Page 62 of One Last Chance

Her sarcasm was so heavy it made me wince. Her dad missed it somehow.

“Glad you see it that way. I love you, Daisy. Goodnight.”

She didn’t answer. If he expected her to, he was stupider than he seemed. The part that bothered me most was that he’d sounded completely sober, which meant that he wasn’t going to pass out any time soon. I didn’t want to leave and have her think I stood her up, but I didn’t think it would do either of us any good to have me stuck out here for hours. Lady’s choice, I decided. I raised my hands and formed my bird call.

She swore under her breath and hurried to the window. “Kash?”

“Right here,” I said quietly. “Things aren’t going to plan, huh?”

She shook her head and sighed. “I guess he had an easy day at his new job. He’s all pensive and wanting to talk and shit. That’s the third time he’s cornered me tonight.”

I reached up and took her hand, unable to resist touching her when she stood so close. “So—what do you want to do?”

She cocked her head, listening. “He’s grabbing a beer now. There’s some big fight on tonight that he’s got a bet down on. As soon as it starts he’ll be glued to his chair. Think you can wait ten minutes?”

“For you, I could wait ten years,” I said.

She blinked at me. “Romance without sarcasm? Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend?”

I grinned at her. “You know what they say about absence and hearts and whatever. Blame it on sex deprivation.”

She giggled breathily, keeping her voice down. “Soon, my love. Stay there, I’ll be back.”

I waited with varying degrees of patience. Ten minutes seemed to stretch on forever. I heard her leave the room and come back, then settle onto her bed. Eventually, after about a million years, she came back to the window.

“I put some cinderblocks down there for you,” she whispered. “Be as quiet as you can, but don’t worry too much. The fight’s really loud.”

It wasn’t anything I hadn’t done before, but I was glad to have the cinderblocks. I was bigger than I used to be, but the window wasn’t. We discovered quickly that my shoulders were too broad to go straight through, and were quietly debating whether I should dive in like a swimmer or hoist myself up to go in diagonally. None of that seemed to work and I stepped back down, brainstorming how the hell I was going to make it into Daisy’s bed tonight. Determination is a hell of a thing, though. It was as prominent on Daisy’s face as it was on mine. She reached her hand through the window and I stepped on the cinderblocks again. A lot was set to go wrong, a man my size being tugged by a girl her size – I was halfway convinced that she’d be the one to end up outside the window and not me through it. God seemed to be on our side though, and with a few pulls and tugs I was between the walls of a room I’d entered so many times so many years ago. Not much had changed. The coloring on the walls, Daisy’s bed, the little bookshelf facing the back-wall, they were all the same. And so was the way my lips found Daisy’s.

I backed her against the bed only stopping when we were both horizontal, my body crushing hers with the weight of man and the weight of lust. Knowing that I didn’t have much time to waste and still nursing a boner that wanted nothing more than it wanted in her, I tugged my pants to my knees and hiked her dress up yonder. Daisy moaned a little, already wetter than the Pacific and oh, so ready for me. I breathed her in, pulling back to kiss her lips more tenderly before I eased myself inside of her. It didn’t get to that, though. I had my cock in my hand when I heard a sound. Pulling my boxers back up and struggling, but not waiting to get my jeans all the way up, I was off of her quicker than lightning and rushing toward the window.

Creaking behind me told me that I wasn’t just imagining shit. Her door was opening. I froze, one arm braced against the inner wall, one foot awkwardly hooked over the windowsill, head jammed at an awkward angle—in other words, completely incapable of making a break for it before the door opener saw just exactly what was going on in here.

Daisy made a valiant effort to hide me, but there was just no way. Her slim frame could either hide my head and foot or my arm, but certainly not both. As it was, she only succeeded in blocking my view just enough to make me suffer a few extra seconds of uncertainty. I was frozen, head twisted to look over my shoulder at the shit show that was about become my life. Not that my life wasn’t a shit show already. When the parent stepped all the way into the room I was able to breathe again. It was her mother.

She stared at me like a deer in the headlights. I stared back like a frog in a blender. Nobody said a word for an entire minute, then she turned to Daisy.

“Just came to say goodnight,” she said. “And to let you know that your dad really does feel bad about what happened.”

“Oh. Okay.” Daisy’s voice was as neutral as her mother’s and I started wondering just what I was getting myself into.

Her mother hugged her, made eye contact with me, and left the room as if nothing was out of the ordinary at all. I started to relax, thinking that maybe we’d just gotten the woman’s blessing. I threw that thought out as soon as Daisy turned around and gaped at me with wide, horrified eyes and a face whiter than paper.

“Go,” she hissed between her teeth. She grabbed my foot and started pushing this way and that, trying to help shove me through the window. “Hurry, before she says something to him!”

I couldn’t be quietandkeep my balance. If she hadn’t looked so scared, I would have chosen differently—those cinderblocks made better steps than cushion and I landed with a thud that woke every nerve in my body. I’m sure I chipped more than a few teeth as I bit down a scream. Fuck! That shit hurt. I wouldn’t sit right for a week. I jumped back up before Daisy had a chance to worry about me, and through the pain, I kissed her goodnight.

“I thought you said you had locks on your door.”

She shrugged and smiled weakly at me before turning to the door again. “Get out of here, Kash. Hurry.” I didn’t like it, but I would accept it for the moment. Soon, though, my patience would wear thin. Maybe I would just have to sit the old man down myself and have a heart-to-heart. He might have had his wife and daughter under some fear-bound spell, but not me. After all, as far as I was concerned, he was nothing more than a pile of drunken potatoes.

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