Page 68 of Bad & Bossy

Chapter 24

Dana

Iwas running too much. I knew that. Shin splints had haunted me in the past, and I needed to calm it down, but with Cole being the way he was lately and the worry I couldn’t help but feel, I needed the release.

He’d changed the moment we stepped off the plane in Boulder. Part of me knew that it had to do with his parents and whatever was lurking in the shadows there, but I also wondered if Costa Rica was a paradise we’d never get back. I didn’t feel any different toward him now than I did before we left but did he? Was the vacation too much for him?

And worse than that, was there a chance he’d start drinking again with the added stress of being home? He was closing up already, speaking to me less, seeing me less. I didn’t ever want him to feel as if he couldn’t call me if something happened again, but I was beginning to worry that he might not.

Gasping for breath, I slowed my pace until I was walking, the trail along the manmade lake making my feet sore. I hated running on gravel, but I needed something different.

“Dana!”

Out of breath and hoarse, I glance up to see a cool-as-a-cucumber Robert jogging toward me. From this far away, I couldn’t tell if his hair was pulled back or if he’d cut it, but he looked a bit different than he had before. Had he dyed his hair?

“Good to see you,” he huffed, grinning from ear to ear. “You look a bit better than the last time we ran into each other.”

I chuckled, the sound breathless and weak as I struggled to keep air in my lungs. “Yeah, thanks. I’m feeling better too.”

He came to a stop in front of me, not a single drop of sweat on him. He’d definitely cut his hair, but I wasn’t certain about the color. I couldn’t remember the shade it had been the last time we’d met, and although it seemed lighter, almost the shade of Cole’s, I wasn’t positive. Something about him, from the hair to the way he stood, reminded me so much of the way Cole had been back in Costa Rica—all smiles and calm. But he didn’t have that little, barely noticeable dimple Cole had when he grinned. “Haven’t seen you for a while.”

“I was… on vacation,” I panted, wiping the slick sheen of sweat off my forehead. “Only been back a few days.”

“Oh, nice! Where?”

“Costa Rica.”

“Oh, no way! I go there once a year,” he said, and as I slowly began to walk in the direction he’d come from to try to cool down, he walked backward with me. “I like Peninsula Papagayo the best.”

“That’s… an odd coincidence,” I laughed. “That’s where we were.”

His mouth dropped open dramatically. “That’s crazy.”

“Yeah,” I huffed.

“Maybe we could go some time,” he said, and I stopped in my tracks.

“Excuse me?”

“To Papagayo,” he clarified, as if that made it any fucking less weird.

“I… no, thank you.” I took a step back, and he took one forward, setting alarm bells off in my head. I was winded, exhausted, but surely I could run back to my house if I needed to… right?

“Oh,” Rob said, taking another step with me, and then another. My heart pounded in my chest and it wasn’t from the run anymore. “I just thought, you know, you have a kid and all, but I’ve never seen anyone but you and your sister around your house. I thought maybe you were single.”

“I’m not.”

“You sure about that?”

I needed to get out of this. Get away from him. But I knew deep down there was a chance he was faster than me, probably stronger than me, and my brain was too goddamn exhausted to come up with a way out with words alone. All I could do was breathe, watch him watch me, watch him walk with me, panic rearing up inside.

“You know where I live?” I blurted out, his words catching up to me. How the hell does he know Vee is my sister?

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone? The HOA has everyone’s address on the boards,” he said, shrugging as if it was fucking normal to keep one address in your head and pay attention to the goings on there.

“I-I need to get home,” I stammered, nearly tripping over the loose gravel as I picked up my backward pace. “I need to feed my son.”

Robert stopped, his arms crossing over his chest as he huffed out a sigh. “Alright, Dana. I’ll see you around.”

---