Page 106 of Any Second Now
Something changed since her ex-husband showed up yesterday. It’s like she’s put on an extra layer of armor on. She’s not the same open, free woman I’ve been spending time with. Or she is, but guarded. Worse even than after the flower delivery.
I think she’s slipping through my fingers.
At least she came to me last night. I was a mess in the hours after I fled the campground like a petulant child. I should’ve stayed to help Raleigh in whatever way she needed. Instead, I ran.
“You sure you don’t want to hang out?” I hand her the coffee, wincing at my neediness.
“I gotta run. I need to feed Megghen and make sure she’s not escaped her tent to lay eggs everywhere.”
I force a chuckle. “Tonight then?”
It’s like I’m begging her to spend time with me. I hate it.
“Can’t today.” Raleigh shakes her head and rejects me yet again. My stomach drops. “I have to catch up on cross-stitch orders, then clean up my RV, then this evening I have video calls scheduled with my mom, and also Lucy and January….” She ticks off a list of tasks that I feel like could be done in two hours, tops, not stretch the rest of the day.
But she clearly doesn’t want me around.
“Alright. Barrett and Lachlan want to get drinks tonight, so I’ll go do that. Lach’s still a mess.”
“I can’t believe his girlfriend dumped him.” Raleigh looks almost relieved at the change of conversation, her face relaxing a tad.
“I can.” There’s never been a relationship more predictable to blow up.
“Really?” Raleigh cocks her head. “Why?”
The reasons tick off in my head. Because he’s not meant to be in a serious relationship. Because they’re simply too different from each other. Because she probably realized he’s not the guy you settle down with.
I’m definitely not going to say those things. They sound like all the reasons Raleigh and I shouldn’t be together.
“I saw them together. The chemistry just wasn’t there.” I did see them together earlier this summer, but they had chemistry.Thatwasn’t the reason they were destined to break up.
Raleigh’s phone buzzes in her pocket, ending the conversation. Her eyes widen for a split second.
“Everything okay?” I ask, fishing for information.
“Yup.” She takes a few steps around the counter and leans up for a kiss. I press our lips together, but it only lasts a beat as she pulls back too fast. “Talk to you later.”
And then she’s gone.
Lachlan is absolutely trashed.
And Barrett is egging him on.
“I’m coming back with shots and beers,” Barrett announces, seemingly unaffected by the alcohol. Damn twenty-five year olds and their superior livers. He weaves his way through the crowds at Black Diamond and steps next to a short blonde woman at the bar, smiling down at her.
I have a feeling he’ll be a while.
“So what happened, dude?” I turn back to my destitute friend. “You ready to talk about it yet?”
“Fuck.” Lachlan groans and drops his head in his hands. I shoot my hand out and still the wobbling beer bottle that he bumps with his elbow.
“I thought everything was going great?”
“I thought it was too.” He looks up with glassy eyes. “But then I showed up for another one of her stupid faculty barbecues. It was going fine—boring as shit and filled with her judgmental colleagues—and I made an awkward joke. No one laughed. Then she walked over just as one of them asked where I went to college. I said I didn’t and they all gave each other this look. Like I was the scum of the earth. But I went straight to the NHL, mate?”
“They sound like assholes.”
“Yeah.” He nods. “She didn’t defend me. Went all cold and distant. Afterwards, I drove her home, and before she got out of the car, she said she has to focus on her research. And she doesn’t want to be in a serious relationship. With me.”
