Page 15 of Lake
“Uh.” I was, but I thought that I shouldn’t press my luck anymore for the day.
“There’s some leftover baked ziti. I’ll heat it up for you.”
He continued to walk and I just kept following like a lost puppy.
We went through a hall and turned a corner into a huge room that was like an open kitchen and eating area.
“Hey, Abigail,” Lake said and a woman turned around, abandoning the rag she was using to clean the counters.
“Oh, hey, Lake,” she said sweetly.
Was it me, or did her cheeks seem to get a tinge of pink to them?
I mean, I guess this Lake guy was kind of cute. In that young boy band kind of way. Okay, so like aruggedboy band. Whatever. I was tired and not making any sense at all. Honestly, he was only like two or three inches taller than me, which given that I was five-seven, didn’t make him all that short, I guess. But to me, he kind of was. And while his arms were defined, they weren’t all budging and veiny and giving me thattake me up against the wallvibe.
Now that I got a really good look at him, I noticed the splattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose. They were faint but stuck out against his slightly pale skin.
He cut his eyes over to me and his brows furrowed almost in a way that said ‘what the fuck are you staring at’ and that was when I saw what color they were. The outer rim was a deep blue, like a sapphire, that faded to a light gray the closer it closed in on his pupil.
Just as quickly as he had looked at me, he turned his attention back to the woman.
“You know you don’t—”
“Have to do that,” she finished for him with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “I know. But I really don’t mind.”
“Well, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. Oh, hi.” She sounded surprised like she’d just noticed me standing there. But then again it seemed like she was having a little bit of trouble giving Lake eye contact so maybe with me standing right next to him, she hadn’t.
“Hi,” I said as politely as I could muster at the moment.
So maybe I wasn’t the best with people. Truth was, I hated pleasantries and wasting time. I was a get-to-the-point kind of gal. I don’t give a shit about the weather or how your sick cat is doing. Just let me know when its dead so I can mark it off my Christmas list.
Wow.
Okay.
That was way too harsh, even for me.
Damn this night had me stressed out and grumpy. And maybe there was a little bit of fear there too. I did wake to a gun aimed at me not even like fifteen minutes ago. That wasn’t something you just shook off even if I handled the situation like a badass bitch.
Maybe the bitch part was still lingering around.
“Well, I’ll just get out of here,” she said picking up the abandoned rag and draping it over the edge of the sink. “Goodni— oh, my, God. What happened to your eye?”
I snorted because I just couldn’t help it. I leaned forward so I could get a look at the eye in question. I may have winced because it was all red and bloodshot and already starting to blacken.
“Oh, well, Bridget here—”
“Was about to get attacked by a snake. It was huge.” I held up my hands to help with the insane lie. “Lake here noticed and dove for the thing before it had a chance to strike. Unfortunately in the process, he smacked his pretty face on a rock. More like a boulder. Yeah. But he wrestled that snake and saved the day.”
I was never good at coming up with something on the spot like that. My imagination was shit when it came to that kind of thing and I knew there was no way anyone would believe the lies I had weaved. It seemed that I was only good at making up stories when I was alone and kept them in my head.
“O-oh, um, okay,” she said as her brows pulled together in confusion and she tilted her head a little to the side.
I looked over at Lake, who was wearing awhat the hell are you talking about?!expression. I shrugged. Hey, I was trying to help. I imagined that he probably wasn’t all that excited to share that it was a girl that had beat him up.
“Bridget punched me,” he said with a little shake of his head as he turned his attention back to Abigail.
