Dark Sexy Knight (A Modern Fairytale)(29)

Not that he hadn’t missed Sandy when she left Atlanta to take a job at Tournament of Kings in Vegas. He did. At least she’d been company, even if that company consisted mostly of cold pizza and booty calls. More than anything else, he’d missed watching movies with someone. He’d missed that for months after she left.

When he fantasized about Verity, which he did near constantly since meeting her, there were a surprising number of daydreams he had about sitting next to her on his bed and watching a movie. Not even fooling around—though he got hard at the thought of getting physical with her—just sitting together: her warm, small body next to his, holding hands, as they watched a movie.

With the corn rolled up and the steaks covered with a layer of salt and pepper, he checked the time: 7:55.

Hustling outside, he put the corn on the hot grill and the steaks, which were on a covered plate, on one end of the table. He’d wait a little bit before starting them. He plugged in the Christmas lights and took the little box from his back pocket and placed it on her plate. Some guys got their dates flowers or chocolates. He’d gotten Verity a Yggdrasil necklace. He hoped she didn’t mind.

With everything ready, he picked up his phone from the table to choose some music, but he froze, his brows furrowing at the number of message alerts he found there. Scrolling down, he counted three, four, five, six different missed calls from the same familiar number.

Fuuuuuuck!

Shit, shit, shit!

He stared at the phone, and for just a split second he considered ignoring the messages. It occurred to him to just pretend he hadn’t seen them, because he wanted tonight to be about him and Verity. The quick onslaught of shame was sharp and harrowing and made him hang his head with self-disgust. Walking away from the house, out onto the lawn, he hit the callback button.

***

Verity didn’t have too many pretty things, but one dress she’d always loved was a simple skater-style dress she’d ordered from Forever 21 last year. A simple white eyelet bodice with a sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps gathered into a short, flared white skirt with a coral belt around her waist. It was sweet but still sexy, making her waist look tiny and her breasts look bigger than they were, and she felt extra confident the few times she’d worn it. She paired it with some white wedge sandals bought on sale at Walmart, added a sterling silver bracelet her mother had given her for her sixteenth birthday, then headed downstairs with flutters in her stomach.

At the foot of the stairs she took a look at her face in the mirror by the front door.

Verity and her best friend, Elaine, had always taken their makeup seriously, practicing looks they found in magazines and watching tutorials on YouTube, but she had to admit that even Elaine would have been impressed with the job she’d done tonight. She’d evened her base and tanned her face with bronzer, then given herself smoky eyes and lips the exact color of her belt. She’d washed and blow-dried her long blonde hair until it lay shiny, straight, and long down her back. Not that she’d ever left Georgia, but she felt confident that she’d captured a genuine California-girl look: blonde, tan, sexy, and breezy. And she hoped that she looked a little less girl next door and a little more sex kitten because she really, really wanted Colton to make a move on her tonight.

She walked through the living room, into the kitchen, tilting her head to look out the back door, which led down three steps to the patio. Her eyes widened, and she smiled with wonder. Were those twinkle lights roped over the picnic table? Since when did the back patio have twinkle lights?

Crossing the kitchen, she opened the storm door and stepped out onto the landing, gasping softly as she looked up at the white lights over her head and the beautiful, elegant table waiting below.

The table was crisp and white, set with the pink-flowered plates she used for breakfast every morning, and shiny wineglasses she’d never seen before. There was a vase of fresh flowers between the plates in the same powder pink as the flower crown she’d looked at in the gift shop earlier today. And by her plate was the little black box that held the Yggdrasil necklace. The information card inside the little box identified the tree as the crossroad of heaven and earth in Norse mythology—the tree was bound to the earth through its roots and stretched into the heavens through its branches.

She sighed softly, her breath catching at how carefully he’d arranged everything for her, and she felt her crush slip away a little because, in that moment, it started changing from something superficial into something more substantial. From something merely wishful into something . . . possible.

She raised her eyes to the lawn, looking for Colton, and found him with his back to her, one hand rubbing his forehead in what appeared to be consternation, the other holding his phone up to his ear.

Although she wasn’t positive, she thought he looked upset, and his choice to take the call on the grass with his back to the patio indicated that it was probably a private conversation. The right thing to do would be to go back in the house and wait for him to finish the call, then come outside like she’d never seen him talking.

But her curiosity got the best of her. Walking to the edge of the patio, she stood a few feet behind him, straining her neck to catch snippets of his conversation:

“Tell her I love her, tell her I’m sorry, tell her—”

He rubbed the back of his neck.

“But I can come now. I can drop everything right now and be there in twenty minutes. Please, just—”