Page 27 of We Own Tonight
“What? No! I wasn’t offeringthat!”
He laughs and tosses the pizza down before brushing some crumbs off his hands. “Jesus, relax, Heather. I was joking. I’m here because I wanted to talk about what happened. You ran off without a word, and when I found your license on the ground, I figured it was asign.”
“Asign?”
“Yes.” He stands and then walks closer to me. “A sign that we have unfinished business. You know, most girls like to leave something behind so I have to come return it. Is that what this was? A game so you could see meagain?”
Each step that Eli takes makes my pulse quicken a bit more. I’m not sure what unfinished business he thinks we have and what girls he’s used to dealing with. I was pretty clear when I ran out that there was nothing more. I was half drunk, stupid, and pressured by my idiot best friend to do something outside my comfortzone.
“I don’t have time for games. I never planned on seeing you again. The only sign was that I dropped something and you happened to findit.”
Eli stands in front of me, and I have to tilt my head back to see his face. His gorgeous eyes hold me hostage, and his arm wraps around my waist. “I think we both know that’s not the truth. You can feel it right now. I can see your breathing accelerating, your eyes keep moving to my lips, and while you can keep fighting it, I know you wantme.”
I shake my head, trying to make him wrong, but when his tongue slides against his lips, I know he hears the intake of breath. I know because it’s loud, and in the silence, it might as well have been a sonicboom.
“Eli . . .” I try to move back, but his arm holds me inplace.
“I’m not going to do anything, I just want totalk.”
“This is crazy,” I say, wishing I didn’t want crazy with every cell in mybody.
Eli’s other hand slides up my back and holds me tighter. “What would be crazy is walking out the door without seeing if this is in ourheads.”
“If what’s in ourheads?”
“Whatever has us both so twisted that I’m here in your house, and you’re running out in the middle of the night without a goodbye. There’s something going on, and I want to see what the hell it is. Don’tyou?”
My gaze doesn’t leave his, and the sincerity and conviction in his words stun me. If I tell him to walk out this door, I’ll regret it. I’ll think about this one moment for the rest of my life. Plus, Nicole knows he’s here, so if I ask him to leave, she’ll never let me live itdown.
Before I can stop the words from falling from my lips, I agree. “Okay, pizza and talking only,though.”
Eli’s smile widens, and he squeezes me a little. “Pizza, talking, and who knows what else,” hecounters.
There will be nothing else, but I keep that to myself. Arguing with him seems to only lead to him staying, eating pizza, and thinking we’re going to bebesties.
We make our way back over to the couch and sit. He grabs a slice and hands it to me before going back for the piece he had. I curl my legs under me and try not to gawk. But Eli Walsh is sitting in the living room of my crumbling house. It isn’t that I live in a shithole, but I’m sure it’s nothing like hishome.
My dad was a man of many projects. He started them and then quit before ever finishing. Matt helped a little, but he was in no way Bob Vila, if anything, he was Tim Allen fromHome Improvementand broke more than hefixed.
After he left, I did my best to patch the holes of my home and myheart.
“So, a cop?” Eli asks after a few minutes of silenteating.
I wipe the sauce from my lips and then smile. “It was what I always wanted to be. My parents were killed by a drunk driver when I was twenty-one. After that, I knew I wanted to help even just one person be saved from thattragedy.”
“I’m really sorry,” Eli says and touches myarm.
“It was a long timeago.”
“Still, that must’ve beentough.”
I sigh and shrug a little. “It sucked, but I think it made me who I amtoday.”
“I get it. My dad died when I was young,too.”
“I’msorry.”
Losing your parents is never easy, but when you’re young, it’s impossible to navigate the emotions of it. So many times I wished I had my parents there to guide me. It would’ve been so mucheasier.
