Page 22 of Cold Snap
“Darling, you have literal hearts in your eyes when you look at him or talk about him.”
“Oh great! Everyone can tell?”
“No. I don’t think everyone can see it, but I am your mother. I can.”
“I was so stupid. I thought…I thought it would be just like a movie and he’d fall in love with me, but…he doesn’t feel that way about me.”
I pray she can’t tell just exactly how I know that or what I did last night.
“Oh, sweetie, give him time. Some men need a little longer to come around.”
“And some never do.” I’m not lying to myself anymore. “How long did it take Dad?”
She purses her lips together and makes a funny face, “Your dad is different. He…well, he had to convince me.”
“I…I just need space. I need to process everything that’s happened and to think about what I want my next move to be. I just need to…” Run as fast as I can and as far as I can until I can outrun this hurt.
“I’ll call your Aunt Angie tomorrow. Maybe you can stay with her for a few weeks and think everything through.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.” I move to go upstairs and feel the aches I have been ignoring spring to life. “Maybe I’ll go take a dip in the pool before dinner.”
Chapter Seventeen
Landry
Iwatch as my little runner comes out of the house in a bikini that barely covers her tits and ass. When I woke up without her this morning, I could have torn the fucking walls down. The bellow that left me was that of a wounded animal whose mate was taken from him. It didn’t help that I could look down at the little drops of blood that had stained my sheets, showing me she was mine!
When I finally got enough sanity back to start putting a plan together and reluctantly took a shower, I opened the door to find her father on the other side. He wanted to know what was going on between me and his daughter. I guess it never occurred to my little runaway that she went home in my shirt with my fucking last name on the back of it. Multiple people saw her in it, and I’ve already gotten a call from Aarons apologizing for hitting on my woman.
I told her father I wasn’t about to talk about me and Teresa with him until I talked to Teresa herself. Then I told him she might not be home for dinner since we have a lot we need to talk about, but I didn’t tell him my plan. He seemed to be alright with what I said, but he still told me that if I hurt her, he was going to find a nice hole to bury me in. I told him I would bring the shovel.
And now here we are. I’m about to commit a felony, and she’s not wearing clothes. I wait until she walks past me and then reach out and wrap my arms around her, putting my hand over her mouth. I have her out of the backyard gate and into my truck before she can take her next breath. When she sees me, she relaxes noticeably, but I can see the second anger hits her eyes. Those brown orbs snapping at me with the promise of fire, just like whiskey burns.
“What the hell is wrong with you? How did…how did you even get in the…? Did you…? What are you doing?” I love it when she’s so flustered she can barely string a sentence together.
“How did I get in? I picked the lock on the gate.”
“You…You picked the lock?”
“I had an…interesting childhood. Spent some time in juvie for my skills, but they always come in handy no matter how good I’ve been.”
“Juvie?”
“Yeah, you didn’t know that about me, did you? There’s a lot you don’t know about me, sweetheart. Now, it’s my turn. Why did you leave?”
“I…I got a call from one of my friends from school telling me about Lucy. She…,” she trails off.
“Yeah, I heard. Heard about Tommy, too.”
“That happened right before I got there.”
“Why didn’t you wake me up?”
“I…,” I can see in her eyes she doesn’t want to tell me, so her next words don’t come as a total surprise. “No, it’s my turn. Where are you taking me?”
“A place I own in the woods. It’s a cabin no one knows about.”
