Chapter 24
SIENNA
While Spring Break is a nice vacation for the kids, it’s double-time for me.
Plans for the rest of the year and my kids’ academic progress is a focal point for me, so they’re set up successfully for next year.
I have a million and one things to set up, week-by-week, so I can make sure we get everything done.
We’re not far behind, but we have some catching up to do, and I need to think of a way to keep the kids engaged without overwhelming them.
It’s a bunch of juggling and moving around, but I’ve done it before.
I’ve spent the last two days with my table full of Post-It notes and everything organized by week and month. I’ve been living on cereal and soup, and if I don’t get some fresh air in the next twenty-four hours, I might go more loopy than I feel.
So, when a knock suddenly sounds on my front door, I welcome it. Even if it is Miss Morrison and her missing poodle again, I’d help her look for it almost enthusiastically.
With gusto and too much pep in my step to find the dog that has an escape plan for every day of the week, I swing my door open with a smile. However, it quickly fades when I find Micah on the other side of it.
“Hey, BCR,” he greets me with a panty-melting smile and way too much confidence to think I’d want him on my front porch. “I’ve come to save you.”
I frown. “From what? You?”
He reaches for my screen door and pulls it open with a roll of his eyes, then steps inside.
Inside.
No, no, no, Sienna.
Bad things happen when we’re alone.
“Micah,” I grind out because this is just wild, to say the least. “You know better than to show up here.”
“Do I?” he cocks his head to the side. “You’re not answering my text messages.”
“I blocked you.”
The corner of his lips curls upward. “Is that why I kept getting an error message?”
He knows damn well that’s why. He’s just playing stupid, and we both know it.
I let out an already defeated sigh. “What do you want?”
“You.”
I scowl. “Be serious.”
“I am. I came to steal you away. A full-blown kidnapping, if you will.”
“Excuse me?” My brows pin together because this man can’t be serious.
He’s serious.
“I rented us a BNB in Hot Springs. I’m gonna cook you dinner, there are a lot of places to walk in town, and it’s a small-town vibe inside a getaway.”
I can’t help but just stare at him.
“I’ll help you pack, but you don’t need much.”
My hand immediately shoots up when he moves toward my bedroom. “Wait.” He surprises me when he does, and I turn to fully face him. “I can’t go with you. Where’s Heath?”
“With Zoe.”
“I’m busy.”
“You need a break.”
“Micah…”
“Sienna…”
I scowl. “We’re not doing this. Together.”
“I’m here to show you that we can. This is me taking care of you, Sienna. You haven’t left your house in two days.”
My eyes narrow. “And how would you know that?”
“Because no one has seen you. And you haven’t been in your normal places.”
“It’s Spring Break.”
“Fully aware.”
“Which means I’m not on the same routine.”
“Also aware.”
“And I’m busy.”
“You said that already.”
“Which means I have to stay here.”
“Are you under house arrest?” He steals a look at my dining room table. “Looks like your brain might explode if you look at another carefully laid out school plan.”
“It won’t.”
Micah pushes out his lips in thought, then says, “So, what you’re saying is that you’re not packing?”
I lift my chin and straighten my spine with a, “Yes. I’m not packing.”
He shrugs dismissive and casually. “Alright, sweetheart. If that’s the way you wanna do it.”
I bow my head, grateful that, for once, we don’t have to keep going back and forth about it.
That I finally won an argument from this country boy who took my heart and stomped on it a few times without an explanation at first. Then, when he did, I felt like a complete moron for not putting two and two together.
It’s been weeks since the Sweetheart Ball, and I broke any romantic relationship off with Thaddeus as soon as we left.
He didn’t come over to my house—he was never invited to stay anyway—and I haven’t gone out with anyone.
I can’t.
No matter how hard I try, Micah is there in my mind. The way we hit it off. How I was willing to date him under the rules we weren’t supposed to break.
“Fine,” Micah says. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you, sweetheart.”
I’m in the air and thrown over his shoulder before I can even register that he moved. My brain doesn’t pick up the three steps he took out of my house, but it does when he softly closes my door.
I begin kicking my feet. “Micah, put me down now.”
“No, thanks.”
I’m being manhandled down my driveway within the next few seconds to be carefully placed in the front seat of his truck like the most precious thing he just acquired.
Then the door is slammed in my face.
He is kidnapping me.