I come up for air, and his worried eyes meet mine for a second and then he says, “I forgot to run this morning. I’m going to go do that.”
He’s going to go for a run? Right now?
I watch him walk away, taking in his hunched back and tired steps. I want to follow him and ask him what’s wrong, but I can’t because my brothers start dunking me.
They always ruin everything.
Chapter 8
Grant
It took me exactly 3.8 miles of running last night to forget the feel of Lennox in my arms. Don’t ask me how I know the exact distance. It took me a few years to figure out that nothing can erase the thrill of her except 3.8 miles of sprinting until my legs ache. And after finding out she’s got a boyfriend, I needed those 3.8 miles.
But then she walks into work, and those feelings are right back where they always are.
Under my skin and dancing around my heart.
I shake my head, remembering the twenty-year-old boy who thought he’d finally be able to tell her how he felt. She turned eighteen and graduated on the same day. That was my chance.
I ate dinner with her family for her graduation celebration and then afterward I pulled her aside to give her my gift.
It was a little cedar chest, identical to the one my grandfather and I had finished before he died. The one and only good thing I had in my possession. I had told her about the chest when we were younger and she’d been intrigued by the story behind it, asking me all kinds of questions and wishing she had a family heirloom to cherish. She knew I was obsessed with it, but she didn’t know I was obsessed with her. So I stayed late in the shop every day and made her one, hoping to show her that I had little to give, but she’d always be the one holding my heart.
I had just reached for the box I’d tucked in the hallway dresser when her friend Via showed up, ready to hit the road and celebrate.
Lennox left immediately. So I dropped the gift on her bed and scribbled out a little note to go inside. I never confessed my feelings, never told her what that chest meant to me. She thanked me the next day when she got home and gushed about it for the next month. Her love for it meant more than any praise I'd ever received.
Now she’s twenty-one. And I still can’t get over her.
I used to date, used to look for someone to be the missing puzzle piece in my life, but I just ended up comparing every girl to Lennox. So I stopped dating completely.
But she didn’t.
After talking to Michael at work on Friday, I’d been ecstatic. My plan was to make slow and steady progress toward Lennox’s heart. I couldn’t shift her perception of me overnight, so I flirted with her in her office. Yesterday, I planned on flirting more, but she has a boyfriend? I can’t even wrap my brain around that one. But how can I blame her? She deserves someone much better than me. I’m not giving up on her. I never will. But if she never sees me that way, and if she falls in love with someone else, I won’t be able to stick around because it will kill me to watch the woman I love fall in love with someone else.
It’s that thought that has me walking up to Sean.
“Hey, wanna go to the club tonight?”
Sean almost drops the drill gun in his hands. “You’re joking?”
I knew he wouldn’t believe me easily. I haven’t exactly been a “fun friend”.
“No. I’m serious.”
“Yes,” Sean cheers. “Trent owes me twenty bucks.”
***
I regret my decision the second I step into the dimly lit club. I can’t come here without thinking of my dad coming home wasted and ranting. For this reason, I’ll never drink. I refuse to touch the stuff that ruined my life and my friends respect that.
The club is decked out in holiday decor. There are a few Christmas trees, giant bows on chairs, and mistletoe placed about five feet apart.
That’s bound to cause some problems.
“Dude… hotties at the bar.” Sean hits me in the arm and I look.
They look nothing like Lennox.
