Page 113 of Reckless
As he pulls away, I toss my empty coffee cup in through his front window. Just to be petty.
Then I stand there, arms crossed over my chest, watching him gun it to the end of the street. He rolls through the stop sign like the rules don’t apply to him. His license plate readsDRHEARTand I grimace at the sight.
Solame.
“Did you throw a piece of garbage into his car?” Winter shouts on a laugh from the front porch.
“Just putting it in the trash, Tink!” I turn, swiping the envelope off the grass boulevard, and grin at her. She has Vivi slung on her hip. Blonde hair pulled back in a loose braid, little wisps sneaking out to frame her face like a halo.
The face I spend an inordinate amount of time staring at because I can never get enough.
“So, now you’ve met Rob...” she utters.
“Yes. Such a pleasure.”
Truthfully, I hate him more than he deserves. What I want to feel is indifferent. But I’m not there yet.
I hate him because he almost had all of this instead of me, and the circumstances that led me here still feel so fraught and fragile. I’m not an insecure person, but now and then a thought pops up. A thought like...
Without Vivi, would Winter be interested in me?
I do well, but I don’t drive a McLaren or own a massive McMansion and I didn’t go to university.
But I brush those thoughts off. This is new. These feelings are normal. Plus, I’m the one walking up the front sidewalk to the woman who’s been stuck in my head for almost two years.
“I can’t believe you married a guy with a personalized license plate. That might be the worst part of it all.”
“He thought it was so witty.”
“I can think of a lot of words for him, but after that exchange, witty is not one of them.”
“Sorry.” Winter nibbles at her bottom lip as I take a couple of stairs at a time to stand before her.
“Winter, apologize for him again, and I’ll take you over my knee.”
Her eyes widen, and I reach for Vivi. I need a hug after the last few hours and something about a squishy baby just hits different. The way she rakes her fingers through my stubble. The way she smells. The way she babbles away at me like I understand her happy little nonsense language.
“I thought he’d have given up by now. He did this to Summer too.”
Cupping the back of Winter’s head, I press a rough kiss to her forehead, brushing my stubble against her temple as I tug her into me.
The three of us.
Just because I can.
“Well, what happened when he got reported for all that? I mean, Summer was his patient. A minor.”
She stills. “I never reported him.”
I draw away. “What?”
Winter sighs, and it’s a heavy, exhausted sigh. “I was going to, but he trapped me in a place where I can’t, and he knows it.”
“Why can’t you?”
Vivi fusses, getting sick of being carried. She wants to crawl and cruise and climb and channel her inner daredevil. So, I bounce on the spot, hoping that entertains her.
“Because if I do, it will drag Summer into it. That’s what’s always held me back. She’s finally happy. Finally free of all that shit. And I don’t want to do that to her. He knows I won’t. That’s the only reason he feels secure enough to keep showing up here.”
