Page 100 of Single Chance

Frowning, I flipped the blinds open abruptly, my eyes locked on him. I went to the end he’d been hitting, raised the blinds completely, and cranked the window open.

“What in the world are you doing?” I exclaimed.

That’s when I heard it. Music. Coming from the boom box he raised higher over his head now that he saw me. It only took a few notes for me to recognize the song—“In Your Eyes,” the one we’d danced to that very first time on New Year’s Eve.

“Oh,” I said quietly, softening in spite of myself.

Chance continued to sit there, watching me as the music played. Once the shock and the subsequent emotional punch dissipated, I crossed my arms and leaned against the window frame, shivering in the chilly air, waiting him out. Becausewhat the hell?

Still holding the radio up, he stood, wobbling slightly as he found his footing on the widely spaced two-by-fours that made up the pergola roof.

“What are you doing, you idiot?” I hissed, visions of him falling to his death plaguing me.

Chance made it all the way to the windows without dying, then lowered the boom box, the music still playing. The volume was low, so at least he wouldn’t wake the neighbors.

“Seriously, what are you doing?” I asked, still coming down from that moment when he’d flirted with falling.

“I need to talk to you, Rowan.”

I held up my phone, still with the keypad at the ready. “Have you heard of texting?”

“It’s an in-person topic.”

“Okay, so maybe knock on the door? You could break your neck up there.”

“I was trying to make a point,” he said quietly.

Something about his tone had me stepping back from my panic and taking in his gesture as a whole.

He was serenading me. Playing the first song we’d danced to. Enacting a scene from a movie. Standing out in the cool night on top of a pergola roof, for the love of God.

The question was why? He was the one who’d put an end tous. Was he afraid he’d lose access to our baby? I wouldn’t ever do that without a damn good reason. Surely he knew me well enough to know that.

Had he changed his mind about us?

I shut down on the hope that single thought sprouted.

“So can we talk?” he asked, his brows rising.

I studied his handsome, earnest face, trying to read his intent. His expression gave away nothing.

Obviously I wasn’t going to send him away without finding out what he wanted. I could tell him I’d meet him at the deck door, but the thought of him moving another foot on that pergola roof sent a shudder through me.

Shining the dim light of my phone on the window screen, I located a release toward the top. I reached up, slid the release over, and maneuvered the screen off the window. “Get in here,” I told him.

Chance was in my second-floor bedroom in an instant, standing close enough I could smell his familiar scent. Maybe it would’ve been wiser to send him to the deck door after all. I wouldn’t fall under his spell nearly as fast if we were six feet apart in the kitchen instead of a foot apart in my bedroom.

He set the radio on the floor, along the wall, the music continuing to play at a background level.

I stepped around him and slid the screen back into place, then cranked the window shut. Before I turned to face him, I collected myself, donned an indifferent expression, and triedto remember the impenetrable look on his face four nights ago when he’d figuratively pushed me away.

“Rowan,” he said behind me.

I closed my eyes and tried not to be drawn in by the familiar, comforting timbre of his voice. The last four days had been hell as I’d tried to accept that I’d misjudged him, ending up with my heart taking the damage, plunging me deeper into a well of grief at yet another loss. I couldn’t be sucked back into his orbit just at the sound of his voice saying my name, like a desperate puppy wanting to be loved.

He grasped my hand and tugged me gently away from the window. “Will you sit and hear me out?”

Sitting did sound divine. He gestured to the edge of the bed. I sat on it, keeping my legs on the floor because I wasn’t about to get comfortable or let my guard down. Not when just being this close to him and my bed had spicy thoughts running through my mind.

---