Page 24 of Barefoot Chaos
"I know you can, but I'd like to help anyway. What's your address?"
She sighed. "7216 Southwind Circle, west of Beach."
"I know where that is. I'm pretty close, can be there in two minutes. How about you stay on the phone with me till I get there?"
"Okay."
There was a long pause. I didn't hear her pulling up stakes so I took the moment to say what I had been planning to say to her when I called her later. "Thank you for last night. Best night I've had in a long time. Want to do it again, this time you try the ukulele?"
She huffed out a laugh. "I'll try, but I only know how to play a few chords on the guitar, and even that's just what I've taught myself."
"Nah, I'll teach you. Then you can teach me one of your songs. Deal?" I cringed, crossing my fingers mentally while I waited for her answer.
"Hmm...maybe. We'll see."
Before I could press for a firmer answer, I pulled up to her house to see her prim and proper in her schoolteacher outfit, yard a mess of signs and dirt all around her. I jumped out of my truck, came around the back and pulled her into my arms. I tucked her head under my chin, enjoying her soft warmth pressed against me. My hand moved up and down her back while I whispered nonsensical soothing things in her ear.
After a few moments, she tilted her head back to give me a watery smile. I pushed her glasses back up her nose and kissed her quickly, hating the tears in her eyes, but loving that she trusted me to be there for her. "Why don't you go get another cup of coffee while I clean the rest of this up, okay?"
"Okay," she whispered. "Thank you."
I watched her walk back up to her front door, that skirt and those heels too much to turn away from just yet. She turned back around in the doorway to catch me leering at her. I gave her a wink, enjoying the way her cheeks burned in reaction. She rolled her eyes and went into the house, robbing me of my eye candy.
It only took me ten more minutes to clean up her yard and tamp down the patches of grass that had been disrupted. I also texted Jack, letting him know what happened. He texted back that if Hessa wanted to press charges later down the road, he'd get a squad car out there later to document it. I'd have to ask her. I wasn't sure what she'd want to do. I wanted her to nail the guy, but she might not feel the same.
She came back out with a coffee for me in a metal to-go cup that said 'Spell check yourself before you wreck yourself'. The nerd was alive and well in this one...and I freaking loved it. I walked her to her car, after making sure she locked her front door. A crazy guy was out there with a vendetta against her for some reason and he knew her home address. Not a good idea to leave things unlocked from now on.
I gave her another quick kiss, then watched her drive off to work. There was something crazy domestic about the situation that both shocked me and yet it seemed so right. I realized with a pang in my heart, I wanted this scenario every morning. I wanted to kiss her hello and goodbye, comfort her when she was overwhelmed, have her send me off to work with coffee in her silly mugs.
I drove off knowing I'd fallen deeper into this desire for a relationship with Hessa, and I still didn't have any idea if that's what she wanted too.
Hessa
I left school on Friday, ecstatic for the weekend. The week had been a draining mix of highs and lows. My kiss with Kai was definitely the high. The vandalism was the low, but even that came with a high when Kai showed up to help me. And to dole out more of those kisses.
Now I was off to meet the Squad at Strike Ready, Brinley and Shasta's self-defense studio. The girls had caught wind of what happened to my yard and they insisted I learn some moves to defend myself if it came down to it. I thought they were being overly dramatic, but could also kind of see their point. It wouldn't hurt to be a little more aware of my surroundings in general. Plus, it would be fun to hang with the Squad again...as long as Bailey didn't hound me like last time.
"Yo, yo, yo! Come on in, Hessa," Shasta yelled over at me as I entered the door to her studio. The girls were all sitting in a circle on the mats, stretching.
"Am I late?" I hated being late, which meant I obsessed about being five to ten minutes early to everything. I hustled over, had a seat, and started to stretch, not wanting to hold them up.
"No, you're right on time. I've just started setting all of Bailey's clocks ahead by fifteen minutes. That way she's not chronically late anymore," Esa piped up.
Bailey gasped. "That is so wrong, bitch. I was fashionably late. Now I'm the annoying early one. No offense, Hessa." Bailey glared at Esa, barely glancing at me with her flippant semi-apology.
"Oh sure, no offense taken. Even though you've clearly said something offensive. What's the point of saying 'no offense' all the time, when it's clearly offensive?" Brinley said to Bailey, now crossing her arms, glaring at her. I was finding Brinley to be a stickler about being kind to people. I was happy she was defending me, but I didn't think sticking it to Bailey was a good thing. It was like poking a sleeping bear.
Bailey looked taken aback, like she hadn't thought of it that way. "I guess I just say that phrase when I speak my opinion but I don't want someone to take it personally. I happen to abhor showing up on time, especially early. That's just me. Maybe someone like Hessa here doesn't mind it. Hence, my 'no offense'. See? It even rhymes. I was trying to be kind, so get off my ass, BB."
Oh crappers, Bailey was getting wound up again. At this rate, we'd never get to the self-defense stuff.
"Ladies!" Esa jumped up, cutting off any further snarky responses. "We're here to help our girl, Hessa. Not to bitch at each other, like chimps fighting over the last banana. So zip it and let Shasta talk, okay?"
I shook my head slowly, eyes wide. Chimps? This was getting crazier than that student I had a few years ago that wanted to dare her partner to flash a crowd of clowns, Mardi Gras style. Nothing about it made sense, but it was funnier than hell if you didn't think about it too much.
Shasta stood up. "Thank you, Esa." Then she looked at all of us, a big smile on her face. She launched into a description of the moves we were going to learn that day, like the girl's spat was an everyday occurrence. Part of me was appalled. The other part of me liked that I had a group of women surrounding me that told it like it was, rather than sugar-coating everything. Plus, they were all here today to support me. A girl could search all her life for that kind of female friendship.
We paired up and moved through some basic drills to warm up, then practiced some hand grab maneuvers. We finished up with choke escapes, both standing and laying down.
