Page 35 of Catch Me When I Fall

Me: His name is Leo. He’s a fisherman.

I looked up from the phone and blew out my breath. When she didn’t reply, I sent another text.

Me: He told me he went to high school with Michael.

A second later, she was calling me.

“Hello?” I answered as I put the phone to my ear.

She squealed. Actually squealed. “Hot fisherman Leo with the sandy blond hair?” she practically screamed.

I let out a small laugh. “Yeah, that would be him.”

She squealed once more, and I pulled the phone away from my ear. When I brought it back, she was demanding me to come over. “Okay, okay. You have to come over. Right now. I need all the details, every last thing.”

I stared straight ahead. The sun was now gone, and the moon was making her presence known. “I can tell you over the phone,” I told her, not understanding why she would want me to come over.

She scoffed. “Girl, you’re coming over. I’m making snacks, and we are talking about this on the back deck! This is exclusive girl talk time. Which is perfect, because Michael is working late, and the kids went to bed early.”

My throat felt clogged as I asked, “Girl talk?”

She was quiet for a moment. “Carrie, have you never…?”

Tears stung my eyes as I thought back to the friends I had to distance myself from in St. Louis. It was a big group, filled with some of the strongest women I knew, but Robert didn’t like me hanging out with them. He didn’t like going to Sullie’s on Sundays, and he even convinced my father that it was bad for his image. It never made any sense to me, but I had been so blinded by my love for Robert that I let those friendships die.

I never had friends in school. I wasn’t allowed to have any per my father.

“Carrie?”

I shook my head as my bottom lip trembled. “No, I never—I never had the chance to have girl talk before,” I whispered, a single tear falling onto my cheek.

“Well,” she began softly, “you have a chance now.”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see it. “Okay,” I breathed.

“Okay,” she parroted, a smile in her voice.

“See you in just a minute,” I promised, turning the key and firing up the car. We ended the call, and I took two seconds to try and calm down as I wiped my cheeks and pulled down the mirror. I’d put my hair into a half-up, half-down style, with a chunky pink clip to hold my ringlets, leaving the rest to brush the tops of my shoulders. I took a deep breath as I looked at myself in the tiny mirror.

“You’re allowed to feel big things. You’re allowed to be human, Carrie. There is no shame in that,” I told myself.

Blowing out another breath, I flipped the visor back up to put the car into drive. Suddenly, goosebumps scattered at the back of my neck, spreading down the length of my back and over the tops of my thighs. I looked out my window and froze as my eyes landed on a tall, broad shadow leaning against the light pole…the only one on the street with a blown bulb.

I couldn’t make out any other features, but I knew by the build that it was a man—a very well-built man. It wasn’t Leo. No, it couldn’t be, because this shadow of a man was taller…

Even though his eyes were shrouded in darkness, I could feel them on me, and those goosebumps continued to spread up my soft mid-section and over my breasts. My nipples hardened as my chest heaved with rapid breaths.

What the hell?

My heart pounded, and the longer I stared at the shadow, the more I wanted to see his face.

Why wasn’t I driving away?

I should be. I should be hauling ass to Sarah’s, telling her about the note, the woman, and this man, but…

I was frozen, utterly compelled by him.

Slowly, the world around me began to fade, as well as the sound of my beating heart. There was no sound, no color, no smell, no taste. There was only him. I couldn’t even blink.

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