Chapter 6 Elizabeth
elizabeth
Valentine’s Day was right around the corner, and it felt like Moonlit Pines had exploded with pinks and reds and glitter.
Every store window was over-the-top decorated and ready for the holiday.
The town had gone crazy this season with endless events, from bachelor auctions to bachelorette picnic baskets and even some speed dating event at the ski resort, one Jackie had tried to talk me into.
I glanced over my shoulder and rolled my eyes.
There he was.
Again.
Austin Hart. My stalker.
I shook my head and gulped at my water. I’d just gone on a run.
My daily run. One with Austin behind me.
He never approached. He never looked in my direction.
Part of me wondered if I was being a little too full of myself.
People ran all the time through town and the park in the middle of the center.
Maybe it was just a coincidence?
I highly doubted it, though.
It’d been a week since he’d carried me home from the brewery.
A whole week. I shoved my water bottle into my backpack and made my way down to Pine and Grind.
I hated paying for coffee, but it had sort of become my new habit these last few days.
After ordering a matcha and listening to Austin order one, too, I sat outside in the patio area of the little coffee shop and drank water.
I pulled out the blue suede journal and tapped the black pen right on it.
Not that I actually dove right in to write.
How could I when Austin sat outside at the far end of the patio, extending his long legs in a way that made him look like he had nowhere else to be and wasn’t in a hurry to get going?
He definitely had the whole holding still thing down pat.
Why couldn’t I just go talk to him? Because you keep dreaming all sorts of weird dirty things about him, a little voice inside my head reminded. My cheeks heated up. I wasn’t a blushing virgin even if my sisters liked to tease me that it had been so long my hymen was probably growing back.
Not that I didn’t have toys. I did. And if I was honest, I’d been using them a lot this last week. My dreams had been filthy lately. My eyes dropped to the journal, and I opened it. I was supposed to be writing, an exercise that would help me learn how to be still.
But it wasn’t working because all I seemed able to do when I opened the damn thing was write to him.
Dear Stalker.
I know you’re sneaking into my place when I sleep. I can’t prove it, but even in my sleep, I can feel you.
Your heat.
Your smell.
It’s like you’ve marked every square inch of my home with your presence. It should scare me to think this. Maybe I’m losing my mind? Maybe I’m not, and I’m just a little twisted.
Last night, I fell asleep on the couch again.
And I could have sworn my dream felt so real.
My head on your lap, your thumb in my mouth while I sucked on it.
I woke up so wet dreaming about it that I was almost sure I’d had an accident.
All from imagining your fingers stroking my torso and playing with my nipples for so long, so intensely, I came in my dreams.
I’m sick in the head. I need to go out. Meet new people.
I can take a hint. You’re not interested. You’re literally sitting three tables away and haven’t looked at me once.
I slammed the pen down on the journal with frustration, then shut the journal, shoved it into my backpack, and grabbed my things.
Why am I doing this to myself? Crushing over a guy who couldn’t seem to get it together enough to approach me?
Pining, even dreaming of the guy sneaking into my place?
The dream had been so real I could have sworn I woke up to the scent of his cologne clinging to the air in my living room.
I’d almost convinced myself that the seat next to me had been warm when I’d woken up.
Of course, it would be warm! I’d laid my head on it!
My phone started to ring, and I picked it up
“Hey!” Jackie, my youngest sister, said.
“Hi, you’re on speaker,” I let her know because Jackie was a wild card.
“Did you think about the speed-dating thing?” She went right to it, and I rolled my eyes.
“Jack,” I groaned.
“What? I think this would be a cool thing for you to do.” The excitement was clear in her voice.
“Me? Wait, you’re not doing it?”
“I am! I’m helping promote it, and I’ll be shooting content, but I was thinking… Maybe meeting some new guys wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Better than stalking you know who on social media.”
“Ohmygod,” I gasped, trying to avoid looking behind me, where I knew Austin was still sitting.
“What? You know it’s true!” she doubled down because as my little sister, that’s exactly what she would do. “You won’t even go to the brewery to stalk him in person like everyone else in town does.”
“Jackie, you’re on speaker,” I hissed, shaking my head.
“Who cares? No one cares, Liz.”
“Jack—“
“Speed dating! Do it,” she urged. I rolled my eyes.
“I don’t think speed dating is for me.”
“How would you know unless you try?” I was pretty sure she got this mantra from me after me saying those exact words to her countless times when she was in school.
“Do you have a quota of how many tickets you need to sell or something?” She giggled on the other end of the line.
“Maybe. But that isn’t the point. You haven’t been on a date in how long?” I could feel Austin’s blue eyes burning into the back of my neck.
“That isn’t the point. Speed dating isn’t for me. I’m not very people-y this year.”
“Fine. What about the bachelor auction?” she suggested.
“The money they’re raising is going to help out the library.
You could bid on a hot guy who’s good with his hands, and you could finally get your house painted.
We could sit around and watch him do it while we drink margaritas. Make a day of it.”
“Jackie,” I groaned, even though it wasn’t a horrible idea.
“I heard a couple of firemen are on the lineup. Oh, and the hot owner guy from the resort? He’s up for grabs.”
“I don’t think so, Jack.”
“Oh! Or entering a picnic basket for yourself. Have one of the guys in town bid on the cookies in your basket.”
“I highly doubt anyone would be interested in my basket,” I muttered, my face hot at the thought of Austin and the seriously crazy wet dreams I’ve been having about him enjoying my cookie.
“You never know unless you put yourself out there,” she whined, and I sighed.
“I don’t think so. Plus… I might take the Florida job, so I might not even be in town for Valentine’s Day,” I put out there, trying to feel out how my youngest sister would react.
“Florida?” a deep voice sounded behind me, and my spine straightened.
“Wait, who’s with you? What was that?” Jackie asked. Of course, she didn’t miss Austin’s deep voice. I turned and locked eyes with the prettiest blues I’d ever seen. Damn it, it was him.
“No one.” “Austin,” the two of us answered at the same, and I swear my head was about to explode. If Jackie recognized Austin’s voice, god only knew what crazy thing would come out of her mouth.
“Austin Hart? Hottie brewery guy?”
“One and the same,” he muttered with a slight twitch to his lips.
“Jackie, we’ll talk later. I gotta go.” I tried to rush her off the call.
“Oh, we are definitely talking later!” I quickly ended the call before she said anything else. Facing the man who had been following me around, I rolled my eyes.
“It’s rude to eavesdrop,” I pointed out, but I could see the determination in his gaze.
“You were the one having a conversation on speaker. Florida?” he asked.
“I’m a travel nurse,” I reminded him and didn’t miss the muscle in his jaw ticking as if he was annoyed. “Jobs pop up all over the country, Austin.” My voice was softer than I would normally use it.
“How long?”
“Three months.”
“Three—“ he started to repeat, but my eyes dropped to the way his seriously sexy jaw clenched. “No.”
“No?” I repeated with shock. “What do you mean, no?”
“No. Take a different job.”
“Austin—“Before I knew it, he’d taken my bag off my shoulder and tossed it over his, tangling our fingers and leading us right out of the patio area of the little coffee shop and straight onto Main Street. “Austin, where are we—“ The look he gave me over his broad shoulder made me go quiet.
“Shut it,” he clipped. His long legs were hard to keep up with, something he must have noticed because he picked me up and carried me.
Again! Like a groom would his bride, and for some reason, I let him!
I didn’t fight or argue or toss attitude.
I simply stayed in his arms because, if I was honest, I’d missed it. Missed him.
“Fine.” I halfheartedly pouted before I rested my head on his shoulder. “You know, I bet you could make millions offering this service to women,” I rambled. “Like Lyft services but literally being lifted and carried to your next destination.” I hated the idea of him carrying any other woman.
“The only woman I’m ever going to carry is you,” he said, and I had to do a double take.
“What?” I whispered. He looked… serious. Like he meant it.
“You heard me. And maybe our daughter, if we have one,” he added. Thankfully, I didn’t need to walk thanks to him carrying me about, or else I would have fallen right on my face.
“What? You’re—“
“Insane?” he cut me off, and his lip quirked upward. “I know. You kinda bring it out of me.”
“You cannot blame someone’s sanity or lack thereof on another person.”
“Funny, I just did,” he retorted. I frowned.
Before I knew it, we were at my place. He set me down and went through my bag, taking my keys from the front pocket.
“How did you know my keys were…” I let the words drift to nothing because the look he gave me said exactly what I was thinking. He knew because he’d been watching me. Stalking me. And I had just been letting him. Enjoying the attention and maybe even craving it.