Page 24 of Don't Leave Me Behind
“Should I call him back then?”
“Oh, nah, he’s taking a personal day tomorrow.” I scrunch my face up in confusion. Brooks doesn’t take personal days. He doesn’t know the meaning of rest. “Was wonderin’ if you could help pick up the slack a little. Half the guys took off the weekend for the first rodeo of the season.”
“Yeah, of course. Everything okay?”
“You know, Brooks,” Dad says. “He didn’t say much, just said he needed the day. Possibly the weekend.”
“Got it. Well, I’ll be there.”
“Great.” There’s a brief pause before my dad sniffs loud enough that I can hear it. “Whatcha cooking up in there, Clay? Smells like Leni’s tacos.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. I found a bag of stuff in the freezer.”
“Damn, you find any more, you let me know.”
“Will do,” Clay promises.
“Alright, see you in the morning then, kiddo.”
I stay down on the floor, listening as Clay closes the door and my dad’s old pickup starts up. The familiar rumble fading away into the distance. I turn over on my back, groaning a little as I peel myself off the floor. Clayton is leaning a shoulder into the door frame; one ankle crossed over the other, a hand tucked into his jean pocket. “You good over there?”
I give him a weak thumbs up as I struggle to my feet. That’s three times now, in two days, that I’ve crash landed on thefloor, and my body is hurting. I need to take a hot ass bath tomorrow when Clay is gone.
“Kate’s in town,” Clay says as if he’s talking about the weather, but my entire body freezes up at the statement. I don’t make a habit of hating people, but IhateKate McGinnity with the passion of a burning sun. The way she wrecked my brother is unacceptable. I’d like to take her little heroin addicted face and stomp it into the ground. “Easy there, killer.” Clay moves to stand in front of me, turning me around so he can work his thumbs into the solid rocks where my shoulder muscles are.
It takes Herculean effort not to make any kind of sound as his fingers work magic through the knots in my shoulders. I don’t want him to stop, but I’m pretty sure any moaning on my part, and he’ll bolt to the other side of the room, so I’m doing my best to keep quiet. Enjoying the fact that he’s touching me, and I don’t want to run away from it. “Do you think that’s why he’s not working tomorrow? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Brooks taking a day off.”
“I’d hardly call it a coincidence. The only time Brooks has taken any time off from work, since dumping her sleazy ass, was when he had pneumonia. We had to sneak sleeping supplements into his drinks to get him to stay inside.”
“Do you think he’d get back together with her?”
“He better fucking not.” Clay wraps an arm around my collarbone, supporting my body as he digs into my right trap. I lean into him, fairly certain at this point, he’s supporting more of my weight than I am. “I’d be more worried about her conning him out of some money or something. Not to mention all the bad feelings she brings up every time she rolls into town. Brooks needs to find someone else.”
“She’d have to be a veterinarian or something. How else would he meet someone?”
“True,” I snort. It takes me a minute to realize that he’s notmassaging me anymore, but he's holding me. I snuggle deeper into his chest, pleasantly surprised when his other arm comes around me. His chin resting on the top of my shoulder.
I feel his chest expand and contract behind me, pushing into my back before it recedes, like he’s breathing me in. I want to turn around and bury my face in his chest, wrap my own arms around him, and maybe shake him a little to ask him why he never called me. Ask him why he never checked on me. How he could just let me go. I don’t want to move away or break this moment of surrender and silent confession between us either.
Chapter 8
You Can’t Fix Me
Clay
By all accounts,my hands are in respectable places. You just wouldn’t know it by the thoughts racing through my head right now. We’re standing in the living room, fully clothed, nothing remotely sexual happening, and I can’t shake the image of spinning her around and taking that sassy mouth of hers with mine. Claiming her once and for all.
My dick responds every time I inhale her sweet scent. Whatever perfume or body wash she uses always has an underlying smell of lilacs to it, I want to lose myself in it. I didn’t expect to have such a visceral reaction to her. Where the hell did she come from? Barging into my life after I’d worked so hard to put up walls between us. Where do we go from here? Is this something she even wants? Could it be that easy for her to forgive me for everything?
I don’t have any answers where Leni is concerned, and that scares the hell out of me.
She deserves the fucking world, and I don’t see what I have to offer her. Maybe this is enough, for now at least. Maybe we can take this time to get to know each other again. I don’t knoweverything about her anymore, but I want to know every little detail there is to know about her and make up for all the years we’ve spent apart.
She sighs, letting her head loll back into my shoulder. I can see her pulse beating out a steady rhythm, and I can’t help but press my lips to it, wanting to savor the feeling of her wrapped up in me. Hating the way, she tenses when my lips meet her skin.
“Do you hate me?” I whisper, my lips brushing the shell of her ear, using every single ounce of control not to kiss her again.
“Sometimes I wish I did. I think it’d be easier to hate you.”
