap music, and seemed pretty invigorated, pumping his weights energetically.
While I was planking, Kate came out and joined up. “Do you mind if I use the bike?” she asked.
“I sure don’t,” I said. “In fact, it’ll keep me motivated. I bet I’ll clock more miles than you.”
“Oh, you’re on. Too bad for you—you’ve got no idea who you’re messing with.”
I grinned and did some yoga. It was heating up already. Here’s what I discovered about the Northwest, Oregon in particular: it doesn’t get as hot as where I’m from, and not nearly as often, but the humidity from all that water and green stuff everywhere is like wearing two wool sweaters ona stuffy sweltering day. I stared at my pool, sparkling and clean. Time to test it out.
When I ran upstairs, Antonio was in the kitchen, frying potatoes and eggs with bell peppers and onions. He glanced at me and started cursing. I sniffed, grabbed a dish of beautifully plated fruit, and took my oh-so-shocking and offensive body off to my bedroom to change into my practical and sporty swimming suit, for exercise laps.
It was still early, but the house was coming alive. Dillan shot hoops and Forest lifted while I stepped into the pool. Layla came out and worked on her pedicure. I put on my goggles and got to it, back and forth across the pool fifty times, alternating strokes.
You still notice things when you’re swimming laps, so I knew when a big group of men walked into the backyard with their boomy laughs and hearty guffaws. Still, I gasped, my skin tingling, when I stepped out of the pool, pulled off my goggles, and locked eyes with my high school sweetheart, Clint Davis. His gaze traveled down and up my dripping body.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Ismiled at Clint then grabbed my towel to dry off. After years of bathing suit competitions during my pageant days, I wasn’t shy about my body.
Traipsing around in your bathing suit in front of a bunch of young men does create a lull in their noise. I put on my terry cloth cover-up then walked past them to the stairs. There might have been an extra swing in my hips.
Antonio clucked at me in the kitchen as I grabbed my plate of hot eggs and potatoes. “Now these boys will be here all the time.”
I cocked an eyebrow at him, determined to not get into arguments with Antonio. “Can we have salad most nights? I need my greens.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I left to eat in my room in between showering and getting ready for the day.
I peeked out my window into the backyard. Clint was still there, involved in an intense half-court basketball game. He was bigger than the last time I’d seen him, with more muscle on his shoulders, chest, and legs. He was brawny, with thickbrown hair that had a tendency to stick out like a porcupine’s quills if he let it grow too long. His ears were big, and a little floppy.
We’d had your typical teenage romance, which for me meant a lot of screwing and not a lot of romance. He’d had a hard-on every time I came near him. We’d creep off into closets, or cars, sheds, old playground equipment, and of course his bedroom anytime we could manage it. His parents were completely on board with their son boning me. My parents, in case you hadn’t guessed, were not.
We fumbled around, and sometimes it was more frustrating than anything, but eventually I figured out a thing or two. His big muscular body had done it for me and all that sex did lead to an affectionate connection, at least on my end. I had an awesome power over him. Sitting on his lap turned him into a shaking frantic mess and a pretty wicked part of me loved pushing him over the edge.
Then it had been time to go to college and we were headed in different directions. He’d cried. I’d jumped on him until we’d both felt better and said goodbye.
That’s me in a nutshell. Maybe I hadn’t really loved him, because there wasn’t enough room in my small cold heart after Hank had already taken up all the space in there.Sally, the love grinch.
The rest of Thursday flew by in a flurry of work. By mid-morning, the house was pretty cleared out. I met with an audio guy from a big box store and had a sound system installation started. The afternoon took me over to the university campus where I set in motion the many pieces of bureaucracy I had to take care of there.
In the evening, Layla put on a reality dating show and I joined her in front of the big television downstairs. We hauled in a couple of chairs from outside.
“Would you like a glass of this red Zinfandel, Layla?”
“Wine? Thanks, but it isn’t sweet enough for me. I’m not really much of a drinker.”
“That’s a good virtue to have. I’ve developed a wine habit and it’s only going to get worse from here. My excuse is that I stood in lines for an hour today waiting to get a student ID. Can’t they come up with a better process than that?”
She smiled. “The admin building is horrible.”
“What’s your day been like?”
Her face went blank for a moment, like maybe she couldn’t remember. “Oh, I bought some books for my classes. And I drove Forest around—he’s carless right now.”
“And lucky to have you. Hey, what do you think about a house text group? We can clue each other in about stuff happening.”
