Page 43 of The Fantasy League
I hated when she said that, but only because I knew she was right.
Forcing myself off the couch, I walked upstairs to my office and stopped in front of the giant window that looked out across the street toward Scarlett’s pool house.
A few weeks after she started working for me, I was sitting at the desk in my office on a video call, which was rare, and noticed that I had the perfect view of Scarlett’s pool house. Whenever I was home in the mornings, I would watch her walk across the street to make sure she made it home safely.
We lived in a gated community but a crazy fan and a Jehovah’s Witness had slipped through the gates a time or two since I’d moved in. Making sure she was safe getting home—even if it was only a couple hundred yards—was the least I could do.
I zeroed in closer on the small apartment and noticed the windows were illuminated with light and her sedan was parked in the driveway.
I needed to see her.
And I was willing to make any excuses necessary to make that happen.
I jogged across the hall to the master bedroom and pulled out a sweatshirt from the dresser to throw on while I bounced down the steps. Grabbing the remote, I turned off the news reporter’s shrill voice and laced up my tennis shoes.
Stepping out the front door, I waited until I heard the lock settle into the latch before jogging down the steps and making my way across the street.
I knew there was a tropical storm, butfuck,the wind was ridiculous. I’d barely made it to the end of the driveway before it tried tackling me to the ground. And I was two hundred and fifty pounds of pure fucking muscle.
Why the hell was Scarlett staying in that tiny pool house in this kind of weather? Was she trying to blow the fuck away?
I rounded the corner to the backyard and quietly slipped through the gate, picking up my pace again when the pool house was in sight. Rain droplets splattered against my face as I pounded my fists on her front door. “Red, it’s me. Open up.” I was met with silence for a long minute and waited a few more seconds before pounding again. “Red!”
Just when I thought I was going to have to kick the door in, it swung open and I charged my way past Scarlett without being invited in. I was more than pissed off that she wasn’t taking this storm seriously and my stone-cold expression was a good tell of that.
“Red, you do realize there is a fucking tropical storm outside, don’t you? You can’t be staying in this measly fucking pool house that could blow over any minute! What are you thinking?” I scolded, watching as she ignored me and spun around and headed toward the kitchen instead, leaving me standing all alone in the entryway.
“Cheesecake?” she shouted down the hall at me. I barreled into the kitchen to find her cutting me a slice and placing it on a small dessert plate.
“You must not have heard me. It’s not safe to be in this pool house during a tropical storm. Go grab your stuff. We’re going back to my place.”
She looked at me with a growing smirk on her face. “One slice or two?”
“Tw— what? Red, have you not listened to anything I’ve said for the last five minutes?” My tone grew agitated at her lack of awareness. The pool house was maybe a thousand square feet, if that. It wasn’t safe for her to stay here by herself with the howling wind and rain pouring down.
Her knife glided into the white cake before she plopped a second triangular piece down onto the plate and handed it over to me. “I’m not leaving the pool house, but you’re welcome to stay over if you’d like. We can watch a movie or something,” she said firmly, not daring for a second to break eye contact so she could assert her dominance.
“Scarlett, please. I can’t have you being swept away in a fucking tropical storm while I’m sitting in my stormproof house a thousand yards away.” Her lips perked up for a third time before she pressed her lips together to stifle a laugh.
There was something she wasn’t telling me.
“Why do you keep making that face?” I asked her frankly as I brought the first forkful of salted caramel cheesecake to my mouth.
Scarlett looked at me with a giant grin. “Repeat what you just said a few seconds ago.”
“I can’t have you getting hurt in the storm?” I repeated my words back to her with an arched brow.
“No, no. The next part.”
“While I sit a thousand yards away in a stormproof house?”
I could tell she was holding back a laugh, but I still couldn’t figure out what was so fucking funny about me worrying she was going to get hurt.
She walked over to my side and threw an arm around my shoulder and gave me a small hug. My hands were too full with the fork and plate to hug her back. If the cheesecake wasn’t so damn delicious, I might’ve been more pissed about missing the chance to hold her.
Scarlett backed away but kept her arm resting around my shoulders. She gave me a smile so big her eyes scrunched. “I appreciate your concern. It’s really, really sweet actually… but you do realize that we live in the same neighborhood, right?”
I shot her a quizzical look. My mouth was too full of caramel-laced bliss to formulate words, so the look I gave her would have to speak on my behalf.
