“I guess I’ll need some longer knitting needles, then.”
“See, here’s what you’re not noticing, Immy.” He dipped his head, sliding one hand across the counter so his lips were close to my ear. “You’re the one who stepped closer to me a second ago, and you didn’t even realize it. You say you can’t stand to be near me, but when I offered you a coffee, you said yes. You could have said no, handed me the pancakes, explained the ladder, and left.
“Yet, here you are. Practically touching me, and you haven’t tried to move away once. So while I hope—and I cannot express this enough—that you don’t try to shove anything up my ass, knitting needles or otherwise, it doesn’t really matter.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Because I’m even closer to you than I was ten seconds ago, and you still haven’t tried to push me away.”
I drew in a deep breath. He was right. Inches seemed so big when there was nothing but mere millimeters, nothing more than a hair width, separated you. His breath darted across my skin, making me shiver.
I wasn’t going to do this.
I was going to be a big girl and control myself.
Yup. I was. I swear.
I took a deep breath and stepped back from him. “I need to go.”
Turning around, I bolted out of the house and pulled the door shut behind me. My heart was beating entirely too fast for my liking, and I could still feel the remnants of the shiver that had just wracked my body. It was like thousands of tiny needles all pricking my skin and sending goosebumps all over me.
I swore I could hear him laughing, but I honestly didn’t know if it was just my memory at this point.
I disappeared back into my own house and slammed the door shut, leaning against it. I blew out a deep breath and closed my eyes, tilting my head back.
“What’s wrong?”
I opened my eyes and looked at Grandma.
“Didn’t he like the pancakes?” Her eyes widened innocently.
Too innocently.
I pushed off the door and paused at the bottom of the stairs. “You know damn well he likes them.”
Her sly grin gave her away. “I bet that’s not all he likes.”
“I told you. Stop it,” I huffed, storming up the stairs. Her cackling followed me up, echoing off the walls, and I could even hear it after I’d shut myself in the bathroom in pursuit of a toothbrush.
I picked up the toothpaste and stopped.
I could switch his toothpaste for shaving cream.
But how the hell did I get to his toothpaste?
CHAPTER TEN – MASON
When Past And Present Collide
I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d forgotten that puppies will shit anywhere and everywhere on their pursuit of an empty bowel.
I wrapped the last of the wire around the holder on the carpet cleaner my mother had insisting on giving me for Christmas and pushed it back through to the utility room. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever been grateful for it—until now.
The thing was a lifesaver.
“Uh-oh,” Maya said, looking at Dolly, who was sitting outside on the porch staring through the sliding glass doors.
“Uh-oh indeed,” I said. “She can stay outside for twenty minutes. She’s fenced in and she won’t get lost.”
“I play ball?” She looked at me with her blue eyes wide and pleading.
I wavered on it for a moment. Dolly was outside to do her business, but it wasn’t like she was actually doing it anyway.
“Fine, okay. Go play with her.”
“Yay!” Maya jumped off the sofa and ran to the back door, stopping to grab a bright pink tennis ball from the floor on the way. She slid open the unlocked door and ran outside, instantly throwing the ball so Dolly could catch in. In her excitement, Dolly went ass over head and fell off the patio with a tiny yelp. Before I could get to her, she bounded back up and chased after Maya.
I shook my head and shut the utility room door. I needed to order more puppy pads to save the rest of my carpet and some stronger carpet cleaning solution.
With Maya amused outside with Dolly, I took advantage of the silence to get some work done. My home office was nowhere near ready, so I settled at the kitchen island, turning the stool around just enough that I could keep half an eye on Maya and Dolly.
My email was bursting, and I never thought I’d say it, but I would be glad to get back to the office properly. It was hard to take work calls when I was constantly asked for a snack or some water or did I know where that broken orange crayon was because she absolutely had to have that one and no others would do.
Thankfully, half of my email appeared to be spam mail and some out of office replies. After handling all the spam, I set to work working my way back from all the ones that had come in since three o’clock yesterday when I’d last done this.
With that handled—and a snack for both Maya and Dolly out of the way—I wrapped up a report with my recommendation on a custody case that’d dragged out for over a year now and sent that off to where it needed to be.
I took a break for some coffee and a snack of my own. It’d been such a long time since I’d typed that much and my fingers were screaming for a break. While the coffee machine turned on, I checked on Maya and Dolly. They were curled up together on the sofa under Maya’s favorite blanket.
I smiled, slowly backing out of the room so they could continue their nap.
The coffee machine was done when I re-entered the kitchen, so I fixed myself a drink and looked out of the window.
Specifically, at the yard next door.
Immy was sitting on the porch, and I could tell from her position that she was drawing. She was all hunched up, knees bent—curled into a little ball with just enough room left to move her pencil across the page.
I’d watched her sit and draw like that more times than I could count. It was always accompanied by the biggest look of peace on her face, a peace that was only broken on occasion by her poking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth.
Like she was doing now. It was just the tip, curved upward as if she were licking her top lip in just one place. She held that position now as I watched her.
I couldn’t believe that after everything, the last few years had brought me back full circle to the girl I’d left behind.
The one thing I regretted more than anything was hurting Imogen Anderson. Seeing the way she’d looked at me when she’d told me that a few days ago had cut me deeply, and all I wanted to do was make it right.
I was still drawn to her, inexplicably so. Was it because we’d never had closure when I graduated? Or was it because there was still something there?
I didn’t know if I believed in soulmates or any of that shit people spouted. Even if such a thing existed, the chance of running into yours, statistically speaking, was so minuscule that anyone holding out for their soulmate was wasting a hell of a lot of time.
And if you did, by some statistically amazing chance, encounter your soulmate, it wasn’t like fucking fireworks were going to go off in the sky at that exact moment so you knew what was going on.
Although if soulmates existed and that happened, it would be helpful.
I let out a long breath. I was all out staring at Immy at this point, but she was so wrapped up in what she was doing that she hadn’t even noticed.