Chapter 22
Aly knocked on the outside garage door where Cal said she could find him. She told him it was an emergency—hers. She didn’t want him thinking this had to do with Raine. She did need Cal. He was her best friend.
No answer. She could see light coming from around the door. She twisted the knob, and the door gave way. Heavy metal music pulsated from a paint-splattered boom box. Cal sat on the foot of an open sofa bed, his back to her. He faced Raine’s portrait propped against a ten-speed bike.
She stepped around the boxes stacked on the grease-stained cement and looked at Cal. He stared blankly at the portrait. Was he high? He looked up at her when she stepped into his field of vision.
She turned the music down. “Raine told me about the other day. I’m sorry.”
His jaw clenched under the coarse, brown stubble. “What’s your emergency?”
She sank down beside him on the bare, fold-out mattress. “I—I think I’m pregnant.”
He looked at her, his expression losing some of the sullenness. “What are you going to do?” His voice was flat.
“I don’t know.” She lay back on the mattress, blowing all the air out of her lungs. “I did the math today.” A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye.
Cal looked down at her. Self-pity and compassion warred in his face. He dropped onto one elbow beside her. “I’m sorry, Al.” He wiped away the tear with his finger. The tenderness he scraped from somewhere deep inside made her want to cry even more.
Cal gathered her to him with one arm and held her while she swallowed the tears in her throat.
She let out a ragged sigh.
“Hey, it’s not a contest. You didn’t have to come up with bigger issues than I’ve got.” Cal lay back leaving his arm around her shoulders.
She gave him a smile that was not a smile.
“Your love language is touch, did you ever realize that? That’s how you give and receive love. That’s why you—”
“Say it. That’s why I sleep with guys.” She squeezed her eyes shut, but tears leaked out the corners running across the bridge of her nose and into her hair.
Cal dropped his free arm over her, and she curled into him. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Come on, don’t cry.”
“All I’ve ever wanted was for someone to hold me like you’re holding me now.”
“You haven’t had a dad since you were seven. Of course, you’re going to go looking for what you missed.”
The truth of his words soaked into her spirit, and she cried. Silent sobs racked her body.
When she looked up at Cal, there were tears on his cheeks—for Raine, she was sure. Somehow, that was okay. She snuggled her nose against Cal’s scratchy neck. There was no place she would rather be.
“We could, you know…” she drew circles on his chest with her finger, “comfort each other.” Her words were muffled against the neck of Cal’s T-shirt.
Cal didn’t say anything, didn’t move. It felt like he stopped breathing for a moment.
“It was a dumb idea. Forget I said it.” She started to roll away.
Cal held on. “Stay here. Let me hold you. You don’t need another guy to use you right now.”
She relaxed against him.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Kicking Eternity
रोमांसStuck in sleepy New Smyrna Beach one last summer, Raine socks away her camp pay checks, worries about her druggy brother, and ignores trouble: Cal Koomer. She’s a plane ticket away from teaching orphans in Africa, and not even Cal’s surfer six-pack...
