Chapter 15
15
Grayson Hawk
“Are you sure you measured this?” I laugh when Scarlett glares at me.
“Yes, three times.” She huffs in annoyance.
“Did you measure it from edge to edge, or did you overlap and got corner to corner?” She pauses, looking out to the counter space and then the opposite side. I can tell she is lost in thought.
“From edge to edge,” she finally offers, but her furrowed brows and creased forehead tell me she’s not sure.
“Give me the tape measure.” I grab it from her and go from the inside of one space to the opposite side. Then I measure the pantry cabinet and find that it’s about a quarter of an inch too wide for the space. “Won’t work.”
“It will.” The only thing she is missing is the stomp of her foot to complete her pouting fit.
“How about I grab a beer and sit right over there. If it’ll fit, I’d love to see you make that quarter inch disappear.”
“Have I ever told you that I hate you?” She glares at me and I fight the urge to laugh.
“Every single time I tell you something that you don’t like to hear.” Turning around I grab myself a beer and then take one out for her too. Popping the top she sits down at the table and she joins me, scowling at the beer bottle like it is responsible for the wrong measurements of the cabinet.
“I don’t think I can return it.” She looks so sad.
“I’m sure you can find someone that can use it.”
“Do you need a pantry?”
“You know me, I barely have food in my place.” I take a drink of my beer. “It would end up holding junk that I need to hide in a hurry when someone knocks on my door.”
Scarlett laughs. “Like empty beer bottles and empty take-out containers.”
“Yep.” She knows me well. “And dirty socks.”
I’m not the best housekeeper.
We sit at her small kitchen table, drinking our beers, staring at the cabinets cocked sideways at an awkward angle in the middle of her kitchen.
“I really thought it would fit,” she says out of nowhere and I can’t hold back the laughter as it bubbles in my chest. Soon she joins me before we both grow quiet once again.
“Did your dad tell you that my father and Justin got into a fight?”
I sit forward resting my elbows on the table. “Like a fight fight, or a yelling match?”
“Dad threw a punch, Justin ducked.”
If there was one thing you didn’t do it was hurt Scarlett, in any way. Uncle Issac was lethal when it came to his daughter.
“Justin showed up when Dad was here fixing the front porch light.” She shrugged. “I’d hoped I’d be able to talk to him before he even knew Just was back in town. I guess I drug my feet too long.”
“How did it end?”
“Just refused to fight back.” She picked at the label on her beer bottle. “He told Dad that he wasn’t leaving, so he could expect him to fight him on it, but he was going to make things work. Whatever it took.”
“Have to give the guy points for determination.”
“He also told Dad that he loved me and never stopped.”
“I bet Unc’s ears were bright red too.”
“As red as tomatoes.” Truth be told it was hard for me to see Scarlett sad too. Now and when we were younger, I’d do shit I didn’t want just so she wouldn’t be upset.
“So how did things go on the cab ride home the other night?”
I knew it was only a matter of time before she decided to grill me.
“It was a peaceful ride, to which I walked Skye upstairs and watched as she entered her apartment safely. Then I retreated to my own and went to bed.” Scarlett watched me for a few seconds, like she was waiting for me to crack or something.
“You like her,” she declares.
“Excuse me?”
“You like Skye,” she repeats, staring at me with a strange look on her face. A wide smile and wide eyes to match. “You do.” She slaps the tabletop with her palm creating a loud plop. “You like her, like her.”
“Are you twelve?” I ask.
“I just never thought I would see the day.” She fakes shock. Shaking her head in disbelief. “Truthfully it’s like seeing a unicorn or a purple monkey that flies.”
“Give me that.” I reach out and take her beer, making her laugh. “I think you’ve been hitting the sauce already. You’re fucking drunk.”
When she starts chanting Grayson’s got a crush, I’ve heard enough.
Standing I walk to the sink and dump her beer as she spins in a circle still singsonging the words.
“Have fun with your cabinet,” I say on my way to the door.
As I open it and step outside, I hear her laughter echo down the hall. I knew she could call her dad and he’d help her, or even my dad. Right now I needed some distance because though Scarlett meant it all as a joke she had no idea how close her words were to the truth.
I hadn’t been able to shake my brunette neighbor with the gorgeous chocolate eyes and freckles. I’d spent every night since then wondering what she was doing.
Every time I was home and heard a door close, I’d go to my door and look through the peephole hoping to get a glance of her. It was all so unlike me. I didn’t wallow and I sure as hell didn’t yearn for any woman.
But here I am doing those things, longing for someone I barely knew but felt closer to than I had every felt to a woman before.
There was something in her eyes, a warm invitation of comfort. Skye wasn’t like the women I spent time with and I knew it was because Scarlett was right. Skye was not a one-night kind of girl, she was a forever.
A forever is something I told myself I would never give into.
Because forever is not a guarantee and a girl like Skye is one that if you lost her, it would leave a permanent scar.