Page 24 of The Right Garza
Lexi
Trent lied.
He doesn’t come back for me in two days. Neither does he answer my calls or texts. An entire week passes before I see him again. He calls me out of my sleep at the butt crack of dawn, and when I answer all groggy and grumpy, he tells me, “Chop, chop.”
After I’ve sluggishly dressed and packed up, I lug my bags from the house to the porch and find him out on the lawn adjusting one of the garden lights. I can’t understand how he manages to look so damn good this early in the morning. All fresh-faced, bronze-skinned handsome and shit. Dark denim, black tee stretched across those bulging muscles, and shit-kicker boots.
“There’s a camera in there, isn’t there?” I ask from the porch.
“Nope,” he says while shaking his head yes.
I swear, these men… “You’re creeps. The lot of you.”
He saunters up to the porch and picks up the bigger luggage, and his bicep makes brief contact with my left breast as he does. Just a slight, innocent brush. I tell myself that the faint tingle that darts through me at the contact is normal.
His scent lingers under my nose even as he descends the steps. He smells like sunrise and mischief, with a hint of expensive cologne. “Get-a-moving, Hellcat.”
Biting the inside of my cheek, I follow him with my suitcase. “Have I told you you’re an asshole,asshole?”
“A couple hundred times, yeah.”
While he loads the luggage into his jeep, I settle into the passenger seat and type up a text to Monica—who’s still asleep—to let her know I’m leaving. Mama will have left for the restaurant already and she never checks her messages, so I’ll have to video-call her later.
When Trent finally gets in behind the steering wheel, I say, “You know, it’s rude to wake someone up this early and not bring them coffee.”
He shrugs and fires up the engine. “I had some.”
“How does that help me?”
He pulls off from the curb. “Haven’t I helped you enough?”
“Oh. My. God. You are such a—”
“Asshole?”
See?“No, I was gonna saycockroach.”
“Am I at least the kind the flies?”
“No. And I wish I could flick you onto your back and leave you there to suffer.”
“Hm.” Unphased, he shrugs again. “They always survive. Resilient, those fuckers.”
“You said you’d be back in two days,” I say. “Where were you?”
“I figured you’d need a little more time to rest after being sojet-laggedand all.”
I should have known he’d use that against me. “Seriously? They’remyfamily, I can lie to them all I want. What do you care if I fibbed a little?”
“Do you feel rested? Refreshed? Connected with everyone?”
“Yes, bu—”
“Good.”
“There’s nothing here for you tofix, Trent,” I say, annoyed. “Just tell me what I need to do to pay you back and get out from under you. That’s all.”
He makes a strange noise in his throat. “Lexi, if I ever manage to get you under me, all exits will be sealed. No way out.”
