Page 66 of Trip Through Your Wires

She swallows and fingers the necklace Ellery gave her nervously. “It’s no one, Nana. Go back to your show.”

She looks both confused and scared to see me, as she pushes the screen door open slowly and steps out onto the porch.She’s wearing cutoff shorts, a Johnny Cash T-shirt, and her hair is pulled into a bun. With her face free of make-up, and a bit of fatigue in her eyes, she’s hauntingly beautiful and I’m struck by the urge to hold her.

She takes a step toward me, boards creaking underfoot, and when she’s close enough that I can breathe her in, the smell of aloe and Ivory fills my lungs, stirring the memory of our last night together.

“Hey Sparky,” I smile, swallowing down the way seeing her again makes me feel.

“What are you doing here?” she asks skeptically.

Now that I’m here, all the words I should and want to say leave me. “I was in the area,” I say instead. “Thought I’d stop by and say hi.”

I hope it’s the right response. Casual. Light. Judging by her frown, it’s not. “Go home, Jake.”

I wince, wishing she’d called me Hot Shot. “Why?”

“I don’t need you fucking up my life,” she replies tightly.

“Fucking up your life?” I repeat in disbelief. “Sparky, I’m not here to do anything but make sure you’re okay.”

“Okay?” She pulls the door closed behind her, and puts a hand on my chest, pushing me backward as the screen door slips from her hand and closes. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Hardball, huh? Well, all right, Sparky. If that’s the way you want to play it. “Well, maybe she was worried about you,” I fire back. “You haven’t talked to your best friend in days. Kind of weird, don’t you think?”

“Really?” She drops her hand and looks at me skeptically. “She asked you to come all the way down here for that?”

“Yeah, really.”

“Why is it that I don’t believe you?”

Damn, if her wit and defiance doesn’t make my dick twitch. “I don’t know,” I cross my arms and shrug, ignoring how turned on I am. “But it’s the truth. Call her and you’ll see.”

She chews the inside of her cheek and shifts from one foot to the other. “I don’t know why she did that.”

The tension in her shoulders starts to ease and I can see she believes me. “Well, she did, and I am here now. So maybe you can invite me in and offer me a glass of tea because it was a long trip.”

“We’re out of lemons,” she smirks.

“Funny,” I flash her one of my own. “I thought they served it sweet down here.”

“Go home,” she turns for the door and I place my hand on the frame, stopping her.

“What’s going on, Sparky?” I close the space between us, pressing my chest against her back.

“Please.” She draws in a shuddering breath. “Go back to Highland before you make things worse.”

“Now see,” I lean in closer, “what you just said is the reason I’m going to stay right where I am until you tell me what’s going on.”

She turns around slowly and when I drop my hand and our eyes meet, it feels like my heart is going to punch a hole right through my chest.

“We used to be able to talk about anything,” I search her eyes, trying to understand the emotion that I see. “If I knew sex was going to change things between us I would have stayed in the friend zone.”

“We?” she repeats.

“Yes, we. You and me. We were friends, before anything else, and we still are. No matter what happened between us I am always here for you. You know that.”

“Jake…”

She starts to turn pull away and I grab the hand that’s at her side. “Come on, Sparky. This isn’t us. We don’t do awkward.”

---