Ignite (23 page)

She damn sure never looked at me like that.

They’re in the process of trying to pull a book shelf out when I make it over, pulling Addie’s attention to me.

“Hey,” I call out. “We’ll help you.”

“Zeke, you don’t have to…” she starts, but I cut her off.

“We don’t mind,” I say with a smile.

“Thank you,” she says softly.

“Sure thing, babe,” I tease as I lift the other end of the bookcase she’s struggling with, shooting her a wink and watching the blush fill her cheeks. “Your boyfriend’s a dick, by the way.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Brittany calls out as she passes us with two duffle bags.

“You don’t seem to be a fan, either,” I say as we make our way up the steps.

“Not a huge one,” she admits, causing my eyebrows to shoot up in surprise.

“So you’re moving your shit into his apartment, why?” I ask, heading toward the master bedroom when she shakes her head.

“In here,” she says, gesturing toward the second, smaller bedroom.

At first, I’m assuming she’s putting her things in there temporarily. As we walk inside though, its set up like a darker, more mature, toned down version of her old room. Glancing down at her in confusion, she lets out a sigh and swallows hard, moving passed me to take a box from Brittany, setting it in the closet.

“How’s your mom doing?” she asks, changing the subject.

“Good,” I tell her, following her out of the room and shaking my head at Chad who’s sitting on the couch, laughing into his phone. “I saw your dad a few months ago.”

“Yeah, he told me you were home,” she says, as we slowly make our way to the truck.

“I asked him about you,” I admit. “He said you haven’t been home in a while.”

“No, I haven’t,” she says. “Between class, work, volunteering at the shelter and tutoring, I had a hard time getting back last semester.”

“Yeah, I know how that is,” I sigh, meeting her eyes and swallowing the lump in my throat. As I watch her eyes grow softer, I decide to change the subject, kicking myself internally. “So did you transfer?”

“Yeah,” she nods quietly. “I applied to the vet program here a couple years ago and I got accepted.”

“I didn’t know you did that,” I say, her words causing me to stop me in my tracks and look down at her in surprise.

“I didn’t think I’d get in,” she admits. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up, so I didn’t tell anyone.”

“Well, that’s really cool,” I smile. “So you’ll be around for a couple years, then?”

“I’ll be enrolled at A&M for a couple years,” she starts. “I only signed a six-month lease, so I’ll only be your neighbor until November thirtieth.”

“You sick of living next door to me already?” I tease as I follow her up the steps, unable to keep my eyes off of her ass.

“Never,” she smiles as we set the last two boxes down, facing each other.

“Do you have anything in his truck?” I ask, watching her shake her head.

“No,” she says. “I think that’s it. I just need to go lock everything up now.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

“Okay.”

As we make our way outside, I don’t miss the way she slows her steps. I’m sure she notices when I slow mine, too, but she doesn’t say anything. Once we make it back to her door, she lets out a small sigh and faces me.

“Thanks again for helping,” she smiles. “Will you thank Josh, too?”

“Sure,” I nod, watching her absentmindedly begin to chip her nail polish. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she says, shaking her head clear of her thoughts and taking a step forward to wrap her arms around me, giving me a quick hug.

Out of habit I kiss her hair, smiling to myself when she hugs me tighter.

“Night,” I whisper as she releases me, reluctantly moving toward my door.

“Goodnight,” she says softly, speaking again as I reach my apartment. “Hey Zeke?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t really have a lot going on tomorrow,” she starts. “If you have time, do you wanna hang out?”

“Sure,” I smile, giving her a nod. “You still get up around eight?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” I nod. “I’ll be around in the morning.”

“’Kay,” she says, smiling wide. “Catch ya on the flippity flop.”

Addie

As I hear the front door click, I can’t stop the corners of my mouth from turning up slightly. I knew things would be awkward, especially at first, but for the first time in two years, I feel something close to alive.

“Addie?” Brittany calls from my room, breaking me from my trance. “Where do you want me to put these boxes?”

“I’m coming,” I call back, walking into my room and pushing the door shut behind me.

The second it clicks closed and I turn to her, I can’t stop the giggle that leaves my lips. The maniacal smile that crosses over her face is ridiculous, but pales in comparison to the dance she breaks out into.

“Oh my God!” she starts, the way she whispers almost silently and grabs my arm, shaking me excitedly a complete contrast. “Addie! He lives next door!”

“I know!” I mouth a silent scream, my excitement matching hers as we jump in place, careful not to make any noise.

“What are you going to do?” she asks, pulling me to sit beside her on my bed.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I mean, what the hell
can
I do? He thinks I’m with Wonder Rat!”

“You have to tell him,” she says, keeping her voice low, her eyes growing wide in disbelief when I shake my head. “Addie, you have to! You two
have
to be together! You can’t spend the next six months living with this jerk. If you tell Zeke, he might be able to help you.”

“Or he might be so mad at me for breaking his heart that he tells me to go to hell,” I counter.

“He is so not gonna tell you that,” she rolls her eyes. “Did you see the way he was looking at you? He totally still loves you, Addie.”

“Brittany, I can’t just go over there after everything I put him through and start asking him to fix my disaster of a life two years later. I’m surprised he even wants to talk to me. Not to mention, I don’t know what his life is like anymore. Even if he could help me, which I doubt, I don’t know that he would,” I whisper, chipping away at my black nail polish. “What if he’s still mad at me? Or seeing someone?”

The thought of the latter pushes a wave of nausea through my body and I put my head in my hands, letting out a groan.

“I get what you’re saying,” she admits after a minute. “Maybe you’re right to wait to talk to him about anything, but can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”

“If the shoe had been on the other foot two years ago and he’d been the one to end things,” she starts. “Would you hate him?”

“No,” I say immediately. “I could never hate him.”

“And he could never hate you. If he was still mad or holding a grudge, he wouldn’t hug you or smile at you or any of the other things he was doing,” she shrugs, giving me a small smile. “Besides, nobody smells a person’s hair if they’re not in love with them.”

Her words make me smile, both with the promise of hope and the pure hilarity of her logic. Before long, I’m laughing,
really laughing,
for the first time in far too long.

The tap on my door pulls my attention away before I watch it swing open, revealing Chad on the other side.

“Addison? Can you come here for a second?” he asks, pulling a nod from me and shutting the door shut behind us before gesturing for me to follow him to the couch. “Sit with me. I wanna talk to you before I go to bed.”

“Okay,” I say, taking the spot at the opposite end of the couch and facing him. “What’s up?”

“I know that you’ve got a lot to do before bed, so I won’t keep you,” he starts with a sigh. “I have to work in the morning, though, so I thought we’d best go over my expectations while you’re here.”

“I thought we already did that? I live here, date you for six months with no pressure of sex and pay you back the money,” I say in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“First of all, we’re not dating, Addison. You’re
mine
,” he corrects. “So, unless you want to void our arrangement, there are certain things I’ll expect from you while you’re here.”

“I’m
not
having sex with you,” I snap, my temper flaring. “That wasn’t part of the deal, Chad. You signed the fucking…”

“First of all, that mouth of yours? That shit’s gonna stop,” he cuts me off, raising his blonde eyebrow at me and waiting for me to calm before he continues. “I’m not talking about sex. Despite what you might think, I’m not a complete dick, but there are gonna be some rules.”

After nothing for a moment, I nod slightly and wait for him to elaborate.

“I know you don’t have a job yet, so you can’t start paying me back right away,” he says, his voice softer. “You can take tomorrow to get your things sorted, but after that you’ll need to start looking.”

“Okay,” I agree to this easily, knowing the faster I find work, the faster I won’t owe him anything.

“Starting tomorrow night, you’ll sleep in my bed with me until you can start paying me back,” he starts, raising his finger to stop the objection he knows is coming. “I won’t touch you sexually unless you ask me to, but you’re going to have to be reasonable.”

“What do you consider reasonable?” I manage.

“I’m not gonna give you a freakin’ list,” he sighs. “I won’t touch your tits or your pussy and I won’t rub my dick all over you unless you ask me to, how’s that,
babe
?”

“Chad, don’t call me…”

“That’s another thing,” he says. “Don’t tell me what to call you. You made me look like a fuckin’ prick out there earlier.”

“I’m sorry. I just have a thing with babe and baby,” I say, trying to sound like I mean it. “It brings up some hard memories for me.”

“I didn’t know that,” he says, his voice surprisingly apologetic. “Look, I’m not here to mistreat you, Addison. Believe it or not, I’m not a horrible person. I’m not going to abuse you, but I would appreciate some respect. I shelled out a lot of money to help you. I won’t keep rubbing it in your face,” he promises. “But while you’re here, along with regular roommate shit, yes, you’re
going
to keep up your end of the agreement.”

“Okay,” I say quietly.

“I work long days, so if you’re here at night, you’ll handle dinner and eat with me. You’ll go out with me at least one night a week which includes you sleeping in my bed. The other nights, you can stay in there,” he says, waiting for me to nod my agreement. “ You’re a reflection of me, so you need to act accordingly.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I want you to look good when I see you and when you leave this apartment,” he starts. “You’re not going to date other men, flirt with them, none of that shit.”

“Anything else?”

“That’s the bulk of it. There are a few other things, but nothing we can’t talk about tomorrow,” he says, glancing over at me. “I’m going to bed.”

“Okay, goodnight,” I say, standing at the same time as him.

Moving back toward my bedroom, he grabs my arm with gentle force and pulls my attention to him.

“Addison,” he says as I take a step toward my bedroom, grabbing my arm with gentle force and pulling my attention to him. “Come here.”

“Yeah?”

Before I can stop it, his lips are on mine. It doesn’t last long, but it’s enough to have me screaming on the inside. Pulling away, his green eyes hold mine for a moment before he breaks the silence.

“I shouldn’t have had to tell you to do that,” he says quietly. “Don’t make me again.”

Unable to speak, I simply nod my understanding as he releases his grip on me and tells me goodnight. His door isn’t closed for more than a couple seconds before the tears are springing up behind my eyes.

Retreating to the small bathroom beside my room, I lock myself inside and let them come, turning on the sink to drown myself out. Aside from sleeping in his bed, his list of demands doesn’t contain much I hadn’t already expected. That’s not the thing that has me crying.

The thing that has me a sobbing mess is that up until five minutes ago, Zeke was the last man, the
only
man, to ever kiss me.

Zeke

I laid awake, tossing and turning all night thinking about Addie.

That wasn’t much of a difference from every other night. Long before she broke my heart, even before she stole it and made it her own, I’d found my thoughts on her every night. The difference this time was knowing that for the first time in too long, she was only a few feet away from me.

Something about that fueled the desperation a little more.

I worried it would be awkward to hang out with her again after everything that happened with us.

I wondered what the deal was with her and Chad.

I replayed the way the golden star I’d given her for the Christmas the year she was mine still sparkled against her collarbone.

I thought about the way she was the same, but somehow different at the same time.

At first glance, the difference is all surface. Her hair is shorter, her makeup dark. She no longer wore the same bright, vibrant colors, but it’s more than that. The second I looked into her hazel eyes, I knew the changes in her ran deeper than material and makeup.

For the first time since I’d known her, her hazel eyes didn’t hold their adventurous, mischievous sparkle. In their place, her eyes showed sadness, held secrets.

I replayed that day two years ago in my mind for the umpteenth time, trying to figure it all out. I knew I wouldn’t. I knew the only way I’d ever have any chance of understanding would be hearing it from her, but I couldn’t stop the obsessive thoughts.

Most of all though, I wondered about that spark. If that tiny ray of something that had vanished the second she wasn’t mine anymore had shot back through her soul the same way it did mine the instant we touched.

As I walk across the eight feet of concrete that separates her door from mine, I consider turning around for a moment before the door swings open.

“Hey Zeke!” Brittany says, smiling brightly and dragging me inside. “Addie’s in the shower.”

“Hey,” I manage, turning to find her blocking the door with a wide smile. “Uh… should I come back late…”

“No!” she says, making me jump before lowering her voice. “Sorry, I had coffee. Don’t be silly. Come on in and make yourself comfortable. She’ll be done in a minute.”

“You obviously haven’t spent a lot of time waiting for her to get out of the shower,” I smirk, remembering her history of ridiculously long showers.

“She takes them super fast now,” Brittany says as she gestures for me to follow her into the living room.

“Well, that’s new,” I say.

“Yeah, she does lots of things different now,” she sighs. “Sometimes it’s really annoying.”

“That’s sweet,” I joke.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love Addie to death, but she’s very stubborn. Sometimes that makes her do things that make me want to claw her pretty little eyes out,” she starts, facing me with a smile as she rises with her coffee cup. “Coffee?”

“Sure,” I chuckle, following her into the kitchen. “So how long are you…”

“Can I ask you something?” she cuts me off.

“Uh… sure?”

“You won’t lie to me, right?” she asks, narrowing her eyes. “I’ll know. I have a sense for this kind of crap.”