Chapter 14 #2
He laughs, the sound of it echoing somewhere deep within me. Spreading out his arms, he walks back and turns his head to the left and then the right, demonstrating that there’s no one. And he isn’t wrong. There is nobody to be seen. Not a soul.
How is that possible? On a hot, sunny day like this? This place should be packed with people. But it’s just the two of us.
“What are we doin’ here?”
Wren furrows his brow in confusion and concern.
He steps toward me and bends down. I feel the droplets of water from his long hair land on my legs.
Ugh. Cold. “Did you get a sunburn or something?” As he puts the back of his hand against my forehead, I jerk.
It’s cold, too. “Come on, babe. Leave the trunks and hop in the water with me. The temperature’s perfect.
Almost as perfect as you,” Wren adds with a wink and starts walking toward the water, hips swaying flirtatiously to tempt me with his naked form.
Even a little lost and confused, I’m still mesmerized by his perfect, round ass.
Leaving my swimwear behind like he requested, I follow him in. He turns around and waits, studying me from head to toe before I sink to my chest and come up close.
Wren wraps his arms around my neck, rubbing gently against the spot where the venus gland is. I roll my hips into him almost subconsciously, breathing out shakily.
“How are you here?” I ask.
Wren smirks. “What do you mean? I’m always here.
Always with you.” Wren presses his finger against my left pec and slowly slides it down, pausing at my stomach, right above where my pubic hair begins.
“You wanted to come here, remember?” He’s about to move further and take me in his hand when a deafening ringing sound sends a jolt of pain through my skull and makes everything go white.
I open my eyes and swing myself up on the couch. Feeling all groggy and even more damn disoriented, I look around.
Turns out I fell asleep. Again. I was going to read something before—
The phone downstairs rings again.
Shit!
I hurry down the stairs. On the way to pick it up, I see my delivery guy, Isaiah, peeking into the window of the store.
He’s holding his cell to his ear, so it quickly becomes clear that it’s him who’s been trying to get in touch with me.
I ignore the ridiculous whisper of disappointment I feel at the realization that it wasn’t him.
“Sorry! Sorry,” I blurt out as soon as I unlock the door.
“Was fixin’ to worry you died in there or somethin’,” he says with an amused smile and immediately hands me the papers before heading to the back of his truck to unload the delivery. He’s always on top of it. Always on the move, never wasting a second.
“Sorry I kept you waiting,” I mutter as I rub my face. The words on the paper blur a little, but I scan it before scribbling my signature. Everything that should be there seems to match.
“It’s alright.”
I prop up the door and go help him carry the boxes in. Isaiah isn’t much of a talker. He hauls the delivery out of his truck faster than my still-sleepy self can deal with, but it’s fine.
Did I have that dream because we haven’t talked in a while? The last call must have been almost a month ago…
Not like it was my first dream of that sort, with Wren playing the leading role.
In the past two and a half months, I’ve had plenty of them.
I guess my heat is going to come soon. The one he triggered with his pheromones kind of messed up my regular schedule, like I expected, so I can’t be a hundred percent sure.
“Thanks, man,” I tell Isaiah when I notice he’s done stacking the boxes by the main door. He looks jittery, gives me a quick wave, and immediately heads for his truck to continue on his route.
I’m more tired than usual today. Then again, I haven’t exactly been feeling myself ever since Wren left.
The winter’s over. The endless snow that’s now associated with him in my mind is gone, and the spring is in its prime.
That means the forest is green and full of life.
Birds chirp outside. They build nests on that big pine behind the house, like they do every spring.
It also means there are more people comin’ to the store.
Not just the locals, but also plenty of tourists wanting to trek up the mountain.
Usually, I do well at this time of the year—being busy does me good—but in the past few weeks, all I’ve wanted to do is sleep and lounge around.
Maybe I need a multivitamin supplement. It has to be that. I’m missing just vitamins. Nothing else. No one else.
Because it would be silly, feeling this way only because I’m missing someone I have no right to want in the first place. Someone who was never mine to miss. From what he said on the phone, Wren seems to be doing well. And he thinks I’m doing the same. That’s all that matters.
After finally dragging the stock into the back room and filling up the shelves, I display the ‘open’ sign, and sit behind the counter with a sigh. Glancing down, I take the key hanging off my neck into my hand and absentmindedly play with it.
It would’ve been nice…at the lake.
My eyes feel heavy again, so I rest my elbows on the counter and put my head down.
Only for a moment…