Page 40 of Wishing for Love

He heard the sadness in her voice and wondered if she liked the company as much as he did.

It was such a weird situation. The last thing he wanted to do was make her uncomfortable. Instead he was the one feeling it.

“You know you can come and go. I feel like maybe you don’t get to do anything with your friends.”

He noticed that she’d been around most weekends. At least at night. It’s not like he was trying to keep an eye on her, but it was easy when he could see her coming and going at times from the back.

Since his bedroom was behind the garage, if she came back late at night the security lights would go on when she walked to her deck, but they never did.

It’s not like he was going to bed at nine either. He was lucky if he was sleeping by midnight half the time.

“It’s fine,” she said. “My friends are all working or going to clubs. It’s never been my favorite thing to do. I’m not looking to pick anyone up. I’m ready for the quiet life.”

“I thought I was getting that too, but guess not.”

14

TRYING TO TEST ME

Two weekends later, Phoenix was in the kitchen at eleven thirty at night. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and there was no school this week.

He was going to work in the morning tomorrow and then everyone was off on Wednesday. He’d go back to the office on Thursday. Elsie and Crystal would be on their own and Crystal was probably more excited than Elsie was.

Guess it was working out better than he thought.

There was no reason for him to be up other than he had so much on his mind with work.

The website was getting overhauled with the suggestions from Crystal. Simple stupid shit he should have thought of and didn’t.

He spent too much time with his head in research books and still tried to. There were always things to perfect or try. Even color choices he was working on.

But in order to do those things, he had to give up time on the business and there was only so much time to go around.

He couldn’t even settle his body down to sleep so he got up to see if there was something to snack on rather than trying to watch some mind-numbing show on TV.

He was opening and closing cabinets looking for something when he heard a noise. It sounded like crying.

He moved out to the hall, but it wasn’t coming from Elsie’s room, so he went back to the kitchen and heard it again. It was upstairs.

His step hesitated when he started to climb.

Would she want him to know? But then he didn’t want her alone if she was that upset either. Maybe she was sad that she wasn’t going to see her family this year. She said she wasn’t upset over it, but maybe she was lying.

He moved up a few steps quietly and it was getting louder. By the time he got to the top, he realized it wasn’t crying but moaning.

Oh shit. She better not have a man up there.

He turned the corner quickly since there wasn’t a door, but it wasn’t coming from the TV in the living room. Nope, it was coming from her bedroom.

There was a giggle next, then another moan. The bedroom door was open and he was trying to figure out what to do.

Jealousy flooded through him worse than the fact he’d told her no one could come into the house without him knowing.

There was more moaning and then kissing. He took a step forward, almost embarrassed, then froze when he heard a dog bark.

What the hell?

Shit, she was watching a TV show. Talk about being an idiot.

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