Chapter 16
sixteen
. . .
Fragile
Present Day
taven
Friday, 11:59pm
I’m nervous as hell for some unfathomable reason as I pull up in front of the hospital. Desiree and Melissa are standing on the curb, waiting for me. I step out and shuffle them both in my Bronco, and we chat out some pleasantries of the night, how the rain’s died down, how Melissa is going to promptly buy some lottery tickets because clearly, Desiree is on a streak. I drop Melissa off at their shitty motel with an offer to find her someplace nicer, but she waves me away.
“I’m a big girl, I’ll be fine,” she assures me. She says she’ll just stay the one night, then head out in the morning. It feels weird to abandon her like this, but my eagerness to get Desiree alone is stronger than my chivalry.
When we pull onto the highway, I glance over to her. She’s leaned against the doorframe, her eyes close, but I see her smile. “Are you watching me?” she asks.
I laugh. “No.”
She opens one eye and looks at me. “Don’t lie. Eyes on the road, Vin.”
I shake my head and keep focused on the road, wondering what the hell I’m doing. If I’m about to blow everything up or about to make everything I really want truly happen. I think about the times me and Desiree actually got things right , and try and dwell on that.
I’m not really on social media, only for my business, and from what I can tell, Desiree isn’t either. Maybe she has a fake name on there as a way to keep her personal and professional lives separate, but I’d never been successful in finding her. I wish I had. I wish I knew more about what her current day-to-day life was like. How did she fill her time? Did she still love to read? Did she travel? Or was she, like me, a slave to her work and her career?
All these things are questions I want to ask, but for now, I decide to let her rest. There will be time for that this weekend. I hope.
When we pull up to my garage, I open up the door closest to my house. She stretches her arms out and I hear her let out a whistle. “This all yours?” she asks, her eyes scanning the structure and the multiple doors of the garage, the building nearly the same size as my house.
“All mine,” I confirm.
“So you did, it, huh? Successfully living out your dream?”
I nod, pride swelling in my chest. Desiree was there when the dream was born. There when my actions threatened to wreck it. “I’m determined, if nothing else,” I say.
“Like your father.”
“Like both our fathers,” I add, then regret bringing up Frank Hatson. Bitterness fills me at the name, but I try and push it aside.
“So,” she says. “Is this your main car? This Bronco? Or do you drive all your cars around depending on the day? ”
I park and turn off the engine, turning toward her. The dim lights overhead frame out her silhouette, and I momentarily think I’m dreaming that she’s really here, in my car. In my garage, one of the places where I’m happiest. She’s wearing this tiny little top, cut low between her breasts. No bra. I want nothing more than to run my fingers down the slopes of skin and slip underneath the fabric. Feel the peak of her nipple and hear her whimper. Feel the way her womanly frame has filled out since the last time I was between her legs.
I try and shake away the image. She really does have the perfect name. I feel nothing but desire when I’m around her. “This is my favorite to drive,” I explain. Then I smile at her, eager to share this next vital piece of information. “Ask me the name of the color.”
Her lips pull into a smile, and I want so badly to lean over and kiss those lips. Instead, I reach for her hand and pull it to my mouth, kissing her knuckle with as much restraint as possible. She doesn’t stop me. Always so trusting of me, my Dazzle. I tell myself it’s a friendly kiss of her hand, nothing more. Her fingertips are cold, and when I pull her hand back from my lips, I put my other palm over top to warm her fingers.
“What’s the name of the color, Vin?” She twists and gives me her other hand to warm, slipping it in between mine. I cradle them both like they’re a baby bird I’m holding.
“Remember Inferno?” I ask.
Her blue eyes stare at me with amusement. “How could I forget?”
“Well,” I say, so happy that I finally get to actually share this little moment with her. Not gonna lie, I fantasized about having this conversation with her countless times since buying my Bronco. “When I got this car, I thought of you,” I explain. “And how you picked Inferno Red.”
“I loved that car.”
“It’s a couple down,” I say, nodding over her shoulder to the row of cars beside her. “Still have it, still love it. ”
“Really?” She twists her head over her shoulder, but my other cars are blocking the view. “That, I have to see.” She turns back to face me. “Tomorrow? A ride for old time’s sake?”
My cock twitches at hearing those words from her lips, and thinking of the fact that there will be a tomorrow with her at all. But I clear my throat and try and focus. “Absolutely. But first, I should tell you that you inspired me picking out this car, and its color.”
“Oh, yeah? How so?”
I kiss her hand one more time before reluctantly letting go. I unbuckle my seatbelt and grab my phone and wallet from the console. “Because, Dazzle. It’s called ‘Eruption Green.’”
“Eruption,” she repeats, dragging the word out in the most adorable attempt to be sexy I’ve ever heard, followed by a flush of her cheeks. She laughs, and the sound of her laughter has my chest warming. Such a familiar sound that I’ve missed. Her little chuckles that sound like chimes and make me want to bottle them up to hear forever. Fuck, I’ve missed her laugh.
But more importantly, I’ve missed her . And hearing her laugh has me feeling more confident that having her here with me for the next forty-eight hours is going to be alright.