Anything but Minor - Kate Stewart Page 0,41

to. Her stare was like a drug, and I couldn’t wait for my next fix. I was leaving today for a four-game series in Savannah and wouldn’t be back for another two weeks. I wondered briefly if she would make the drive down to attend a game and stay with me after. I wanted her there, and the thought made me smile. Being inside her had set my soul on fire. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had quenched my thirst. And this woman...this woman was everything. She’d completely rocked my world last night with her skill set. I almost didn’t believe her when she’d told me she’d only slept with one other man. I would erase that asshole from her memory. She’d denied me when I’d asked her to be mine, and honestly, I was up for the chase. It was all I had done since I’d met her, anyway. I looked forward to it, and as soon as I walked out of the bathroom, it was game on.

I was toweling off when the awful stench of something burning hit me, and I called out to her.

“You okay in there?”

Seconds later, the alarm went off, and I hustled to the kitchen to see the shirts on the counter and one smoking on the stove.

“What the fuck?!” I looked around the living room. “ALICE?” But I knew it was pointless. She was gone. I pulled the ruined t-shirt from the stove and ran water over it before I silenced the alarms. I stood confused in my kitchen as I thought of what she could possibly be thinking when it hit me.

“Fuck.”

I looked down at my phone in the back of the sedan and sighed. “Hi, Mom.”

“Alice, how are you?” I rolled my eyes. Her tone seemed indifferent, as if the call was obligatory.

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“I’m well, thank you for asking.”

“I apologize for not asking. I’m distracted.”

Just then, a beep interrupted our call, and I ignored it when I saw Rafe’s name. I looked at my phone just as the driver pulled into the bar parking lot.

Rafe: Call me NOW!

I hadn’t said a word to the driver aside from the address but knew he was paid so I exited the car and got into my Prius. It was only fitting I took the drive of shame in last night’s clothes while I spoke with my puritan mother.

Rafe made you feel this way. Don’t forget that.

“What’s distracting you?”

“Work, of course,” I said with a dry tone—a tone acceptable to her. Any sort of excitement or animation on my part had always been deemed unnecessary. The woman was allergic to happiness.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll handle it. You’ve always been a smart girl.”

“Thank you.” A compliment was a nice change of pace. So I asked her genuinely, “How are you, Mother?”

She spent the better part of twenty minutes telling me about church, about a small bridge club scandal that involved...she lowered her voice to a whisper “infidelity with one of the player’s husbands with another’s wife.”

I listened halfheartedly while mentally kicking myself for letting myself feel for Rafe.

He’d been so gentle, so completely perfect. I let a single tear slip down my cheek.

Friendship over.

Alone again.

I ended the call with my mother and decided to hit the store before I went home. Carbs and movies had to fix this. I had nothing else. I pushed my cart down the aisle in last night’s dress, completely dazed. I had only grabbed a box of Twinkies and was sure I’d spent an hour just circling the store.

“Hey, you,” Kristina greeted me from out of nowhere. “You must live close.” She eyed my dress and gathered her conclusion which, unfortunately, was the right one. She saw my face fall as I nodded my head in agreement and then let the budding tears fall.

“I’m such an idiot.”

Kristina quickly looked around us and moved toward me. “No, you aren’t. You’re just a victim to his charms like the rest of us. Come on,” she said as she put my box of Twinkies in her cart and began grabbing everything I would have, had I been in the right state of mind.

“You’re coming with me,” she said as she grabbed two bottles of wine. “We’ll make it a lazy ‘Fuck Men’ day, and hang at the pool.”

“Where’s Dillon?”

“With his grandmother, thank Jesus. I was going to do this alone, but now I have you.”

“I won’t be much for company. I don’t have a suit,” I said as she pulled