Page 43 of An Unexpected Encounter

“Can you hurry, Eli? I have something to tell both of you, too,” Jay speaks up from the back seat.

“Fine. Anyway, she was getting sick, and I got a wet washcloth, trying to cool her off some. I helped her stand, and she lost her balance, falling into me. Her body pressed firmly against mine, and we locked gazes.” I clear my throat.

Looking up at Zeke, I see him gesturing for me to finish it up.

“We almost kissed!” I blurt quickly.

“Almost, but didn’t?” Jay asks.

“Did she want to be kissed?” Zeke’s voice fills the cab of the truck.

I take a moment to collect my thoughts. So far, so good.

“No, we didn’t, but I could tell she wanted to. If you hadn’t called out to us, I think we would have.” My gaze shifts to Jay on the last part.

We sit there for a moment. All of us processing what I just shared.

The corners of Zeke’s mouth turn up. “She wants us.”

Turning back to Jay, “Okay, what is it you have to tell us?”

“So when I was there today, she fell asleep, and I used the opportunity to look around after I got up to take a piss.”

“You mean you were snooping,” I interject.

“Call it what you like. I was just trying to find out what I could about her. She has a lot of pictures on her wall of her and her father. There are even ones with her mother. But it looks like once he passed away, that was it.”

“Okay, but we knew that.” Zeke shrugs, picking up his bottle of water, twisting off the top, and taking a drink.

“Zeke’s right, man. None of that is news.”

“I’ve not gotten to the interesting part yet. As I was looking at her pictures, I found ones with her and her boyfriend in them. They seem to be close, but something was missing; the chemistry. I kept looking, and I came to one that was a collage of multiple pictures. One in particular caught my eye.”

He pauses, like he’s going for some type of dramatic effect. All he’s doing is pissing me off. We need to get to work and he’s wasting time. He’s like Mom in that manner. She always took the longest time to tell a story. She could never get to the meat of it, she had to add irrelevant information.

God, I miss her stories.

“Well, can you get to the point?” Zeke asks, pulling me from my walk down memory lane.

“Okay, fine. So I saw a picture of Sam and he was kissing someone. A male someone. Tongue and everything.”

My eyes go wide at his words.

Her boyfriend was kissing another man. He wasn’t kissing her.

“I think they’re friends, but I fully believe that Sam is gay. He’s her friend and was helping her to not make the situation weird.”

“Selena was using him as a buffer since she found out we’re step-siblings.” I watch Jay nod.

“But what she doesn’t understand is we don’t care. Dad and Julia can be pissed if they want to. We met her prior to even knowing who she was. Plus, we’re not blood related. She’s going to be ours. We just need to convince her.”

“We’re in agreement she is ours. We now know, though not confirmed, that she’s pretending to have a relationship with Sam. Which makes a little more sense that he’s not here taking care of her while she’s sick,” Zeke adds.

I turn back in my seat and start the truck back up. It’s time to go to work. Tomorrow we are showing up at our girl’s door.

The night has been crazy as hell and we’ve only been at work for three hours.

But we’ve finally reached a lull, and it’s time to talk to the captain about the building Selena’s living in.

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