“Nooooo,” I drag, “it’s actually the third wash cycle.”
He chuckles, and I can hear the shower cut on, “I’m going to wash the hospital off of me. Can I call you when I get out?”
“Sure,” I agree, ending the call. Tiptoeing to the laundry room, like there is a need to be sneaky, so I can start the washer for the third time because Eric was right. Those poor clothes will probably be so faded, not to mention the smell. I dump an extra cap of scent booster into the drum and watch as it fills with water. I low-key wish I could drown the noise in my mind with those suds.
An hour later, Eric calls me back, and we talk until he falls asleep on the line like a couple of lovesick teenagers. We talk about everything, and the conversations we have are easy. They flow so effortlessly into one another, and I am positive I’d be happy with doing nothing else but talking to him for the rest of my life.
Except, now the future I see is both Eric and Hanna slipping through my fingertips because the reality here is a good chance of losing them both. Somehow between those thoughts and my seething jealousy for Corey and Topanga, I fall asleep.
CHAPTER 18
ERIC
The backyard is decked out in lights as music fills the night air, dancing bodies scattered everywhere. It’s unseasonably warm for November this year, and most people haven’t closed their pools yet, not that it would matter because mine is heated. So people swim, a few are gathered by a fire pit, and several are at the bar my sister has set up.
A water line busted at Emma and Ty’s house in Legacy Bay, so in a panic, she called me this morning to ask to use mine. I, of course, have trouble saying no. She gives me those piercing baby blue puppy dog eyes, and I’m a goner.
I have been my whole life.
Lainey and her boyfriend, Drayton, are playing chicken in the pool with some other kids. Ty is screaming at the TV on the side of the house with his football buddies, and Emma is… I search the area, an eerie sense of deja vu nearly choking me.
Where is Emma?
I sip on the bourbon in my hand and finally spot Emma near the bar with a man I’m not sure I’ve met and…Jolene?
I tried for three hours to convince her to come to this before zonking out on her last night, and she argued with me only to show up?
The guy reaches his hand out for her to shake, and she accepts. His smug-ass grin does nothing at all for my mood. They all smile at each other, and I can’t help but stare. She looks like a fucking supermodel. A tight black, long-sleeved dress, and her hair hanging in the biggest, sexiest waves I think I’ve ever seen. She’s always beautiful, but standing here in this lighting, she looks like a wet dream.
He hands her a drink and says something that causes her head to tilt back with laughter. Jealousy burns inside me like a goddamn inferno. I want to touch her like that in front of people. I want to jump on the roof and scream to the whole damn neighborhood that I’m desperately in love with her, but I don’t. I don’t move until I see his hand reach for the small of her back to lead her inside behind Emma.
I see five hundred different shades of red, and it feels like literal flames are coming out of my ears. I cross the yard quickly, stepping into the kitchen behind them.
“Get your fucking hands off of her,” I grit, causing all three of them to turn to look at me. He doesn’t move his hand off her back as quickly as I’d like, so I close the gap between us, grabbing his hand myself and slinging it off myself.
“Eric, what that hell?” Emma squeals, but Karly just looks at me, confused.
“He needs to back off,” I growl, “You don’t just grope girls you don’t know.”
Emma puts her hand on my chest, holding me back, “Eric, you need to chill. This is Caleb, Ty’s friend from College. I just introduced them, and he was just being friendly.”
Karly’s cheeks warm, turning red, and we stare at each other for a moment.
“I didn’t realize you had a boyfriend,” Caleb says, stepping back.
“I didn’t realize she did either,” My sassy ass sister chimes in, and Karly’s eyes have never left mine.
“You’ll have to excuse him,” Emma says to Caleb, “He’s obviously unhinged.”
You’re damn right I am. When it comes to some other man’s hands on my girl. Yes, I am absolutely unhinged. The fact that no one knows she’s my girl is just a technicality.
“Right,” Caleb agrees, tipping his glass in Karly’s direction, “It was nice to meet you.”
The second he’s out of earshot, Emma turns to me with a murderous glare.
“What?” I seethe both girls looking at me.
“What happened to—I don’t know how I feel about her?”