Pieces of Summer (A stand-alone novel)(20)

“It’s Mika.”

His grin broadens as I scribble down my number and hand him the paper. “See you Saturday, Mika.”

Shit. I wish I hadn’t agreed to an exact day. That’s stupid.

“You could tell her your name,” Hunter groans, but he eyes me like he’s noticing the pale color on my skin. “Seriously. I thought Southern guys were supposed to be so much f*cking better than us.”

“I already saw her peep my nametag,” Blake says, winking at me. “It’s why I invited her out.”

He turns and chuckles as he walks toward the back, and I walk out with Hunter as he mocks Blake’s laughter. At least I’ll have a friend when everyone else abandons me at the end of summer.

A small bubble of sadness catches me off guard, and Chase’s boyish face pops into my mind. He always hated the end of summer, because he had to stay while I went away.

Now he hates summer.

He hates me.

I don’t even know what I did wrong.

I also don’t care.

“You shouldn’t have agreed to an exact day,” Hunter tells me quietly.

“I know,” I say on a sigh. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t give me an exact time even if I have to let you read my messages for me.”

He frowns while glancing over to where his rental car is parked.

“Be careful with this, Mika. New friends aren’t always armed with good intentions, and he’s looking for more than friendship.”

Clearing my throat, I shake my head. “No worries. I’m not interested in that.”

“Because of a certain someone else?” he pries.

Turning my head away, I get in my car and try not to think about anything at all. My head is killing me.





Chapter 13


CHASE



“What are you doing?” I ask Mika, staring at her like she’s lost her mind.

“Putting two blue dots on this wall to match the two blue dots on the other wall. It’s driving me crazy.”

My eyes dart to the other wall to see two small dots there. Hmmm. I haven’t ever noticed them before. I don’t know how she handles my house if something like that drives her crazy. But she never says a word about anything in there, and it’s disgusting.

“What are the two blue dots for?”

“I don’t know. I think someone wrote on it with an ink pen or something. It took forever to match the color and then measure out the exact placement.” She leans back, and her entire body relaxes. “Done.”

She hates things out of order, and she hates things not in sync. It’s one of her quirks that drives her family crazy, but I like it about her. It keeps things interesting. It’s also the reason I can’t fathom how she tolerates my home when we have to go there.

“Why the hell wouldn’t you just paint white over the two blue dots instead?”

She gives me a look like I’ve sprouted a second head.

“Because there’s no way to match the white up exactly with the other white. Time has changed it. I’d have to paint the entire room, of course.”

Of course.

Smiling, I pull her to me, brushing my lips against hers.

“Thank you for not making fun of me for being weird,” she murmurs against my lips, letting me hold her to me.

“Thank you for being weird,” I tell her, loving the smile she gets.

“I just hate the feeling of things being unfinished. You know? It felt like those two dots were waiting on two other dots to join them.”

“Yeah,” I tell her, agreeing, even though I personally would have never noticed the marks. “I know.”



Getting out of my own head, I drop my arm around Whit’s shoulders, but she barely acknowledges the action. I can’t say I blame her for being mad. I’ve been an *. She sure as hell hasn’t deserved it. And I still haven’t touched her the way she wants to be touched since Mika came back into town.

That changes tonight. Hopefully.

I’ve moved on, after all.

I left Mika so she could be the f*cking princess she deserved to be. It’s not my fault she’s here now, but I can tell she doesn’t plan on staying. I can also tell—even if I was stupid enough to get sucked in again—that she doesn’t want anything at all to do with me.

The only thing that didn’t make sense was why she bought the bowling alley. At least until Whit finally said she asked Mika why she’d bought it on the first day she’d met her, and Mika said it was unfinished business or closure or something.

It makes sense. Mika can’t stand leaving anything unfinished, and we spent a lot of time planning out that bowling alley.

She came back to Hayden for closure. Maybe I need it too. We definitely don’t fit together. Never did. Mika writes murder/mystery; I ink skin all day. I love it. It’s exactly what I needed. I get to design and create, then I get trusted to permanently leave my mark on someone’s flesh. Mika tells the world stories.

She was supposed to heal the world.

Regardless, we don’t fit together now any better than we did then. I made the right decision by moving forward and giving her the freedom she deserved, not tethering her to my hell.

If anything, we’re more opposite than ever before. Whit is the right thing for me for right now, and I need to do better at being the right thing for her until this thing between us runs cold.