"Yes," I say, hoping he changes the subject.
"You would have called me back right away?" Fuck, is the only thing I can think of when he asks that question.
"I’ve been busy." I throw up my hands in my defense.
"Exactly," he says. "So you would have avoided me, and then what?"
"And then you would take the hint and not call me back," I say, and I can see the hurt flicker over his eyes, and then he quickly recovers.
"Well, then, I guess it’s a good thing I was in the neighborhood." His voice is soft. "So what do you say, Harlow?"
"About what exactly?" I ask him, knowing that we definitely should talk about what we did last weekend. But then as soon as I think about last weekend, I hope that we don’t talk about it. I want to sweep it under the rug where it belongs and hope to fuck I can get over it and stop thinking about it. Except one look at him and I’m already replaying all the times I reached for him in the night. Or the way he never ever let me go, he always had to be touching me.
"About having dinner with me?" He smirks, and fuck, I wish I could walk over to him and lean my head back while he kisses me.
I shake my head. "I can’t believe you drove all this way just for this."
"Well." He smiles at me, and then my chest fills. "I really, really wanted to see you." I just look at him, not saying anything. "Does that silence mean a yes?"
Chapter 17
Travis
"I can’t believe you drove all this way just for this." She shakes her head at me, and I can’t help but smile at her. The minute I saw her, all I could do was smile.
"Well," I start to say. "I really, really wanted to see you." I give her a second to answer, suddenly nervous that she is actually going to say no. "Does that silence mean a yes?"
"I need to change." She points at the blue scrubs she’s wearing.
"That’s fine," I say. "I have to check into the hotel anyway."
"Hotel?" She tilts her head to the side. "You booked a room?" she asks, shocked.
"Well, yeah." I look around her waiting room and my heart can’t calm down. Did I want to rent a room? No. Did I want to stay with her and take her in my arms the minute I saw her? Yes. Was I going to let her push me away? No. Was she going to fight me the whole way? Probably. "I’m going to go check into my hotel and then I’ll swing by your house in about an hour and pick you up, okay?" Every single second that I wait for her to answer feels like an eternity. My feet move to her, and my hands go out to grab her face. My thumbs rub her cheeks. "Do you think you can unblock me now and send me your home address?" I smirk at her as my heart echoes in my ears. "It would be hard to explain if I have to go door to door and knock, looking for you."
She chuckles and looks down. "Fine," she says, reluctantly. "I’ll unblock you." I can’t help but lean forward and kiss her lips softly. Definitely not the kiss I really want to give her but I know that it’s baby steps. "But only because I’m afraid that you’ll knock on my father’s door or my brothers’， and then they’ll shoot you."
I can’t help but put my head back and laugh. "Fair enough." The burning starts in my stomach. I don’t know if I would blame them for shooting me. I hurt her, and it’s unforgivable.
My hands drop from her face when she pulls up the phone in her hand and adds me back as a contact. She starts to type something, and then the phone pings, and I take it back out of my back pocket.
Harlow: 2145 Villas Street
I text her back.
Me: I’ll be there in an hour.
I press send, waiting for it to beep in her hand, and when it does, I just smile. "And just like that, you're back." She makes me laugh.
I kiss her one last time before I turn and walk out, taking a step before turning back. The door opens, and she stands there. "This isn’t your father's house address, is it? Or your brothers’？" I ask, and she rolls her lips. "Why would you lead me to the lion’s den?"
"Come to think of it." She puts her hands on her hips, and her eyes light up so bright everything settles inside me. "I should have."
I shake my head. "See you in fifty-five minutes, Harlow." I turn, finally making my way into the car and only when I sit behind the wheel do I finally breathe a little sigh of relief. I take one look back at her practice and smile. She did everything she said she was going to do. I can’t be sorry that I let her go because of that, but ever since I laid eyes on her last Saturday, the regret has hit me harder than a wrecking ball hitting a concrete wall.