Page 6 of Coming For Her Curves
She takes a step back and nods. “Yeah, I did. Almost five years after you left town. You had moved on. Hell, you were in the Whiskey Run paper almost every day, with a different girl on your arm. You forgot about me. So I had to do what I had to do to forget about you.”
“Did it work?”
She shakes her head. “What do you mean did it work?”
“Did you forget about me?”
She opens her mouth but then slams it shut.
I take a step toward her. “Because I haven't forgotten about you. I have thought about you every day for the last twenty years. I've stalked you online. I've watched you, wishing and hoping I could be a part of your life. I know you didn't want me then, but?—”
She interrupts me. “You think I didn't want you?”
I should have forced her to have this conversation with me years ago. I was young and hurt, and I let my emotions take control. “Izzy, we had plans. We were going to get married. We weregoing to travel and see the world. And the day after I was drafted, you ended things.”
She opens her mouth. She wants to say something, but then she clenches her lips together, shakes her head, and waves her hand at me up and down. “I'm not sure what this is. A mid-life crisis?”
I laugh. “I'm forty years old.”
She rolls her eyes. “And I'm thirty-eight and too old for fairy tales. You can't give up your life for me, Ryker. I didn't let you then, and I won't now.”
Before I can ask her what that means, she goes on. “People are saying you're crazy for walking away from the game right now. Some even say you are having a mental break.” She looks up at me worriedly. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”
I tilt my head to the side. She acts like she doesn’t want anything to do with me, but she’s worried about me. Just a little bit of hope flares in my chest. “I don't care what people think about me,” I huff in a breath. “Do you believe any of it? Do you think I’m about to go into rehab or that I’m going crazy?”
She instantly shakes her head. “No, I know you have some reason you’re doing this, but?—”
I nod. “I do have a reason. I’m doing it because I love you.”
She blurts out a laugh, but I continue. “I know what I'm doing. I know what I want. And nothing is going to stop me from having you, Izz.”
The wind starts to pick up, and she pulls at her coat. I put a hand on her shoulder, and we both freeze. There are layers between us, but just touching her like this makes me want her more. For the longest time, I’ve dreamed of being this close to her. I wantto pull her into my arms and hold her, but the ways she’s looking right now, she will bolt. I turn her in the direction of her office. “Come on, I’ll walk you back.”
We walk in silence for a few minutes, and she stops outside her office. “This is me.”
I nod, leaving out the part that I know exactly where she works. Hell, I know where she lives, where she shops, who her friends are. I know it all. I’m obsessed. She hooks a thumb over her shoulder. “I really should go.”
“When can I see you again?”
She shakes her head. “I can’t do this right now, Ryker.”
Without another word, she turns to walk away. I stand here on the sidewalk, hands in my coat pockets as I watch her. She opens the door to go inside, but at the last second, she turns around and looks at me. Even from here, I can see the curiosity on her face. I lift a hand and wave at her.
She doesn’t wave back, but she does smile at me, and that’s enough to give me just a little bit of hope that everything is going to work out.
CHAPTER 6
IZZY
“Okay. What's up with you?” Caroline asks me later in the afternoon. I was able to dodge her when I got back from my lunch break, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it all day. She’s my best friend, and of course I want to talk to her about this, but I also don’t know what to make of all of it. I might as well tell her, though, because by tomorrow, everyone in town will know that I walked around the center of town with Ryker Kirby.
“I saw him today.”
I don't even have to say his name because she knows who “he" is.
“Oh my God. When? How? What happened?”
“On my walk at lunch. He came up and sat down next to me.” I think back and wonder if I hadn't been crying, would he have stopped?
