Page 15 of Entirely Yours
I watch, mesmerized as Thea moves across the floor. Her motions so fluid, I can tell she was born to do this. Her long leg comes up in some sort of kick turn thing, and that’s when she sees me. She freezes, her tentative stare taking me in.
The world stops spinning as we stare at each other. I smile and raise my hand to the window. For a moment she looks back and forth between my face and my hand pressed up against the glass. Finally, she takes a few steps forward and puts her hand up to meet mine.
“You found me,” she says, her voice muffled by the window pane between us.
I’ll always find you,I think.
“Can I come in?” I ask instead.
In answer, Thea removes her hand and my heart drops…until I realize she’s unlocking the studio door to let me in.
“How did you know where I was?” she asks, slightly out of breath from dancing. Or maybe for the same reason I’m having trouble breathing.
I run my hands through my hair until they are resting on the back of my neck, noticing how Thea gives me an approving once over. Which may or may not make me flex just a little before I answer.
“I heard you met my brothers,” I reply.
Her arms cross over her chest—her tights and leotard leaving very little to my imagination—and she sticks her hip out in defiance. “You didn’t tell me you have atwinbrother.”
“You didn’t tell me you have a daughter,” I counter, dropping my hands.
She immediately deflates as if someone has told her thathaving Chloe is a fatal flaw, some blemish on her reputation making her undateable, which makesmewant to throttle whoever made her feel that way.
“She stole the roses I bought for you,” I continue.
“Fickle things,” she mutters, echoing the words she said that first night we met. “Look, if you came here to give me the whole speech about how we can put our night together in the past and move forward as neighborly citizens, I don’t need to hear it. I know it was only supposed to be a one night thing and it’s… inconvenient that I just happened to move here the very next week, but that doesn’t have to mean anything?—”
Interrupting her little rant I tell her, “I think it means everything.”
“You—what?” This is obviously not the direction she thought I was going to take. “I assumed since I hadn’t heard from you...”
Now it’s my turn to be confused. “I got here as fast as I could. I would have come before school this morning—actually I would have come by last night but everyone told me to calm down.”
“I put two and two together on Friday night when I came by the studio and saw the coffee shop logo. It looked suspiciously like the T-shirt you let me borrow?—”
“The T-shirt you stole.” I smirk.
“—I asked Ben if he knew you, and I figured he’d call you right after that to tell you I was in town. When I didn’t hear from you Saturday or yesterday, I assumed that meant you didn’t want to see me. Some people have been like that when they find out about Chloe…” She trails off.
“Chloe is fucking adorable, and anyone who thinks otherwise is an asshole.”
I get a real grin at that. “She is adorable. Feisty, too.”
“Reminds me of someone else I know.” I eye her, knowingly, and then take a careful step toward her, dying to be as close to her as I can be.
She takes a step back, but the teasing glint in her eye tells me that I can keep going. I prowl toward her until her back hits thewall, the broken ballet barre tilting precariously behind her. Leaning in, I allow myself to get as close as I can without actually touching her.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I whisper, barely brushing her lips. “You were gone when I woke up.”
My hand comes up to her hip—because I can’t fucking help myself—tracing the path where her jeans sat a week ago.
“I tend to get a little skittish,” she breathes.
I take a sudden step back, immediately missing her warmth. “I can go slow.”
My movement sends her off balance, and her hand shoots out to steady herself on the barre behind her. Instead of helping, however, the barre comes entirely off the wall, a rusted nail catching Thea in the palm of her hand. “Ow, fuck!” she wails.
And that’s when I see the blood.
