Part of Your World(7)

This drew a laugh, and I grinned.

I mentally scoured the contents of my fridge. “Probably a grilled cheese? With fresh tomato and basil in it?”

She arched an eyebrow. “Fresh tomato and basil?”

“I have a garden.”

“I don’t do one-night stands.”

I laughed. “Well, that escalated quickly.”

“I’m serious. I’ve never had one and I never will. If your goal is that, you’re going to be severely disappointed.”

“My goal is not that,” I said honestly, smiling at her.

She nodded, taking a few steps until she stood looking up at me. “Okay. But I have to inform you that I’m bringing my Taser.”

“Fair enough.”

“And I will definitely use it if I have to.” She gave me a stern look.

I made a matching serious face. “You won’t have to. But I believe you. You look violent.”

She fought a laugh, trying to keep her serious expression. “And I’m taking my own car. You’re not driving me.”

“Of course.”

“One last thing.” She cocked her head. “Is there anyone out there under the impression that they are in a relationship with you?”

I laughed. “It’s just a grilled cheese, you know. It’s not that serious.”

“Oh, I know. But if I was under the impression that I was in a relationship with someone and I came home to find them making a grilled cheese for another woman, I would not be happy.”

“I said I didn’t have a girlfriend.”

“Completely different question.”

“No,” I said, smiling. “Nobody is under the impression that they’re in a relationship with me. Is there anyone out there who is under the impression that they’re in a relationship with you?”

She laughed. “No.”

“Okay.”

She smiled. “Okay.”



I woke up the next morning at six a.m., naked and happy after having the best date of my entire life.

And then I realized she was gone.





Chapter 5

Alexis



I tiptoed into my own house without turning on the lights like a teenager sneaking in after curfew.

It was six-thirty in the morning, I had one shoe on, my hair was a tangled mess, I was caked in mud and farm animal fur, and I was wearing a hoodie I’d stolen on the way out.

I’d panicked.

I’d panicked, and I ran while he was asleep.

I woke up in a strange man’s bed in a dusty garage in a town in the middle of nowhere after having what was admittedly the best sex of my entire life—with a twenty-eight-year-old.

He was twenty-eight.

I’d gotten up to use the bathroom and put on his hoodie. When I was washing my hands, his wallet fell out of the pocket, open to his driver’s license.

I knew he was younger than me. I just didn’t realize he was almost a decade younger than me.

I’d had a one-night stand with a total stranger, who was a decade younger than me.

What was I doing? I didn’t do things like this. I didn’t have casual sex. I didn’t do risky behavior. I’d made Neil wait two months before I’d slept with him, and when I finally did it was during a very well-planned romantic trip to Mexico. I’d spent a week picking out the lingerie I was going to wear, and I got waxed and exfoliated, and there were petals on the bed. I’d never had sex with anyone who wasn’t my boyfriend in my entire life. And now I’d just made an exception with a guy I’d just met who was almost as young as Neil’s son.

I completely freaked out.

I’d gotten dressed and fled in the night, stepping in dog poop on the way out. Or maybe it was pig poop? Or goat poop? Whatever it was, there was so much of it that it sucked my shoe right off my foot and I left it like a lizard shedding its tail to make its escape.

I hobbled into my dark living room, tossing my keys on the credenza.

“Where were you?”

I gasped at the phantom male voice coming from the direction of Neil’s favorite armchair. And then a light flicked on and my heart started beating again.

“Derek! Oh my God, you scared me half to death.”

My twin brother beamed at me from the recliner. “Hey, sis.” Then he looked me over and sat up, worried. “Are you okay?”

I scoffed and looked down at my destroyed dress and bare foot. “Yeah.” I blew out a breath. “I’m fine. How’d you get in here?”

“Your alarm code is the same one you use for your phone.”

“You know the code to my phone?” I reached back and took off my lone heel.

“I know all your codes. Even when you change them.”

I laughed dryly. My brother and I had a touch of twin telepathy going on. Always had.

“What are you doing back?” I asked, padding across the room in my bare feet and flopping on the sofa. “I thought you were in Cambodia for another six weeks.”

“Came back early.”

“But not early enough to save me from half a week in Cedar Rapids alone with our parents,” I deadpanned.

“Wild horses couldn’t have dragged me there.”

I laughed again, leaning my head back on the sofa and closing my eyes.