Page 39 of Made for Us

“For what?” I ask her, the sound of ringing now stopping, giving me a couple of minutes to get my nerve up.

“Well, if we are going to kidnap him and kill him, I’m not going to wear flashy clothes,” she huffs. “You would think after all the Dateline that our family has made us watch, you would know this already.” She shakes her head going up the steps, and only when I hear the water come on in her room do I push off from the counter and walk over to my purse.

“What are the chances that it’s not him?” I ask myself as I grab my purse and search out my phone. “Like fifty-fifty?” I ask the walls, but my head screams out it’s one-hundred-percent him.

I turn the phone over, and sure enough, his name is there with a missed call notification. “What if I don’t call him back?” I look at my phone. “Like, what if I didn’t get this call?” I try to convince myself. “It’s technology. Sometimes things go into the cloud, and this could be one of them.”

I look down at the phone, and it starts to ring again, this time in my hand. “Well, now you’re just showing off.” I look up to the universe, and I press the green button to accept the call.

“Hello,” I answer, walking over and sitting on the bottom step.

“Hey, it’s me,” he says, and a smile just fills my face, “I have a bit of a problem.” I sit up, worried that something is wrong. “I called Roxanne and she’s in New York. So I can’t come to you. Do you think you can come over here?”

“Now?” I ask him, putting my hand on my forehead to see if maybe I’m getting a fever, and then I won’t have to see him.

“Whenever you can. I just put Penelope to bed.”

I take a deep breath in. “Might as well get this over with,” I mumble. “I can leave now.”

“I’ll send you my address,” he tells me

“I have it,” I confirm to him and close my eyes. “Roxanne came to the game once, and you guys took off for the away game right after. Well, her car didn’t start so I drove her home.” I quickly add, “Not that I’m like stalking you or anything.”

“I’ll see you soon,” he says and hangs up the phone.

“Could you be more of an idiot?” I ask myself.

“Yes,” Gabriella yells from her bedroom and then walks out, wrapped in her robe with a towel around her hair.

“Who asked you?” I look at her while getting up.

“Well, I felt sorry for you talking to yourself so I figured I would help you out.” She folds her arms over her chest. “You’re welcome. Now go declare your love to him.”

“I don’t know why I tell you anything,” I grumble, grabbing my bag.

“I would tell you to be safe.” She snickers. “But it’s way too late for that.”

“Don’t think I forgot about our fight. You will have to tell me what happened in LA one of these days.” I don’t wait for her to answer. Instead, I just slam the door shut. Pulling open the car door, I sit inside and press the red button. I turn the air-conditioning on right away before I buckle myself in. “It’s going to be fine,” I reassure myself. “It’s going to be like, ‘am I the baby daddy’? I’m going to say yes, and then it’ll be over.”

I take my time driving over there, even making sure I go under the speed limit. When I pull up to his house, I park on the street. “This is a good idea.” I look at the light at the front door. “This way, I can leave whenever I want.” I grab my bag, getting out of the car and closing the door.

I don’t think I could be more nervous, and the more I keep pretending I’m not, the sicker I feel. I walk up the driveway, making sure I don’t trip over my feet. Stepping up the one step, I reach the door. I lift my hand, and I'm about to ring when I remember he told me that Penelope was sleeping. Instead of ringing, I bring my hand up and softly knock on the black door. My stomach lurches up and then down again, as if it is doing the wave, and my neck starts to get warm with nerves. I listen to hear if maybe I’ll hear footsteps, but I don’t hear anything. “I can just say I came, and he wasn’t home,” I mumble to myself.

I’m about to turn around and do just that when the door opens, and he stands there wearing shorts and a T-shirt. His hair looks like it’s wet from the shower. “Sorry I didn’t hear you ring.” His tone is different than I’ve ever heard before. It’s curt and tight, making my nerves kick up even more.

My stomach now fills with flutters. All the words are stuck in my throat as I just stare at him. I clear my throat. “I didn’t ring,” I say softly, “I was afraid to wake Penelope.”

He moves aside. “Come in.” His hand is still on the door. I take a step up into his house, the smell of him floating all around me. “Where do you want to do this?”

In your bed? On the couch? Against the door? “Wherever you like,” I finally say. “If it’s not too much trouble, can I have some water?” I ask him, and all he does is nod at me and everything inside me shifts.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

TRISTAN

“Wherever you like,” she finally says, and I can see her gripping the purse in her hand so tight that her knuckles are white. “If it’s not too much trouble, can I have some water?” All I can do is nod at her. I’m so afraid I’m going to snap. The whole time I’ve been trying to calm myself down, telling myself that it’s not what I think. But then the only thing that kept going over and over in my head is she didn’t tell me.

“We can talk in the family room,” I suggest to her as we walk from the front room, past the stairs, and into the family room attached to the kitchen. “Have a seat, I’ll get you water.” I walk to the kitchen and turn around mid-step. “Do you want juice instead?”

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