Page 154 of Skate the Line

Forty-Five

SUNNY

Using my fingers,I blend the two paints together on the canvas to create a one-of-a-kind color.

It isn’t until I’m done that I realize the luscious forest color reminds me of something other than the pine trees I’ve used as a filler for the background.

Damn Rhodes and his flirty green eyes.

I can’t get them out of my head.

Frustration backs every swipe of my paintbrush.

My pulse speeds with each thought circling. There’s something about his presence that gets me all twisted on the inside.

I grab my phone and swipe his name away.

Instead, I text Ruby.

Me: I’m dead serious when I say this…but I think my body is trying to make up for my abstinence.

My finger hovers over Rhodes’s name in my messages.

I did the same thing last night.

I debated texting him until I convinced myself that it was okay to message him because it was about Ellie. Plus, it was a lot easier to do so with him in a different state. Tonight, though, he’s just a few rooms away. It’s much riskier.

My phone vibrates, and I nearly drop it.

I roll my eyes after reading Ruby’s message.

Ruby: HAHAHAHAHA

Me: Unhelpful.

Ruby: Go get some d, bestie. You deserve it.

I snort.

If only she knew I was semi-fooling around with the father of the girl I’m nannying thatshebegged me to move to Chicago for.

Before things turned sour, Ruby might have been more on board with the idea. She has always been the wild one of our duo. But after watching what I went through, I’m not so sure she’d be encouraging this.

I need a true fuck buddy. Someone I can turn to when I need to release some sexual tension, and then we go our separate ways.

It can’t be like that with Rhodes, despite his promise of keeping thingsphysical.

I have to be around him all the time.

We live in the same house!

It’s fine.

I shush my subconscious.

It is not fine.

In an attempt to calm my racing thoughts, I get ready for bed.

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