Page 19 of I'm Yours

“Just not feeling great. I think I got too hot earlier. Maybe I’m getting my period.”

She nods, accepting that excuse. Kandace was the first person to sign up for my pole class. Her two daughters have been dancing with LDS since before I took over, she’s one of my best friends, and was my first employee. She knows everything about me, except the part where Reed is involved.

“Go home and take some Advil. You know after this week you won’t get much time to do that and I can take the next class.”

I’m tempted to turn her down, but she’s right. Once regular classes start up next week, my life will be much busier. During the summer months, we have some classes but they’re mostly adult classes with one Mommy and Me yoga class and a tumbling class a lot of the girls enjoy. But also, after Reed was here, I need time to think and decompress. I pretended to be calm, but the entire time he was standing in front of me, I was having an inner freak-out. I wanted to run into his arms and at the same time out the back door. My hands were shaking and I seriously considered throwing up.

When I last saw him up close, he was a boy. Eighteen years old, he had yet to grow into his body. But now he has. When I saw him at his wedding, I didn’t get a close enough look and I was too worried about being caught so I didn’t allow myself to pay attention to the details that would have changed about him.

I had a hard time tearing my eyes away from the way his black t-shirt clung tight to his biceps. He was a strong guy before, but now he’s ripped with muscles on top of muscles. Reed always kept his face clean of facial hair but now he’s sporting a scruffy beard. And tattoos. Lots and lots of tattoos. Goodness, his tattoos. The only thing that stayed the same was his jet-black hair cut short. Man. That’s what Reed is now. A strong, sexy, gorgeous, tattooed, sexy-as-sin man. And a daddy. Reed’s a daddy, and I have no idea why, but that makes him even sexier.

“You sure? Don’t you want to go home while you have the house to yourself?”

“Nah. I’ll just miss the girls if I do. Erica was too excited to go to school this morning for my liking. I don’t think she’ll miss me one bit. She kept talking about her new friend and how she couldn’t wait to see her again.”

I start changing my clothes, not embarrassed to do so in front of Kandace. “Oh, yeah? That’s good, though, right? Wouldn’t you rather she be ready?”

“It’d be nice if she missed me a little,” she grumbles and I grin.

I sit down to remove my shoes and place them aside, flexing my toes and massaging my feet. Once I’m dressed, I slide my feet into a pair of flip-flops and sling my cross-body bag over my shoulder.

After hugging Kandace goodbye, I make a quick escape. Once in my car, I drive. No real destination in mind. I pick up my phone and call Lindsay, figuring she’d need a warning before her son called her on his own.

She picks up on the first ring and by the sound of her voice, I’d say she already knows.

“I should have told him,” she tells me once we’ve greeted each other.

I wince, hoping that she’s not upset with me, though I have nothing to apologize for. “He told you not to. It’s not your fault,” I remind her.

She’s silent for a few beats, probably not entirely believing my words. “Are you okay?”

“I will be. It was a surprise, even though it wasn’t entirely. At least I knew he was back. It was pretty clear he had no idea I still lived here in Lakeside.”

“I’m sure it was quite the surprise.” She laughs and I wonder what Reed told her.

“This is ridiculous. We knew each other once upon a time. We’re surely old enough to move past this, right?” I don’t know if I’m trying to convince her or myself.

“Move past what, hon?”

I flip my blinker on and turn right, turning down a road that I haven’t ventured down since the last time I was here with Reed. “You know what, don’t play dumb.”

“Are you calling me dumb?” she jokes.

I sigh. “Honestly, Lindsay, I’ll be fine. I was surprised to see him, but we’ve gotten it out of the way and now we can both move forward. Move on, right? I mean, it was a million years ago. He fell in love, he has a daughter, we’re not the same people we were then.” I wonder if she hears the doubt in my voice. In twelve years, I didn’t move on. Why would I think I would now that he’s home?

“Right,” she says, unconvinced.

I go down the road that leads to the last place I felt truly at peace and happy.

Only to see I’m not alone.

“Um, Lindsay? I think I’ll need to call you later.”

“That’s fine. I need to take care of some gardening anyway. Let’s do lunch next week.”

“Sounds good.” I toss my phone on the passenger seat and stare at the surly man staring back at me, arms crossed over his muscled chest and a scowl marring his gorgeous face. “Shit,” I mutter to myself and take a deep breath, open my car door, and step out.

It doesn’t take me but a second to realize where I’m standing, where he’s standing, and what happened here twelve years ago.

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