Page 13 of Worth the Risk
“Oh? Oh, what?” She chuckles softly.
“You are still into him.” My face screws up on it’s own.
“Sam? I think I was already over him when everything went down last night.”
“Not Sam, Winnie.” Oh,that him.
“Then who?” I know exactly who she’s referring to, but I don’t want to admit it. It’s been a long road to recovery and one slip may have me back under the spell that is Rhett Holloway.
“Fine. We won’t talk about it.”
“There’s nothing to talk about, Mare.” I look down at my shirt. “Uhg, hold on. I’m a mess.” I have various baking ingredients all over me so as I’m passing through the kitchen on my way to the laundry room I tap the speaker icon and set my phone down and pull my shirt over my head.
“Just know whenever you want to talk about it, I’m here. No judgment,” she offers. I lean back against the sink and contemplate telling her how terrible it was that it wasn’t terrible to see him. How when he put his hand to my cheek, my stomach flipped like there was a full on cirque du soleil performance going on in there.
“I know you are. Thank you and I love you. It’d been a long time and regardless of if I’m over him or not, I’m sure he’s moved on from me. I’ve seen it.” I hear a beeping and shuffling.
“My pager just went off, I have to go, but I’ll see you tomorrow at the festival! Make sure you hydrate! Night, Win. Please text me or call if you need me.”
“I will. Thanks for the reminder. Night, Mare. Go be a badass!” I can hear the smirk in her voice when she replies.
“When am I not?” I laugh and tap my screen. I turn and decide I probably should hydrate. I’m not good at remembering to drink enough water during the day. I always end up drinkingso much at night that I have to get out of bed at night to pee. I reach for a glass on one of my open shelves that I installed myself.
Only when I’m reaching for my glass, I notice that there’s a light on in the house across the way. Huh, someone must have left it on when they showed it today. I feel my head cock to the side. I squint my eyes to get a better look and rear back when I realize there’s someone standing at the window. I shriek and drop to my kitchen floor. The cold floor reminds me that I’m still shirtless and chose to wear a black lacy bralette this morning, because I need to do laundry. Whoever is over there just got a free show tonight. I lay on the floor for a few minutes and cover my face with my hands, mortified.
I’m not one to be ashamed of my body or shy away from a bit of skin, but for all I know the little old man moving in next door now thinks his neighbor is a lady of the night, trying to seduce him away from his wife. I laugh a little at how ridiculous that sounds and feel a little better. They probably couldn’t see very clearly anyway.
On the other hand, if they did happen to see me, I don’t think I can stand up. What if that’s my new neighbor? On the off chance they are still standing there, I slowly crawl on my hands and knees into my laundry room. I’m just clear of the kitchen windows when I hear my doorbell.No.I whine. Surely this is not the person that just saw me shirtless. Do I have to answer? My doorbell chimes for the second time.Again?I throw on the first thing I find—a faded old comfort sweatshirt. I stand and stumble through the house to the front window to see who’s ringing my doorbell, praying it’s not the person that just got the free show.
I’m walking around my new house. It’s everything I was looking for when I thought about settling in here. The massive staircase. Tall ceilings. Large kitchen. Four bedrooms and an office. An enclosed sunroom out back. The yard is amazing, with a patio for having friends and family over. It needs some updating but I want to keep the integrity intact.
I look out the big window in the living room and see Winnie. She looks adorable. Messy. It makes me smile. She must be walking home from work. My family mentioned she lived close by. I feel a little like a stalker as I walk through the house to keep her in frame. I’m surprised when I see her open the gate and walk into the cottage right next door. I knew we would be living on the same street but I had no idea she would be this close. I feel my lips turn up.We’re neighbors.
I take the stairs up two at a time remembering to grab my keys I left on the bathroom counter. The rest of my things shouldbe here Sunday, which is probably when Winnie will find out I’m living next door. I wonder how she’ll react. While I’ve been thinking about her over the years, she could have been forgetting everything we shared all those years ago. That thought is foreign to me. There’s absolutely no way I could forget anything about her. I smile thinking about the summer I had no idea would be my undoing.
It was just two weeks after I turned 25. I had just been drafted into the NHL. In three months, I would be moving to Seattle to start my hockey career. Before my life got too busy, I was home visiting for the summer and we were celebrating with a camping trip up in the mountains. It was supposed to be a small group of us but with Colt involved things got out of control pretty quickly.
More people were still showing up to our campsite and there was too much beer floating around. I had plenty of other people to focus on, but there was only one person I could be bothered to look at. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t the only one looking. Winnie had always been beautiful. That was just a fact that existed in the world. Like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. There was gravity and Winnie was beautiful.
I watched as she flitted from boy to boy most of the night, smiling sweetly, but politely declining drinks. If you didn’t know her you would think she was having a good time—I knew different. I could tell by the tightness in her shoulders and the way she kept touching her right temple that she was getting anxious, yet it still drove me crazy she was willing to give her attention to everyone but me. Against my better judgment, I was about to go ask if she wanted to take a walk when I saw her excuse herself from one of the drunk idiots hanging all over her and head towards the lake. Following her was a bad idea. I wasn’t always full of good ones.
I told myself that trailing after her was just to make sure no one else did, but that excuse was flimsy at best. The truth was I wanted to be near her. To talk to her. I had missed her while I was away at school, no one makes me laugh the way she does. I watch her climb over a large rock at the waters edge and let her feet dip into the lake. Watch her visibly relax under the moon. She tilts her head back and her hair falls down her back. I’ve never wished to be anything other than what I am but I wished I were an artist so I could paint her in this moment and have it forever. I take a step forward, not sure what to say and hear a branch snap under my foot. She whips her head around and stares at me with wide eyes that turn threatening when she sees it’s me. She looks so vicious I can’t help the nickname that comes out.
“Hey, honeybee.” She rolls those pretty melted honey eyes and my lips twitch.
“Rhett? What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be back at the bonfire with your adoring fans?” I can’t hide my smile now. She must have really needed to some alone time. She’s snapping at me. I decide to swat back at her.
“Jealous, honeybee?” I’ve caught her staring at me plenty of times over the years. She backed off when she got a boyfriend at 17. I wanted to tell him to get lost but that wasn’t really fair of me if I wasn’t planning to do anything about it. Tonight though, I felt differently. She gives me a flat look but I think I see her tense a little before I go on. “I figured I would let Colt have a turn. He’s not one to get jealous, but he did invite most of the people here.” She snorts.
“How very generous of you.” My smile widens after she turns her head back to the lake. Not giving me a second glance. I’m moving toward her then, helpless to the pull.
“So what are you doing out here alone? Where’s Marigold?” I ask her as I settle beside her on the flat rock she’s camped on. She sighs before answering me.
“It’s just really loud—and I don’t know more people than I do.” I study her profile, the freckles across her upturned nose are barely visible in the moonlight.
“It is really loud, I guess it doesn’t bother me as much since I’m in used to-…”
“If you say‘your screaming fans’,Rhett Holloway…” She cuts me off with the threat, her finger pointed at my chest. The look on her face is serious but I can see the shine in her eyes and even though I’ve looked at her all night, having her face this close to mine has my chest warming. I grab her hand and pull her closer. Her breath catches. The part of my brain that makes decisions is impaired and it’s not from the alcohol.
