I purse my lips, ready to decline, but remember that Dom’s been one hell of a friend when I need him to be and bite down a sigh.
“I guess so,” I say, trying to hide the dejection in my tone. “Now can we talk about what I found?”
“Of course!” he replies in relief and I stifle a giggle. Dom has three sons and a daughter. Which one it happens to be is honestly of no consequence to me. I’ll put on a pretty dress, some low heels, and a little bit of make-up. I’ll smile brightly and hold onto his arm for the duration of being rented out by the Police Chief. When it’s all said and done, I’ll come home and crash and hope to never speak of it again.
I’ve glanced out the window for what seems like the tenth time in twenty minutes.
Apparently, Dom’s son is supposed to pick me up, but he’s running late and I’m wondering if he’s had a change of heart. To be honest, it would suit me just fine since I’m pretty sure his father has more than likely warned him about how stand-offish I can be when in the presence of strangers.
I’m dressed in a wine-colored dress, have my hair pulled up into a neat ponytail, and decided to dab on a little bit of gloss to make my full lips pop. I don’t really care for jewelry, so my hands, wrists, and neck are bare, and since I’m not looking to really make an impression on someone I don’t know, I really just want to get in and get out.
Hopefully, Dom’s son will be as easy to coerce as his father.
Whichever one it so happens to be.
I let out an impatient sigh and glance out the window again, this time feeling a small tremor of nervousness start to course through my body when I see a black sports car pull up.
When a tall, strikingly handsome young man gets out of the driver’s side and glances at the door, I let the curtain fall into place and hope he didn’t see me.
This is becoming embarrassing already, I think with a rueful shake of my head.
A few moments later, the doorbell rings and I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then open the door with a wide smile on my face.
“Hi! I’m Makena,” I say brightly as I hold out a hand toward him.
“Tanner,” he replies with a slight smile as he quickly shakes my hand. “I’m sorry that you’re being forced to do this.”
I look into his light brown eyes for a moment, smiling at how they seem to crinkle around the corners when he grins. He has deep dimples on either cheek that accentuate his jawline, and his black hair that he has slicked back in place seems to shine slightly. He’s definitely not hard on the eyes at all. I feel that flutter of nervousness inside of me again when he lets go of my hand and holds out his arm for me.
“Let’s go. We have a circus to attend,” he states with a friendly eye roll and I smile shyly.
Okay, so maybe this won’t be as bad as I thought it would be.
Especially if it gets my mind off the fires we’ve had lately.
Chapter 8
The first time I remember seeing her, we were children. I had noticed that she had fallen and scraped her knee and I attended her cuts. It turned out that when I spoke to her, she told me that some of the girls in her class didn’t like her and pushed her to the floor.
They hated her for having pretty eyes and a beautiful face, but I showed them.
After I patched her up, I asked her if she would meet me at the small park down the street from the school and we could sit on the swings until the sun went down. We’d race to see who could go highest and fastest, then I’d walk her home to make sure that no one would ever push her again.
It was the first time I noticed the orange in the skies when the sun begins its descent over the horizon. It was also the first time I felt the heat burning deep inside of me, and the higher we swung, the faster we raced, the more I thought about how easy it would be to set the skies on fire myself.
I kept my promise.
When the sun went down, we hopped off our swings, and I took her by the hand, letting her lead the way to where she lived. She told me that I was her new best friend and even kissed me on the cheek before she ran up the steps to her home.
A sincere moment of kindness that meant more than she knew to the perpetually sad eleven-year-old boy in front of her.
I crack my neck as I continue walking.
I’ll paint the sky the same color it was when I first had the chance to spend time with her and she’ll see me coming on the horizon. She’ll remember our moment so many goddamn years ago, and she’ll come find me. She’ll tell me that she’s never had a friend in her entire life that lived up to what I was to her and we’ll be together.
The way we were always meant to be.
Not just as two children who hid from their parents and the bullies that made fun of us for being different, yet so much alike.
A smile creases my lips.
Sometimes, the best plans are the ones that happen in the spur of the moment, and the longer I walk, the more I realize I don’t have a designated target for tonight.
I only have the will I need and the power in my pocket to get her attention.
Chapter 9
I give Dom a small wave when Tanner and I walk into the ballroom of the Marriott. It
