Page 67 of The Heiress
“I haven’t seenyouaround,” she bounced straight back at me.
It flummoxed me. She was the one who was avoiding me—not the other way around! This time my allegation was intentional. “You basically ignored me in class.”
“No, I didn’t,” she said. “You were busy talking with Max and I didn’t want to interrupt your conversation.”
I frowned, pretty sure I hadn’t been talking to Max, but it was possible he was talking to me—the boywasmy shadow. I took in a gulp of air, hands tightly clutching the basket as if it was about to fall. “Hey, I’m sorry then, because Idefinitelywasn’t ignoring you.”
The beat of my heart accelerated again as she tilted her head, her lips curling upward. Lips so close, tempting me—reminding me of the pool.
“Are we going to hit some balls or not?” the young boy piped up, thrusting my racket in front of me.
“Yeah, sure,” I muttered, annoyed at having to take my gaze away from Elisha’s beautiful eyes. “Uh, what’s your name? Have you played before?”
“Gregory. Yes, I had lessons last year.”
“Okay Gregory,” I said, “you run down the other end and I’ll set up the basket for some forehands.”
“I can carry the basket for you,” Elisha said, her hands covering mine before I had a chance to protest.
I wouldn’t have protested anyway, the touch of her skin enough to send me spiraling into another realm. I tucked my racket under my arm and followed her to the service line where she set it down.
“Thanks.” I wasn’t sure I was breathing.
“You’re welcome,” she said, but she didn’t move, didn’t make an attempt to go down to the other end where Gregory was standing on the baseline waiting for me to toss him a ball.
“Uh, I thought...” Elisha’s dark brown eyes pierced mine, a gaze that hit me straight in the heart. “I thought that because you were gone the next morning and you didn’t come back...” Her words faded into an audition for ventriloquy. “I didn’t want to complicate things for you.” Someone must’ve switched off my brain, because there was the distinct inability to process her words, all a blur.
“I didn’t want to ruin things for you Phoenix,” she whispered more urgently.
Okay, that snapped me back to reality. “Ruin things for me?”
“Yeah, being associated with me at school.” She dropped her head and spoke to her sneakers. “I don’t exactly have a stellar reputation.”
I scratched and shook my head at the same time, quick to contradict her. “No, whenyou left early to go back to school, I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me. That I was too... broken.” I gestured down, waving my hand across my repaired pelvis, which included all the issues that came along with it.
“I’m ready!” Gregory’s impatient voice resounded down the court.
“Okay. Here we go,” I called out.
Elisha plucked a ball from the basket and placed it in my hand, her fingers lingering on mine before releasing it with a small smile.
“Thank you,” I said, setting up to hit the ball to Gregory, who swung and missed.
Elisha had dashed around the side of the net, but she was looking over to Taylor who stopped her coaching to give her a thumbs up. I called Gregory to the net to check his racket grip.
After using all the balls, Gregory was given the ball tube to pick up balls, while Elisha collected them on her racket. Taylor was quick to come over, asking how things were going.
“I thought we might do a group game now,” she said.
“Why did you give Elisha the thumbs up?” I asked.
Taylor batted her eyelashes and feigned deafness. “What?”
“You gave her the thumbs up,” I reminded her. “Just before.”
“I was making sure everything was all right,” she said defensively.
“Really?” I challenged, lowering my head so we were eye to eye.
