Chapter Thirty-Three
Thirty-Three
Forge
The sight of Elsie sitting there had distracted me, and I’d forgotten my current predicament.
However, the way she had gone from looking happy to see me to staring at her fucking lap was making my chest hurt like a damn bitch.
I’d told her we would go swimming today, and then I walked in with Lula Mae.
What was taking Locke so long? He’d said if I took the day shift with her, then he’d take over until tomorrow. We had games tonight, and I didn’t want Lula Mae there, messing things up.
“You can join me!” Lula Mae called from my shower.
No thanks. If that had been her plan, it was a fail. I’d put on a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and I wasn’t stepping foot in that bathroom until she was done and out.
I sent Locke another text. He needed to come get her. I knew he’d offered to help out, and I appreciated it, but, damn, why was I the one Linc had saddled with the job to begin with?
The click of a door had my head snapping back up. That sounded like it had come from Elsie’s room. Shoving my cell into my back pocket, I hurried out into the hallway. Glancing both ways to make sure I didn’t have an audience, I went down to knock and see if it had been Elsie.
When the knob started to turn, the relief came with it. She was here. I could talk to her alone. I didn’t wait for her to open it up completely, but stuck my hand inside, grabbing the edge and easing it open so that I could step inside.
“Forge,” she said, sounding surprised.
“Yeah,” I replied, turning to see her still holding the open door. “Close that.”
She looked from me to the door, and for a moment, I didn’t think she was going to, but she finally did as I’d asked or instructed. Whichever.
“Do you need something?” she asked.
The defensive bite in her tone made my cock twitch. I liked it when she got teeth.
I needed several things, but I didn’t think she was ready to hear them all right now or that it was a good idea to be so blunt with her.
“I want to explain,” I told her.
She shook her head. “No need. I get it,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“You do? Please tell me what it is that you get?”
Because she did not get it at all. Her body language told me that much.
She rolled her eyes. Fucking rolled those silver eyes at me.
“Why you made plans with me, then changed them. You’re a guy. A better option presented itself. No need to explain. I’ve been Calvin’s backup plan since he hit puberty.”
I stared at her. What the hell was she talking about? Backup plan?
“I was following orders. Linc had me entertaining Lula Mae today. Locke is on his way to get her—at least, he’d better be.”
Her expression seemed to soften somewhat, but not enough. There was still something there that was bothering me.
“Okay,” she said with a slight shrug of her left shoulder.
I took a step toward her, and she tensed.
“Pickles”—I used my nickname for her, hoping it would stop this tense shit she was doing with me—“I’d rather have gone swimming with you today. Lula Mae is a damn chore. I enjoy being with you.”
“I saw her in her bikini. She’s not a chore. But thanks for saying it, I guess.”
Why was she being so difficult? I was being honest with her here. More so than I should be. But, damn, it bothered me that she thought so fucking little of herself. Was this Calvin’s fault?
“You’ve not spent enough time in her presence. Trust me, it was a chore,” I said with emphasis. “And we can still swim after tonight’s games.”
She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I don’t have to be entertained. I—”
“It’s not about entertaining you. It’s because I enjoy your company.”
Her hands fell to her sides, and she sighed. “The games will be going until late and they’re exhausting. You’ll be too tired for that. I don’t need placating.”
I took another step toward her, and this time, she didn’t tense up. At least I was making some headway with her. She had fucking walls I hadn’t been aware of.
“Explain what you said about being Calvin’s backup plan.”
She glanced off to the side, not holding eye contact with me. “I was the friend who was always there.”
“Why is that?” I asked, wanting her to elaborate on this.
“Because for a very long time, I had deeper feelings than friendship for him, okay?” she said, snapping her eyes back to mine. “Thankfully, I moved on or grew out of it. Whatever.”
She’d had feelings for Calvin. I already knew that but I didn’t like it. Fuck if it was the past. It still bugged me.
“Did he know you had deeper feelings for him?” I needed to let this go, but I couldn’t.
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. A few times, I convinced myself that”—she paused and scrunched her nose, then dropped her gaze to the floor—“he might return those feelings … but that was never the case.”
“How do you know he didn’t?” Because if he had hidden his feelings for her then, then what the fuck did it matter?! I was acting psycho.
Her shoulders rose and fell with a heavy sigh before she lifted her eyes to mine again. “I know. To him, I was always the friend. The girl who he went to for help with all the things. Even asking out his prom dates.”
Okay, what the fuck?
“His prom dates?” I asked, making sure I’d just heard her correctly.
She nodded. “Yes.”
I needed more than a yes. “Why?” He was a fucking dude. Why would he have asked another girl, who he had to know had feelings for him, to help him ask out someone else? That was cruel.
She cocked an eyebrow. “Are you wanting the full story?”
“Yep, Pickles, I do.”
She tilted her head to the side, and a sad smile touched her lips that distracted me momentarily. I remembered how soft they felt and how damn sweet she tasted.
“I thought he was coming to the house to ask me to prom—you know, with one of those over-the-top prom proposal things. He’d told me to meet him on the front porch, which wasn’t normal for him.” She let out a small laugh. “And so I went out there. Thinking he might do …” She paused and winced.
“Continue,” I told her, not liking where this was going.
“Ugh, this is embarrassing. Even all these years later. I was so silly.”
No, she wasn’t. It still hurt her, and I didn’t like it.
“Fine. But you’d better not laugh.”
“Never,” I assured her.
She tucked some hair behind her ear, and that sad smile was back.
“I thought he had set up a … a flash mob with the football team. I don’t know why I had worked this scenario up in my head, but I had.
Something to do with another guy doing it at school and Calvin asking me what I thought about it.
Anyway, he wasn’t there for that. Instead, he needed my help setting up a scavenger hunt to ask out another girl to prom. ”
I hated him. Dumbass piece of shit. He had to have known. Guys weren’t blind to a girl’s feelings about them. If I ever got a whiff, I ran like hell the other way. Fucker knew and asked her to help him? He needed to be throat-punched.
“Seems intelligence skipped him on that side of the family. Much like his mother.”
Her eyes widened.
I closed the rest of the distance between us and slid a knuckle under her chin to tilt her head back.
“I want to be your friend. That’s all I’m good for really.
But I also want to get my mouth between your legs again.
It blurs the lines, and I know that. I don’t want to hurt you or make you think we are something more.
So, I’m asking you now, can our friendship survive us adding sexual things?
Me sleeping in this bed because, baby, you have nightmares.
Or you did last night. After witnessing it, I don’t think I can sleep, worrying about you going through that shit alone. ”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.
“I didn’t realize. I thought I hadn’t had one last night. I don’t remember it. I normally wake up.”
Fuck. She had been having them all along.
“I calmed you down, and you settled,” I told her.
“Thank you.” Her words were no more than a whisper.
“No need to thank me. But even if the sexual stuff is off the table, let me stay with you at night until they stop.”
She blinked. Silence. I was ready to beg for the sexual stuff, but I managed to let her work it out in her head without pushing.
“Okay,” she finally said.
“Okay to what exactly?” I needed clarification.
“To all of it.”
Relief exploded in my chest, and I almost grabbed her and hauled her to the bed. But the ringing of my phone stopped me from it.
Jerking it out of my pocket, I saw Lula Mae’s name. Shit. I’d forgotten about her. I wasn’t done with that job yet. Where was Locke?!
Looking back at Elsie, I winked. “That’s the best damn news I’ve had in a long time.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she smiled so sweetly that my cock reminded me exactly what he wanted and who.
Down, boy. Not yet. But soon.