The grin that follows makes me want to beat his ass. When he attempts to walk past me, I grab his arm and squeeze, but my eyes immediately find the same eyes he was staring at just a second ago.
Aspen Caruso, sitting on the grass, staring right back at me.
And something about those goddamn eyes makes me feeble. Weak.
“Not to me.”
“What?” he retorts.
“Apologize toher,” I grit. “For walking away.”
He scoffs but then says, “Sorry I left her with her friends. She’s fine. She can take care of herself.” His blue eyes bore into my head like a stray bullet. “She doesn’t need you looking after her.”
I throw him a murderous glare. “You offend her or her friends again, and I’m going to pull that tongue out of your throat and wrap it around your neck. Do you understand?”
He smiles like a maniac. “Yes. Totally.”
Is he taking that … as a challenge?
Whatever.
I release him from my grip and shove him away. He straightens his jacket, then waltzes off all annoyed. But my gaze remains fixated on hers, until finally she averts her eyes again.
That’s it, Aspen.
Know that I will always be watching you.
Even when you want to curse me, even if you want to throw me off a cliff.
I will always look at you …
The way you once looked at me.
Yearsago
I runaround the table trying to catch her, but she’s much faster than I anticipated.
“C’mon, Aspen, you gotta give me something,” I say.
“No! Catch me if you can doesn’t mean I help you!” She sticks out her tongue and keeps running through the living room and the kitchen, darting from left to right, across the furniture.
She’s so quick I can barely catch up, and she nearly knocks over her own mom.
“Jesus, watch it,” her mom says.
“Sorry!” she squeals, before darting off again.
I chase her through the back door and into their lavish backyard, which stretches out for miles into a forest. That’s where we always end up playing until the sun sets and the moon begins to rise. I love seeing the darkness settle in the sky because the whole place gets incredibly spooky. A perfect place to scare a girl who’s got it in her head that she can always evade me.
“Come chase me then!” Aspen yells through the woods, and I follow the sound of her voice.
Her giggles fill the air like a bird’s song, and I grin at the thought of finally getting my hands on her and making her pay for stealing my earbuds just so she could listen to the songs I have on my phone.
“Ooh, I like this one,” she mutters.
“I’m gonna turn off my phone soon if you don’t come out,” I growl back.
“That’s cheating!” she shouts.
