Pretty, very pretty, despite always being disheveled. I couldn’t wait to see her all put together, ready to take my breath away. Or completely nake—not going there! Certainly not going there. Not now, not before I knew for sure I stood a chance against all the proper skirt-chasing Englishmen. The little unplanned tease when I first saw her all wet was engraved to my mind, of course. But I didn’t plan on doing anything about it. Until I saw her again and lost the functioning part of my brain...
My oven dinged, providing an escape from the prying questions about my dating life that were about to come. “That’d be the calzones,” I said. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll talk to you soon, okay? I really am fine, and there is absolutely nothing going on with Red Cheeks.”
“Red Cheeks,” Dad mused before I had a chance to end the call. “Sure doesn’t sound like nothing, Luca.”
“It is nothing. One hundred percent. You know you’d be the first to know if it was otherwise.”
“Just take care of your heart, Son. That’s all I’m asking.”
I wouldn’t weasel myself out of it during tomorrow’s dinner, but for now, they would have to settle for the knowledge I was fine and not in love.
I pulled on the oven mitts, and then dragged the tray out and onto the cooking plate as the stuffed pizza pockets sizzled in their heated happiness. Too many of them for only one person to eat. Way too many.
Before I even registered moving I’d grabbed an aluminum foil and started stacking calzones on top of it with every intention of taking them two floors up to my unforgettable neighbour.
Wrapping them up in another layer of aluminum as if the short trip up would cool them down instantaneously, I took deep calming breaths as my heartbeat picked up.
Just say, ‘Hi.’ Just say, ‘Sorry for earlier.’ Give her the calzones, smile, and leave. Easy. Only, it wasn’t really this easy, was it? Not when my brain was fixated on doing much more than just saying, ‘Hi.’ And my body was preparing for a battle with the amount of endorphins coursing through my veins. I shouldn’t go at all. Just take the baked goods to the office on Monday, or eat them for the rest of the week myself.
No, I shouldn’t go. I definitely shouldn’t. What would that say about me? Obsessed. Obtrusive. Stalkerish. Couldn’t read the room.
Several deep breaths later, I stood by my door, keys in hand and the damn calzones basically pressed to my chest in the hopes they would stop my heart from making a run for it. I really was obsessed, goddamnit. But not in love. Nope, not that.
Too fidgety to wait for the elevator, I took the stairs two at the time until I stood on the twelfth-floor landing. Called the elevator up before I stopped behind the girl’s door. No reason I shouldn’t have a quick escape plan.
Get on with it, Luca. Just do it.
I knocked. Fisting my palm helped to redirect the nerves, and I welcomed the cool metal bounding against my knuckles. Then I waited as only silence met my inquiry. The thing is, I knew she was there. She’d ridden the elevator up with me just an hour ago. The elevator that now announced its first and only boarding call while opening its doors.
I heard footsteps behind the door, then Bickering. Right, that was my cue to leave. It was a bad idea to begin with. I dropped the warm package on their welcome mat, which depicted four cute paws and hadn’t been there when I’d helped Hallie with her mattress. Then I backed away, hands raised like a criminal caught in act in case they were still looking through the peephole. I was just in time to slip into the elevator when the door opened and two blushing girls peeked out.
I did not say ‘Hi.’ I did not say, ‘Sorry for earlier.’ I grinned, waved, and pressed the ‘Close Doors’ button as Glen shrieked, “Oh my goodness, this is hot.” Then I chuckled to myself as the nerves fled, and my heart was still safely in my chest. If nothing else, I just found a new entertainment.
Sweet unreachable dreams
MY MORNING SCHEDULEdidn’t ?appear to align with Hallie’s. For the next week she managed to evade me so thoroughly I began to assume she was avoiding me on purpose. Obsessed, obtrusive and stalkerish as I was, I would have probably avoided me, too, if I wasn’t so stuck with myself.
