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We both looked over at the property teeming with twenty-somethings out on the patio, a girl being hauled over some guy’s shoulder as a glass bottle shattered on the pavement.
Sighing, I tucked my legs closer to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees like a hug. Or a shield. “You should go find your daughter,” I said, watching as he stared off over his shoulder, deciding on his next move. He could stay with me, teasing this connection and weaving it into something with knots and barbs.
Two strangers on a lakefront, destined for nothing.
No good story ever started that way.
Reed nodded slowly, returning his attention to me. We seized, held, and nurtured the interval for what it was.
A fleeting moment.
A blip.
Then he blinked, rose to his feet, and towered over me as he gazed down at my lake-laden form. My hand was linked around my opposite wrist, cradling both legs as I pressed my chin to my kneecaps and peered up at him.
His eyes swirled with misfire before he glanced away. “Goodnight, Halley Like the Comet.”
I smiled softly. “Goodnight, Reed.”
Hesitation gripped him for one more heartbeat before he scrubbed a hand over his face, through his hair, and spun around to retreat.
I tracked him as he stalked away, over the hill, and past Jay’s house.
Out of sight. Out of reach.
Forever on the distant side of the waterline.
CHAPTER 2
An hour later, my back was pressed to a stale-water-blue couch in the main bedroom as my hand loosely curled around a plastic cup of warm beer. Black by Pearl Jam blasted from a speaker across from me, mingling with chaotic laughter, clinking glassware, and someone shouting “chug, chug, chug” from the adjacent living area.
I scanned the room, my gaze landing on the shelving units next to the bed, filled with hundreds of CDs.
I’d ventured off by myself after deciding there was nobody here of value to me. Not anymore. No connection to foster, no friendly face, no compelling man to take me home and offer me a few hours of surface-level solace. Regardless, I needed a place to sleep for the night, so I’d settle for Jay’s tattered blue couch. I could pretend I was passed-out drunk, then head home when the sun crested.
Cold, wet, and alone, I nursed my beer and stretched out my legs, trying to get comfortable as I zoned out to the song.
But I wasn’t alone anymore.
A shadow loomed in the doorway, and my skin prickled with awareness. Familiarity. I lifted my chin, glancing right, and my breath caught like a rock in my throat.
I never expected to see him.
Not again. Not ever.
Leaning against the doorframe, hands shoved into his pockets and leather coat draped over his broad shoulder, Reed stared at me, his features illuminated with bulb light.
Our gazes met, tangled, and clenched. I couldn’t hide my wide-eyed expression or steady the newly erratic beats of my heart.
He was devastatingly attractive.
The stars and moon had done him no justice, and I resented them for that.
People always said that in the harsh light of day, the rose-colored glasses fell off and you saw things for what they really were. I’d experienced my fair share; a few random hookups to dull the stab of loneliness and heartache. It had felt so warm and fulfilling at the time, heady in the moment. But then the sun would rise, casting new light on the guy sprawled out naked beside me, drooling into a starchy pillow. Nose too big. Hair too short. Skin too sallow. Whatever connection had bloomed within the shadows, burnt away to ashes come sunrise. Warmth chilled, and fulfilling moments never stretched long enough for me to fully embrace them.
Temporary.
But beneath the brassy light fixture overhead, I was able to finally get a good look at Reed as he pulled up from the frame and sauntered toward me.