Page 12 of Meant for Stone (Meant For)

I get out, pressing the button to close the door before walking to the side of the garage and entering my house through the bright-white mudroom. I kick off my running shoes before walking through the side door that leads to the kitchen.

I get one of my prepared meals out of the massive two-door stainless-steel fridge, then walk over to the oven and press the buttons to turn it on. Once it beeps, I get a tray to put it on. When I get home from practice, I usually hit my gym, but since my whole body feels broken, I’m skipping today. It’ll probably be worse tomorrow, but I’ll listen to my body for now. I walk past the big island in the middle of the room that leads to the family room. I go to grab the remote control to turn on the television hanging over the fireplace. When I moved in here, the house had no televisions, but I quickly rectified that. I had my cousins come over, and now every room in this house has a television.

The oven beeps at the same time as my phone makes a weird ringing sound. Pulling it out of my pocket as I walk back to the kitchen, I look down and see Ryleigh is calling me on Instagram. The smile fills my face as soon as I see her name, and then my cock stirs in my shorts.

I answer the call right away, putting her on speaker. “Hello, gorgeous.”

“Did you send me chocolate?” she barks out, and I chuckle.

Opening the oven door, I put the tray in it before starting the timer for twenty minutes. “No.” I laugh. “I sent you an array of chocolates. I didn’t know what type of chocolate you liked, so I sent you milk chocolate, which is my favorite. I also sent you white chocolate and dark chocolate.”

“Why?” she groans. “Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re bitter and sweet.” I pull out one of the gray-and-white cushioned stools. “And I want to take a bite out of you.”

“How did you even get my address?” She ignores my comment about taking a bite out of her, but my cock suddenly is fully alert.

“I have my ways.” I tap the counter with my finger. Also, Google did help. “Did you like my gift?”

“No,” she huffs. “I hate chocolate.”

I put my head back and laugh out loud. “You are such a beautiful liar. They had chocolate fondue at the wedding, and you told me chocolate was your weakness.”

“I did not,” she denies. “You can’t take what a drunk woman says and use it against her.”

“I didn’t use it against you, gorgeous.” My voice goes low. “I did it to make you smile.”

“Well, it didn’t.” Her voice gets tight. “Goodbye.” I’m about to say something when I see she hung up on me.

I send her a message instead.

Stone: Should we not exchange phone numbers?

The message shows in blue, and then I see the little writing on the bottom that says it’s seen. It takes ten seconds before her message comes through.

Ryleigh: We shouldn’t even be following each other on Instagram. I should unfollow you right now.

Stone: Don’t forget, gorgeous, I now know where you work.

Ryleigh: Don’t forget I know half of the police department here, so good luck showing up.

Stone: You’d bail me out.

Ryleigh: I think you should try it and see.

Stone: Are you asking me to come see you?

Ryleigh: Yes, I’m asking you to come see me so I can have you arrested for stalking.

Stone: Are you going to cuff me yourself?

Ryleigh: Go away.

Stone: Call me later. 615-233-5674

Ryleigh: Here is my number 9-1-1

I can’t help but smile even bigger with her last message. Instead of calling her back or messaging her, I call Christopher to see if he has any pointers he can give me.

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