Page 23 of The Pieces We've Lost

“Basketball. I played all throughout middle school and high school. I don’t play anymore, obviously, with coming back to help my mom, but it was fun at the time. I was always a little bit too competitive, though.” Her face turned slightly pink at the confession. I could definitely see how she would be competitive. She had a type of fire and determination in her.

“My parents tried to get me to play basketball when I was younger. I was horrible at it.” I cringed at the memory of me trying to shoot hoops.

“Now, I’d pay to see that.” She looked away as she bit the bottom corner of her lips, presumably holding back a giggle.

“By chance, could I get your number?” I asked as we got up to leave. Even after a short conversation talking about stupid things like pie, I knew I wanted her in my life.

“I’m not giving you my number, Sparky,” she replied, and my heart dropped. Before I could say anything else to ease the blow of the rejection, she stopped me. “I won’t give you my number, but you can give me yours. That way I’ll get to be the one to decide if texting you is worth my time.”

This girl. She was keeping me on my toes.

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Here.” I listed off the numbers for her to put into her phone. There was a chance she was bullshitting me and wasn’t actually writing down my number. But I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Can I walk you to your car?” I asked her.

She thought about it for a moment and then nodded. I let her walk in front of me until we were close to the door. Then I slightly stepped around her to reach for the door and open it for her.

“After you.” I gestured for her to go ahead.

“Thank you.” She looked at me, possibly a little surprised.

We walked outside, and she started heading in the direction of the crosswalk. Before she got too far ahead of me, I moved onto the street side of the sidewalk, so she was on the inside. She gave me another confused look, and I just shrugged. It was the chivalrous thing to do. You never let a woman walk on the side closer to the street.

The light at the crosswalk was still red when we got there, so we had to wait. We hadn’t said a word since we left the coffee shop, and I wondered what was holding her back. How one moment her face could light up with excitement and the next she was reserved with her emotions locked up. I didn’t think she was shy either.

“Thank you for inviting me,” she finally spoke up.

“Thank you for coming. Seriously, I really enjoyedgetting to talk to you, and I hope this time I made a better impression.” I smiled, and she smiled back. At least we had reached a mutual agreement that the conversation went better this time.

The crosswalk signal turned into the walk symbol, so we hurried across the street to the parking lot where her car was.

“Well, this was nice.” She unlocked her car. “I guess I’ll see you around?” She didn’t sound one hundred percent confident, but at least she wasn’t ruling out the possibility.

“Yeah, Ellison, I’ll see you around.” I waved as she got in her car and closed the door. The engine roared to life as I was walking away, and I glanced over my shoulder just as she pulled out of the parking lot and drove away, leaving me wondering if I would hear from her or never see her again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

ellison

Idrove away from Colter and the coffee shop with a whirlwind of thoughts going through my mind. Why did I tell him I would see him around? That was my first mistake because now he’d probably be expecting me to text him, and if I didn’t he’d be upset and—ugh.Since when did I care so much about the feelings of a cowboy?

You literally never have.

So why was this one any different?

This one actually spoke to you like you were a human being and not a trophy. He didn’t pressure you to talk about anything you weren’t comfortable with, but he didn’t give up on trying to get to know you either.My heart was telling me to take a chance on Colter. My brain wasn’t sure what to do.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.This was the last thing I needed right now. I took a deep breath.Think, Ellison, think.How could I get myself out of this mess? Feelings were messy. There was absolutely no way I was even thinking about catching feelings for Colter Carson.

It didn’t matter that he cared about my interests and asked me questions that made absolutely no sense but also made mefeel lighter, happier. That, even for a moment, he made me forget about the world around me and my internal struggles.

It didn’t fucking matter. We could never work. A cowboy like Colter and a woman like me were like oil and water. Fire and gasoline. You didn’t dare mix them, lest you wanted something disastrous to happen. We were twin flames, threatening to consume one another until we eventually burned each other out.

When I got home, I immediately texted Isa.

SOS

Isa

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