Page 5 of Blast from the Past

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Mercy West

Thank God Severn is a small community and as safe as they come. It’s past midnight when I leave Blake’s and walk home. My temper got the best of me, and I may have made somehasty decisions in my anger, but Shane has always had a way of pushing my buttons. The man has an innate talent for getting under my skin and pissing me off to the point that I can’t think straight.

I honestly don’t know if I want to work at Blake’s for the foreseeable future, but I couldn’t let him talk to me like that. I may not be able to throw a physical punch as he can, but I can hit back verbally. I also have a knack of letting my temper get me into situations I rather wouldn’t be in.

I hate that we have become these people.

Angrily, I wipe at an errant tear. He used to be my favorite person in the whole world, my safe place in a chaotic universe, and the one I told all my secrets to. And now we can’t even be civil for five damn minutes. How sad is that?

The house I grew up in is about ten minutes from the bar and I walk at a leisurely pace, enjoying the fresh night air. I need the time to help me clear my mind and get rid of some anger. Thank God it’s summer or I would be freezing my tits off.

I feel a sense of unease sweep over me like someone is watching, but when I look around there is no one to be seen. Two cars are parked outside an apartment building and a big-ass caramel-colored pit bull is sleeping peacefully beneath a massive elm tree behind a high fence. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, so why do I have the sudden urge to run?

“Too many horror movies,”is what my mother would have said, and I chuckle at the memory of her. She was probably right but that doesn’t stop me from speeding up a little. I breathe a sigh of relief when I finally make it inside my house and lock the door.

This entire night has been a waste. Now I need to go to sleep. I strip down until I am naked and fall into bed not planning to move anytime soon. It doesn’t take me long to pass out and fall into a deep and peaceful sleep. But it doesn’t last.

Groaning, I turn over in my bed and listen to someone banging loudly on my door.

“I’m coming!” I shout before kicking my feet in a mini-tantrum.

Slipping from my bed, I grab an oversized and well-worn t-shirt from the chair in the corner. Pulling it over my head, I pad barefoot down the stairs and over the old forest green rug into the hallway and to the front door.

“Someone better either be dead or dying for you to wake me up at this godforsaken hour,” I grumble as I unlock and pull the door open.

I stare at the man sitting on my porch steps.

“Why are you here?”

“I wanted to apologize.”

“Awesome,” I say sarcastically. “Now go home.”

I wait for him to stand. When he doesn’t, I pad out onto the porch pulling at the hem of the t-shirt before sitting beside him. My legs are kicked out in front of me and crossed at the ankles to avoid flashing my pussy at Shane, or anyone else that may be out around this time of night. Silence envelops us. But it’s not weird or even tainted with anger like I expected it to be. It’s just like it always was. Me and Shane. Comfortable but tense, not that it makes a lick of sense to feel both at the same time.

I stare at the house next door, the same house the Blake boys grew up in and where I spent half my childhood. Wesley and Karmen live there now. Not that it matters who lives there—all my memories remain the same.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” he asks after a minute, drawing my attention back to him, his gaze locked on my barely covered thighs.

“Well, if you must know, I was sleeping.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I sleep naked. This was the first thing I grabbed before Icame downstairs,” I say, fighting a smile.

“Fuck me,” he mumbles rubbing a hand down his face. “What if it was someone else at the door?”

“Who else would come knocking at this time in the morning, Shay?”

“Fuck if I know,” he says before standing. He looks at me, his gaze traveling from my disheveled hair to my probably makeup-smeared face, to my bare legs and feet. “For what it’s worth, Mercy, I really am sorry.”

And then he walks away, never letting me reply.

Chapter Four

Shane Blake

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