Page 2 of Greedy Grizzly
I found myself smiling back as I shook my head.
What was happening? Monty had never been so close to me. Had he invaded my space on purpose?Of course not, stupid.
Weird flutters appeared in my stomach. I’d get them from time to time, usually around Monty. I’d heard my older foster sister on the phone one time with her best friend, talking about the funny feeling she’d get in her stomach when she was around her boyfriend, Neal. Tamara would put her hand on her belly and giggle, saying,butterflies are going crazy inside me.
Right now, I knew exactly how Tamara felt.
“Are you sure?” Monty asked, again. “I’m about to eat it all, so decide now.”
“I’m sure.” More sweat slid down the sides of my face, while he stared into my eyes. It felt like I might jump out of my skin with the weird zings shooting through my body.
Maybe the hundred degree temperatures was making my insides short-circuit. No, I was sure the weather had nothing to do with what was going on with me.
Monty was my crush. For months, I’d liked him more than I should.
But nobody could ever know, especially Monty.
Boys weren’t supposed to like boys, which didn’t make sense to me. Why would I feel a fullness in my belly and flutters around him, if it was wrong to like him the same way Tamara liked Neal?
What did I know? My foster family didn’t talk to me or to my older brother, Logan. He had run away a long time ago. He couldn’t hack being in the system after our parents died. I was just a toddler when we got placed. I didn’t really remember the early years, but I guess it had been super bad for him. He was a lot older than me, six to nine years, but I wasn’t sure how much older.
Now, I was barely in the third grade and only started getting funny feelings this summer—every time Monty was near me. Maybe it was just my imagination. It would’ve been nice to ask my older brother about it.
Everyone in my class had somebody they liked. Little girls and boys chased each other on the playground. Never a girl running after a girl or a boy after a boy. I usually played alone because nobody ran after me. I hated being left out, but then, I didn’t really like girls, anyway.
Girls were silly and cried a lot. They smelled gross, all sweet and flowery, with ribbons in their hair. They annoyed me much like my foster sisters. I just didn’t like them.
Boys were cooler than girls. Monty was the coolest…
1
GRIZZLY
Present Day
The words blurred together on my computer screen. Storm’s voice faded into the walls of church and my MC brothers disappeared. Nothing mattered more to me than the words on the monitor, the words in the message, the words I’d finally received from him.
My stomach tightened as I scanned the email for the third time, trying to make sense of it all.
I read between the lines.
Outside the lines.
Hope expanded in my chest. Maybe just maybe I’d find a hidden meaning, something special and only meant for me. Or I was overthinking shit as usual.
Perhaps, there wasn’t an underlying message, and I should just take his words at face value for once.
But he said he was coming for a visit.A visit.
Not to helpmeon a project like the other times he’d come to the compound. Not to seeme.Just fora visit.
Visitleft a bitter taste on my tongue…
He never came for me. And why would he? We wereonlyfriends, nothing more than equals in the world of cybersecurity and computer hacking. Not total equals, though.
Toby Hamilton’s intelligence exceeded mine and he wasn’t a criminal like me. His hands were clean. He didn’t spend his days justifying his actions as I did. He was a respected and sought-after cybersecurity engineer who traveled around the world.
Toby was living his best life.
