Page 74 of Next in Line
I bite my lip, holding back the tiny sob that wants to tear out of my throat because I have been such an idiot. So blindly stupid that I hate myself at this moment. I open my mouth to pour my heart out, but the doorbell interrupts me.
I look at the front door with a frown. “Hey, someone is at the door, Mom. I better go get it.”
“Okay, honey. Call me later, though?”
“I will, Mom. Thanks for the talk.”
“Always, Maggie.”
I hang up and tighten the towel around my chest and pad over to the front door, expecting it to be some postal delivery, or maybe Kate and Miles forgot their key. When I open it and peek my head around so they can’t see I’m in nothing but a towel, my mind can’t even accept what’s on the other side.
Like, my eyes see it, but my mind doesn’t have any physical reaction to it. It just…blankly stares at it with no emotional response whatsoever.
“Baby,” Sterling’s husky voice says. Pushing the door open all the way, he blasts my nearly naked body with the frigid winter air. He steps inside and closes the door before turning around and eyeing me in my towel. He scoops me up into his arms, and as my feet dangle off the floor, I do everything I can to get my brain to wake up and respond. It’s like I’m having an out-of-body experience as I watch myself cringe while my ex-boyfriend hugs me in the foyer of my brother’s house.
When he sets me down, I look up at him to make sure it’s actually him. Tall, check. Dark, check. Handsome, check. Brown eyes that are just a touch beadier than I remember, check.
“Sterling?” I state his name like a question so I get a verbal confirmation that I’m not in the middle of a nervous breakdown and imagining the postman is my ex.
“Yes, baby. God, I’ve missed you. What are you wearing?”
I glance down at my towel, pulling out of his arms to tighten it around my chest. “I just got out of the shower.”
“It’s almost six o’ clock, baby. Why aren’t you dressed?” he asks, sliding his hands into his pockets and walking farther into the house, inspecting it with an air of entitlement to his posture.
I shake my head, the fog lingering longer than it should as I try to figure out why he keeps calling me baby. “Wait, why are you here? Don’t you have school?”
Sterling shrugs his broad shoulders. “School is pretty pointless for me right now since I know I’ll be drafted.” He smiles a cocky smile, and it feels bizarre. “I’m here because I missed you and I needed to see you.”
“Needed to see me?” I repeat, slowly blinking while my mind tries to wrap around the words he’s saying. “How did you know where Miles lived?”
“I called your parents,” he replies with a proud smirk.
I look down, still shaking my head in shock, and I see his jeans hanging over his shoes. Big, saggy jeans bunched over the top of a pair of expensive sneakers.
“Where’s your bedroom?” he asks, staring down at my towel and causing me to cinch it even tighter around me.
“My bedroom?” I stammer while goose bumps crawl over my skin.
He slides his coat off and tosses it on the nearby chair while stalking toward me. “I told you I missed you.” He reaches me and slides his hands into my wet hair, pulling me to him while I do my best to suppress the visible cringe taking over my face.
His body feels strange and foreign instead of warmth covering my body. It’s worse than a bucket of cold water dumped over my head. “So you came here for…sex?” I blurt out as I push him away.
“No,” he replies, having the sense to look slightly wounded. “But I certainly wouldn’t say no to a quickie if you were in the mood.”
I move out of his reach and shake my head firmly. “No, I’m not in the mood.”
Sterling frowns. “What’s your deal? I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“I am…I think,” I say quietly, trying to gain some clarity back. “I’m just trying to figure out what you’re doing here.”
Suddenly, I hear the garage door opening, and Sterling and I stare at each other while the voices of Miles and Kate waft up the stairs from the lower level garage.
“Meg, whose car is that outside?” Miles bellows and then strides into the foyer to see Sterling. “Oh hell, Sterling! I didn’t know you were here!” Miles reaches out and shakes Sterling’s hand, clapping him on the shoulder. “Megan, why didn’t you tell me Sterling was coming to Boulder?”
“I just found out,” I reply and force a smile as Kate enters the room and stares over at me cautiously.
“Hi there, Sterling,” she says a lot less enthusiastically than Miles.
