Page 110 of Reckless

“I don’t care about his stupid project.”

I waltzed over to Tyler and Daphne, kissed her little bald head, and bolted towards the front door. I heard him laughing behind my back.

“Stop by any time, little Spencer.”

I slammed the door shut with all the force I could muster.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Tyler

EversinceClemtoldme she spilled the beans about my secret project, I couldn’t stop thinking about revealing it to Hannah. I managed to control myself for about a month. Partly because I wanted to see if she would ask me about it. She didn’t. But also because I wasn’t ready for a rejection. Not that I would give her up anyways, but I still wasn’t up for the possibility of a negative reaction.

So about two months after Daphne was born, I sent Hannah an address and asked her to come meet me there. I knew it was eating her alive not knowing what was going on, and I admired her resolve to appear disinterested.

I waited for her for over an hour. She wasn’t late, but I was nervous and arrived way too early. The place still smelled like paint and wood varnish. There was no furniture yet. At that point it was just a huge empty room with freshly painted walls and dirty windows.

I spotted Hannah through one of those dirty windows. I couldn’t see her clearly because of the dust covering the glass, but I would recognize her silhouette anywhere. The way her body moved. The way she dipped her head down when she walked. I bet she didn’t know I noticed all these things about her.

She stopped in front of the door for a moment. Probably looking around to find out what that place was. It was pretty obvious to me, and I knew it would be pretty obvious to her. So I waited to see if she would play along and pretend she had no idea what this was, or she would come in kicking and screaming.

The door opened and Hannah slowly peeked in.

“Oh, so, this the right place.”

Playing along it is.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Do I hear disappointment in your voice?”

She walked in not bothering to answer. She coughed a little and covered her mouth and nose for a moment.

“It’s hard to breathe in here,” she murmured under her breath, then cleared her throat and continued with a deliberately cold tone. “So? What did you want to talk to me about?”

“About me moving back here.”

“What about it?”

She tried to sound disinterested and calm, but she shifted from foot to foot and looked everywhere but at me. I didn’t like seeing her so warry and jumpy around me. It wasn’t what we usually had going on between us.

“What do you think about me moving back?” Her eyes finally stopped on me. I saw the curiosity.

“What happened to them?” She asked and I knew exactly who she meant.

“Nothing. They are perfectly fine with or without me. I just didn’t understand it for a long, long time.”

“So you are not on the run from the mobsters?”

“You already asked me that, remember?”

“Why did you leave then?”

“I wanted to.”

“And why did you come here?”

“I wanted to.”

“And this?” she waved her hand around.

---