Page 164 of After All This Time

“Where the hell is Archie?”

Her mouth drops open before her hand covers it. “Oh, shit. Maybe we scared him because we were being too loud last night so he went into hiding. I’ll go look real quick.”

“And by we, you mean you, right?”

“Hate to break it to you, but I wasn’t the only one who was loud last night.” She walks closer to me, invading my personal space and running her finger down to my stomach. “You talked about how badly you wanted me to scream your name so loud that the neighbors could hear me, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

Her hot breath is melting layers of my skin away.

“Congratulations, you did just that. But guess what, Lover Boy?”

I cross my arms in front of my chest. “What, Princess?”

She leans into my ear. “Next time around it’s going to be you screaming my name so goddamn loud the entire town is going to hear you.”

“Don’t say shit like that to me right now. For Chrissakes, we’re on our way to the hospital to pick up my sister who’s been unconscious for the last few weeks.”

“You should’ve known something like that was coming,” she says.

“Yeah, you have. Quite a few times actually.” I smirk, licking my lips.

She rolls her eyes, shaking her head.

Right on cue, Archie runs towards us and meows up a storm.

Dani picks him up. “Hey, buddy, I’m so sorry I forgot about you. You can blame Noah for that.”

I pet Archie’s soft, ginger fur. “You know she’s lying to you. It’s bullshit and she knows it too. That’s the sad part.”

She puts Archie down, punching me in the arm.

“What the hell? I told you to stop doing that.”

“Asshole.” She doesn’t break eye contact with me. In fact, her eyes are scanning me from head to toe.

“Stop doing that. We need to go.”

She rolls her eyes and says goodbye to Archie. He meows at her, rubbing the back of the sofa with his body.

We rush out of the house, but now I’m standing in the driveway. “We’re taking my car, which means I’m driving.”

“Okay,” she replies as she finishes locking the front door. “I could drive.”

I shake my head. “Dani.”

“Yeah?” Her nose scrunches.

My face softens. “Get in the car.”

She walks over to the passenger’s side.

Running over to her, I open the door. I have to treat her like the princess that she is.

She gets in, takes her purse off her body, and puts it on the floor in front of her. I close the door and rush over to the driver’s side.

I'm sitting down in the car. And I’m dizzy. Things are spinning. It’s not anxiety this time. I think I’m crashing. It’s been hours since we’ve eaten.

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