Page 33 of Made For You
With an idea in mind, I set Draco back on the ground, fed him dinner, and dashed out of the house in the hopes of reachingthe hardware store before it closed. I was about to spend as much on tools and supplies as I did on my recent camera purchase.
I thought about calling or messaging Talon as I perused the aisles in the store, but he left me no way to contact him.
What kind of mess did I just get myself into? Legally marrying a man and not even asking for his phone number? I’m a freaking moron.
I was busy berating myself as I added a few paintbrushes to my cart and didn’t notice the tall man standing at the end cap. My cart caught his hip as I headed toward the cash register at the front.
“Sorry,” I apologized, my face squishing into a grimace that probably resembled a pug.
“No harm,” he replied, turning to look at me directly. He held a set of tape measurers in his hands and was dressed nicely, in a blue button-down shirt and khakis. He had neatly trimmed blonde hair, longer on top and shorter on the sides and back, and he was wearing wire-rimmed glasses that made him appear older than I believed he was. “Do I know you?” he asked.
I didn’t recognize him, but with the way the town was growing, there was a good chance I’d never ran into him. A sudden notion dawned on me that he could be a friend of Jeremy’s, and that left a sour taste in my mouth, making me smack my tongue loudly.
“No. I don’t think so.” I excused myself quickly, telling him I had a prior engagement, which was the truth.
Just as I placed an order with the cashier to have some planks of wood delivered to my house, the man came up behind me to stand in line. I watched nervously, using the reflection in the mirror behind the cashier.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I grabbed my bags and the receipt. I signed the confirmation for the delivery in two days and headed toward the exit.
“I remember! You work for the school.”
“What?” I asked fearfully. Something about this guy was giving me the heebie-jeebies.
“Sorry. I’m Liam Franklin. I teach Biology at the high school. Your classroom is right next to mine.”
“Oh!” I replied, my creep meter still running on all cylinders.
“Have you been by there yet? If you need help setting up your classroom, let me know. I’ll be there all week.”
Lovely.
“Thanks for the offer. I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to head over that way,” I lied. “I have somewhere to be, but it was nice meeting you. Glad not everyone will be a stranger at the first teachers’ meeting.”
“Uh. Sure. See you.”
I didn’t allow my thoughts to linger on the teacher next door. I was excited to get started on my new project. I was one of those people who, the moment I had a goal in mind, I wouldn’t stop at anything until I achieved it. Talon and I seemed to have that in common. It was one of two things I knew about him. We were goal-oriented, and we were husband and wife.
On the drive to my parents’ house, I kept thinking this arrangement might have been the easiest thing I’d ever signed up for. For all I knew, Talon and I would see each other just a handful of times, and after six months, we’d call it quits. Maybe my family didn’t need to know anything.
Pulling up to the farm, the interaction with the guy in the hardware store long forgotten, I braced myself for whatever was going to come. As I shut off my car, it was clear that whatever was headed my way had camouflaged itself as my threesisters. The trio leaned on the front porch railing with matching impatient looks.
I couldn’t help reverting back to my early-teen years and wondering what I’d done wrong.
Apprehensively, I exited my car, leaving my new purchases stored in the trunk. I assumed the paint would be fine for a couple of hours.
“Well, look who finally came back from the Sunshine State,” Alex called out obnoxiously.
“Did you have a nice vacation?” Autumn added with a flip of her long, wavy locks.
Aspen remained quiet. She was the one I worried about the most, rarely showing much emotion anymore. She had been the liveliest toddler, always giggling, but since middle school, she’d slowly hid into herself.
When I didn’t respond to Alex and Autumn, they left the porch with a huff, grabbing their matching glasses of white wine from the bench on their way.
“Hi, Aspen,” I said, reaching an arm around my sister to hug her. I noticed she clung a little tighter than usual, and it made me smile. Maybe she missed me just a tad.
“I was afraid you weren’t going to come back. Not that I would’ve blamed you. I bet there are a ton of hot guys in Miami.”
Ignoring her quip, I asked, “Everything okay?”
