She, the Kingdom (She #1)(51)

“Did you find your wallet?” I asked.

He pulled out one hand to pat his backside. “I did. Hey… I texted you the other day. I don’t want to bug you if you’re busy, but it’s been a few days. I thought we had a good time.”

“I did.”

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking awkward and pained about his next words. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. Trust me, I didn’t want to stop.”

I waved him away, feeling my face flush. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. You were right. It was best.”

Colton turned his ball cap backward and walked toward me. I took steps back until my backside was against the dark orange brick exterior.

“I’ve been a little nervous,” he said. “I saw your vehicle here, and almost didn’t come in.”

“Why?” I asked, looking up at him.

He touched my cheek, letting his fingers drift into the hair above my ear. “I sat in my truck for ten minutes trying to decide how to handle it if you brushed me off.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to brush you off.”

“But you have been.”

He whispered the words, and then he leaned in, kissing my neck. I closed my eyes, feeling his warm lips press against my skin. I put my hands on his chest to hold him away. “Colton,” I said, stopping him. In truth, I hadn’t meant to brush him off, I’d just been focused elsewhere. Standing there, alone with Colton with his mouth on my neck felt wrong, but it was a reprieve from the frustration that still lingered after my encounter with Max.

He took my earlobe between his teeth, and my knees nearly buckled. It was unsettling that someone his age could affect me that way.

“I haven’t been brushing you off,” I said. I pushed him back again. “But the timing is off.” Everything is off.

He lifted his arm next to my face, pressing his palm flat against the brick. He attempted to mask his frustration with a laugh. “I know you like me.”

“I do, but this is more than just complicated.”

“It always is.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Colton’s unrelenting optimism and patience was endearing. He was staring at me like it was surreal that I was standing in front of him, and still, he radiated confidence. He already knew my answer before he asked his next question.

“Come back in. Dance with me,” he said.

I shook my head. “I should go.”

He leaned down, meeting my gaze for two seconds before kissing the corner of my mouth. “Text me, would ya? You’re making me crazy.”

I fished my keys out of my purse and headed for my SUV. “You’re just used to all the girls swooning over you.”

“Except for the one I want,” he called, watching me open the door and slide behind the wheel.

I drove the Lexus away from the VFW and toward my house, annoyed at myself for feeling so giddy. I was thirty-one, divorced, and a mother-of-two, grinning like an idiot over a flirtatious kid. I had to get a grip.

I pulled up into my drive and pressed the SUV’s ignition button. The engine abruptly shut off, and I was just left with the light breeze blowing through the trees and the crickets. A thin sheen of sweat formed over my skin in the short time it took me to leave the A/C of my vehicle to the cool air in my home. As I closed the door, I wondered how long the Lexus would be in my drive. When Max had offered it to me, all I could think about was how excited the kids would be. Now I worried I wouldn’t own it long enough for them to see it.

*

Max hadn’t called or texted in six days. The deposit was wired into my account on Friday like usual, the insurance on the Lexus had been paid. The appointments at the spa were still in effect.

I lay on Athena’s table, more relaxed. The second Brazilian wax was much easier, the third wasn’t much more painful than getting my eyebrows done. Now on my fourth, I was surprised that I looked forward to the warm wax slathering over my skin, and Athena had me smooth within seven minutes.

“You look a million miles away, girl,” she said, waiting for the last patch of wax to cool.

I sighed. “I don’t know where I am.”

“Not pregnant yet? I mean… it’s none of my business.”

“No,” I answered.

She patted my knee. “These things take time. And this is different than your other two. I’m surprised you can have babies at all, after what happened with Hannah.”

“Oh. You heard about that, huh?”

“A long time ago. Half the town thought you were dead.”

I nodded. It was the only response I could muster. Talking about the time I almost bled to death seemed impertinent for someone who was very much alive, especially when I’d seen so many people pass through the hospital doors without the happy ending.

Hannah came fast and early. We were both lucky that the hemorrhaging began while I was at work at the hospital and not two hours later after I’d clocked out and gone home, or else it wasn’t likely either of us would have made it. The doctors couldn’t stop the bleeding, so—although having a brood of five or six children was all Nick had ever talked about —Hannah would be my last biological child. Any future of that was taken with my uterus.

I touched my forehead, bracing for her to yank the final strip. “I keep forgetting to thank whoever started that rumor.”