Chapter 34 Donovan #2
We got into my car, and I was on high alert.
My gut told me that Theo was most likely lurking around somewhere, because he would want to watch this all play out.
Sick fuck. I silently dared him to approach me.
Cops or not, he’d get his due. When she was safely tucked away in my car, we hit the road, and I was much more careful on the return trip.
“Gosh, it’s pouring out,” she commented with a sigh. “Do you think the inside of my house is going to get wet and ruined?”
“Nah. The porch covers those windows for the most part. And if it does, we figure it out.”
“I’d love to just get away right now, even just to prove to you that I’m not in this constant state of debauchery. Usually, I’m pretty fun. And although I’m sensitive and am more prone to cry than the average person, this is ridiculous, even for me.” She folded into the seat, worn down and quiet.
Did the universe really just bless me with this beach ball right here? “Are you serious about getting away?” I pried.
“Kind of. I’m not sure if it counts as getting away as much as running away, but at this point, I’m good with it.”
We pulled up into the driveway, and I turned to look at her.
“Audra, I’m going to New York on Wednesday.
It’s only for a couple of days. Thursday night, I’m going to a dinner with my family to celebrate my sister passing the bar on her first try, the one I got flowers for that day at the florist. Come with me.
Let the police do whatever it is they need to do.
We can arrange for the glass to be fixed while we are gone, and you can come back to it brand new.
He can’t reach us in New York. You can relax, it’ll be fun.
” Everything but dinner with my parents, I thought.
“I … I don’t know, Donovan,” she stammered.
“Come on, have you ever been?”
“No, but I mean, how much would a last-minute ticket cost? I’m sure I’m scheduled, so I will have to take more time off…”
I could hear the hesitation so I tried to curtain the excuses.
“I am taking our family jet, so it wouldn’t cost you anything.
Plus, I’m staying in a property I own, so again, no cost.” I planted the seed, and I was smart enough not to demand an answer at that moment.
The property was an old one-bedroom apartment in Mid-Manhattan that I bought when I turned eighteen, and I couldn’t let go of it.
It was my sanctuary, and I hid it from my parents at first. Though, now that I’m older and not so na?ve, sometimes I think maybe they knew about it and didn’t bother saying anything.
Sometimes I wondered exactly how much they knew about the shit I did and just didn’t care.
If I had lost my life due to my recklessness, I knew they wouldn’t feel the profound sadness one should feel after losing a child, but they sure as shit would play the sad parent card for eternity.
Even after all these years, I hated thinking about my parents.
“Let’s go in and you can debate yourself while we get ready for the night. ”
As we were walking into the kitchen, she spoke again, “I don’t know if I can sleep yet, I feel pretty wired,” she confessed. “Maybe I can go to the downstairs gym and just burn some nervous energy or something.”
I wanted to say I knew the perfect activity to burn some energy, with the added benefit of making her feel good. Hell, I was confident I’d not only make her forget about her night, she’d forget her damn name, but I refrained.
“How about a swim?” I settled on.
“It’s raining outside. And it’s chilly, I’ll freeze.”
“The rain is moot, you’ll be getting wet anyway. I already keep the temperature like bathwater, and I can pop it even hotter if you want. We won’t freeze. And if we do, we can just slip into the hot tub.”
“You have a hot tub? How did I not realize that last time?” she said, baffled.
I could feel the knowing smile spread across my face.
“I don’t know, Audra, how did you not? Were you thinking about something else?
” I teased and gave her a nudge. Redness crept all across her face.
It brought me great joy knowing she was thinking dirty thoughts about me when I was swimming. Great, immense, palpable joy.
“I have nothing to wear.”
“Rugby shorts and a shirt of mine sound good to me. Come on, Chaos, when’s the last time you swam in the rain?
Let’s get your mind off of everything tonight.
Be spontaneous with me.” I decided against dropping a skinny-dipping comment because I wasn’t a complete nitwit.
Only a couple of seconds passed before she shrugged and agreed. “Alright, let’s do it.”
Let’s do it, indeed, Audra King.
We changed our clothes, and I wore the suit that had her drooling last time while she rocked my rugby shorts and a little black tank top she had under her sweatshirt.
Those rugby shorts. Damn. I knew she caught me looking at her, and it was her turn to smile a knowing smile.
I just couldn’t keep my eyes off her; it didn’t matter what she was wearing.
“So, are we just going to run out?” she asked as she eyed the falling rain.
“No, don’t actually run. The ground could be slippery.”
“That’s very Batman of you,” she retorted.
“Well, running on wet stone is very chaotic of you,” I said back, and we both shared a laugh. “Ready?” I looked at Audra for confirmation.
All the hesitation about swimming was gone and replaced with anticipation and delight.
I couldn’t help myself. When I opened the door, I grabbed her hand and led her outside.
On the drive home, there had been sheets of rain, but that had subsided.
Now it was a normal spring rainfall, though admittedly, chilly on our skin as it hit us, though.
“It’s freezing, Donovan!” she yelped.
“Eyes on the prize, Audra!” I shouted back and kept moving to the pool that had billows of steam coming off of it.
We stopped right in front of the deep end, and I still had her hand.
She turned her body to mine and looked at me with her tongue resting on her lip.
It looked like she was either deep in thought or wanted to kiss me.
I let the breaths hang in the air to see what she would do, and I thought I was about to be rewarded when she leaned ever so slightly in.
In a flash, she tried to yank her hand away, jump behind me, and shove me with all the strength she had.
But I had her hand tight, so she heaved me with just one arm.
The surprise managed to get me off balance, and I tumbled, but because she wasn’t quite able to pull her hand away, she came with me, screeching on the way down.
We hit the water together and both emerged laughing.
“I can’t believe that after coming to get you tonight and offering you shelter, you’d do me dirty by pushing me in,” I joked.
“I’m just keeping you on your toes,” she giggled, but that set the flirty tone for our swim.
We waded and floated through the water for a little.
I grabbed us a couple of floats, but it didn’t exactly feel good to lie on top of one with the rain coming down.
So we kind of hid our bodies except for our heads as we waded around.
It very much reminded me of swimming in the rain as a kid.
Stubborn enough to want to do it, even though it probably wasn’t the greatest idea.
“Want to race?” came a question from the shallow end.
“You want to race me? Like in a swimming race?” I asked skeptically.
Audra didn’t know I competitively swam for over a decade and had found a great deal of success in it.
My parents and coaches pushed me to go for an Olympic bid, but I wasn’t willing to dedicate the time needed to achieve that.
Not only did I not care enough about it, but it had the added bonus of not giving my parents what they wanted.
“No, a cannonball race. Yes, a swimming race, you fool, not sure what other race we could do right now,” she replied sarcastically.
I love when she called me out on my questions like that. She was right. What other swimming race could there be? “Do you know I used to swim competitively?” I asked.
“Color me surprised, Donovan. You’re even built like a swimmer.
” She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, what haven’t you done?
Besides work on cars,” she laughed. “Actually, hold that thought. We can talk about what you haven’t done after I kick your ass at this.
” She had to know she had no chance against me, but she still wanted to have a go.
Tracing her features as she laughed, I realized I was the most awestruck I had ever been by a person in my life.
She was beaming, ready to compete, and had no concern for things like makeup or keeping any part dry.
I’d never known a woman like Audra. Droplets clung to her skin, and the soft lights cast a stunning glow across her face, while her wild, wet hair created a striking paradox.
She was the most beautiful chaos I’d ever seen.
If I couldn’t stop staring, she would win.
“Ok, let’s do it.” I conceded.
“And don’t go easy on me,” she demanded.
“Remember, you asked for this,” I said as we arranged ourselves at one end of the pool.
“Ready, set, GO!” she shouted and took off.
I gave her a couple of seconds’ head start, but the joke was on me.
This wasn’t just a little haha flirty race.
She was freaking good. It certainly wasn’t the easy victory I thought it would be; it was work to catch her.
I loved that she gave it an honest go and that she wasn’t far behind at all.
I thought about Pentathlon Day and how much fun we were going to have.
“Oh, did I not mention I also swam? Whoops,” she shrugged, and her head tilted back as a sound of delight spilled out of her.