Page 73 of Bring me Back

“I can give you the silent treatment if you like. I heard it’s my A game.”

“No, sassy it is.” My hands spread and reached for her neck, thumbs over the delicate skin between her neck and the shell of her ear. She was soft all over.

“I love when you’re like this. It’s a side of you no one gets to see and I’m a greedy motherfucker, Cricket. I like to have it all.”

Hallie trembled in my arms and that was all the invitation I needed. I teased her mouth with mine, angling her head up the way I wanted. The rough pads of my fingers glided over the smoothness of her. Hallie’s tongue wrestled against mine. Her little sigh hit right in the middle of my chest.

A blatant horn threw us apart. I stepped away, looking down at my shoes, knowing the minute I looked up it was Preston’s unhappy face I was going to see. Hallie brushed the hair out of her face, putting what I messed up back in place. With a little smile, she raised her hand. “Hey, Dad. I’m coming.”

So then I asked, “And that’s how I die?”

“You can stay as long as you want.”

“Hm….” I replied, stretching myself on the couch. “And that’s nothing to do with the fact that the fence at the back of your property needs repairs?”

Even through the screen I could spot Abby’s incriminatory blush. “Don’t be silly, Dan.”

“Will I bring my toolbox, anyway?”

“Who the hell said the only reason I want you to come over is to repair things, Daniel Miller?”

I laughed, shaking my head. “You.”

Her eyes bugged. “Did I?” She asked with a tiny wince.

“Yes, Abby, you said it last time you were here. To Hallie’s dad.”

And that was enough. Just to have her name on my tongue was enough to make me lose all concentration. I glanced at my front door again, like Hallie managed to arrive without me noticing.

“How’s Hallie, by the way?” Abby asked with a glint in her eye that made me roll mine.

I wasn’t in sixth grade. I wasn’t kissing a girl and coming home to tell my friends.

“She’s good, Abs.”

“Did she miss you over the days at camp?” Abby pouted in a joke.

Shit. I guess one thing was not telling her about how I was progressing with Hallie, but another was to lie. My hand went absently to the back of my neck, squeezing it. “She actually went with us. Helen’s husband wasn’t well.”

I tried to deliver the news as carelessly as I could, but Abby’s eyebrows shot up anyway. “Did she? And you forgot to tell me?”

“I’m tired. It was a long week watching teenagers twenty-four-seven. Even at night.”Especiallythen.

“I hope you didn’t watch kids sleeping. That’s creepy, Dan.” Abby wiggled her nose. And right in that comment, Mark came along.

“Is Dan watching kids sleep?” My brother appeared on the screen and I groaned.

“No.” I rubbed my face. “Abby is trying me.”

“Hallie went to the camp with him.” My sister-in-law elbowed her husband.

“It wasn’t a trip that I invited her on,” I explained, shifting in my seat. “Helen’s husband wasn’t well…”

The doorbell rang.

Breath that was a mix of apprehension and relief left my lungs. With a finger hovering over the off button, I told my family, “I have to go.”

It was all they heard before I disconnected, and like a teen, I hopped the couch and ran for the front door. Things changed between Hallie and me in those four days and I was ready to take it to the next level. All my reservations, all the reasons I shouldn’t do it were thrown out the window.

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