Mine to Steal (Mine to Love) (25 page)

She pulls the chair up to the desk and looks me straight in the eye
. “Yes.”

“Let’s get to work, then.”

* * *

“
Alright, Miller,” Faith slaps her hand on the top of the table. “How much longer do you think we need on these? I
need
food.”

The clock on the wall reads ten-twenty and, until she mentioned it, I wasn’t hungry. “We’ve gotten five done. I think this last one will take a little longer, but I’ll order a pizza, that okay?”

She nods and smiles, “yeah, I’m not picky, so whatever you have is good.” Her eyes fall back to the sketch in front of her and I find myself hoping she looks at me like that again.

As I dial the re
staurant I say over my shoulder and smirk, “I like to get anchovies on mine.”

“No you don’t
.” She laughs behind me.

She’s right, I don’t.

Faith continues working on the image and holds it up to show me as I hang up the phone. “Should be here in twenty minutes.” She scrunches her features, as though questioning me. “It’s almost ten thirty. I don’t think they’re too busy.”

“So, how’s it look?” She sets the paper down on the table
, and I go over to check it out. There’s something about this one that doesn’t work, but I can’t put my finger on it. It’s a woman sitting alone by a campfire but she has a device in her hand with a lit screen. It throws off what should be a tranquil moment.

“I think it needs some work
.” I point to the phone and sit down while Faith thinks it over.

“But everyone has their phone with them all the time,” she argues her point by holding hers up.

“When you used to go camping as a kid, what was your favorite part?”

“I don’t know, I guess playing with my brother,” she answers easily
, and I feel bad for asking the question, but I’m trying to make a point.

“What did you and Lennox play?”

“Mom and Dad would bring board games, or we had a soccer ball or -” she cuts herself off, “point taken.”

“I think the woman enjoying the peace and quiet is great, she looks happy. Why don’t we replace the phone with a book, but not a reader, an actual paperback?”

“Disconnect her from technology.” She nods in agreement.

There’s a knock at the office door, so I leave her to work on
it while I pay for our dinner. When I walk back into the office, she’s changing the device out, but stops as soon as she smells the pizza. We move all of the papers out of the way, and I open the box in front of us, foregoing plates altogether.

“I used to love camping with Lennox,” she says through a mouthful of food. “He was always annoyed with me because I was a pest. But when we camped, it was
Len and me and he would show me so much. Mom and Dad never worried about me because he watched me like a hawk.”

“Where was your favorite place to camp?”

“One time, we went to Yellowstone. I was about nine, and I wanted to see bears. Lennox laughed and told me they weren’t teddy bears, that they could be dangerous, but I didn’t care. I wanted to see a damn bear.” She laughs at the thought before taking another bite, recalling more. “Lennox came into my room early one morning, ‘Faith, wake up. I have something to show you,’ he was all excited, and I was trying to wake up. Since I wasn’t moving fast enough, he told me to jump on his back, and he’d carry me. He ran over to the window of the cabin we were in and started pointing, ‘Look out there past the tree line.’

When I
finally spotted it, I saw the most amazing thing ever. There was a momma bear and her cub. Damn I wanted that cub. Len could see it in my eyes, but he warned me to stay away, ‘The momma will eat you alive. So you stay inside until they’re gone.’”

“Did you listen to him?”

“Hell yeah.” She laughs, “He and I may have argued a ton as kids, but I never doubted he took care of me.”

“Don’t all brothers and sisters?” I challenge.

“He was always looking after me, and telling me what to do, even when I didn’t want to hear it. When I was about ten, Lennox knew I had a crush on this guy, and he knew how badly Jett tortured me over it.”

And there’s the reason she hates my brother.

“He told me Jett probably liked me, but it didn’t make any sense to me. That’s when he gave me his philosophy on the boy-girl dynamic. He told me when I found a guy worthy of me, he would treat me like a princess, he’d tell me how beautiful and special I am. And he’d do everything in his power to never hurt me. A few months later, when he died, that piece of advice stuck with me. I was almost eleven, but it was the most real conversation I ever had with him. I carry that, and him, with me every day.”

She reaches into her purse and pulls out her phone. When she separates the protective sleeve from the device a small, worn out image reveals itself. She
runs her thumb over the image briefly before she hands over a school picture of Lennox. Faith’s smile lights up when she talks about her brother.

“Was this the last picture taken?”

“Yeah, his junior year. Read the back.” She nods her head at the image in my hand.

I flip the image over and read the
smudged inscription written in messy writing, but the message is unmistakable.

Hey Kiddo, Always remember you are worth every ounce of effort. Love, Lenny

“Lenny?” I ask before reaching out to hand it back to her. “People really called him that?” I don’t recall anyone calling him anything other than Lennox, but then again, he was older than me.

“I was the only person who
called him by his nickname. Actually, he hated it, but he let me get away with more than he ever let anyone else.”

I laugh at her admission
. “What about your folks?”

As she reaches out to slip the picture from between my fingers, our fingers touch briefly and her eyes
snap to mine as a hint of red comes to her cheeks.

She clears her throat before she answers, but her voice cracks when she speaks. “Nope, not even them.”

“I was a freshmen, so I never got to know him. I know Abby said he was a good guy,” I offer.

“He was a great guy,” she corrects with a smile as she tucks the picture back in its safe
place. The phone clicks into its holder as she looks up at me and bites the corner of her lip. “I haven’t talked about him in a while.”

Not with Brad?

She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “There are times I miss him so much, and it feels like it happened yesterday. Other times, I feel like he’s still here. I pretend he lives in another state, working as some hotshot lawyer or something with a beautiful wife and three amazing kids. And of course he named the girl Faith, after me.” She forces a laugh as she finishes. She appears so young and vulnerable; I like this side of her.
I think I like all sides of her.

“I’m sorry,” are the only words that come out. What do you say to someone who is baring so much? I want to reach out, to hold her or offer some sort of comfort, but I’m attached to my balls
, and I’m pretty sure she’d rip mine off.

“I’m not.” She puts her drink down and gets a serious look. “Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. Go!”

“What?” I laugh at the sudden change in conversation, but not quite following the question. “What do you mean?”

“Which band to you think is a bigger musical influence?”

I shake my head and laugh, finding the sudden shift in conversation confusing. “Are you kidding me? You can’t compare the two.”

“Fine then, pick one. Who’s your favorite?” She crosses her arms
, and I have to raise my eyes to her to avoid being caught staring at her chest.

“Pink Floyd. What about you?”

“Led
,” she answers without hesitation.

I look at her and throw one out
. “The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?”

“Hey, this is my game,” she argues with a smile. “I ask the questions.” She squints her eyes and thinks for a moment before throwing out another. “The Rolling Stones or The Beatles?”

“You can change the order, Faith, but doesn’t make it a different question,” I point out with a laugh.

“Yeah, but now I’m asking.” She
leans forward and throws up a hand. “So?”

“The Rolling Stones.”

“The Beatles,” she answers quickly, and it’s pretty clear this is something she’s thought about before.

“How did we go from talking about your brother to this game?”

She cocks her head to the side and looks around before finally answering, “It was a game Len would play with me. Thought it was a fun way to expose me to ‘good’ music. He always warned me there was no way his little sister was going to be a pop star junkie.” She’s quiet for a moment before she continues. “You know, I like talking about him, and I don’t get to do it too often, so thanks for listening.”

“Thanks for talking.”

We stare at each other for a moment too long, and she breaks away, looking back to the last sketch. “Do you think he’ll like these?”

“He’d be a fool not to,” I confirm as I finally take my eyes off her. “I’ll tweak the last one in the morning before sending it over to him.”

Faith notices the clock and stretches. “I better head out. I have an early meeting, and I can’t show up with bags under my eyes.”

“I’m sure you’ll look as beautiful in the morning as you do now.”

Her eyes are wide, and it’s almost as if she’s stopped breathing. I don’t know where the words came from, but I feel like I might have gone a little too far with that one.

A text comes through from Jett, allowing me to break the awkwardness. He’s checking on me
, and I laugh, holding it up. “Mom’s asking where I’m at.”

She sees Jett’s name and laughs
. “Nice, then you can walk me out.”

We gather all of our stuff
, and I shut off the lights behind us as we leave. She waits with me while I lock the doors, and we continue walking side by side until we reach her car. With everything put away on the passenger seat, she walks back to the front of the car where I’m standing and extends her hand. “Thanks again, Trey.”

Her warm hand in mine fits perfectly
, and we hold on longer than necessary, both of us with our eyes locked on them.

Would she hit me if I pulled her to me and kissed her right now?

Before I can give it much consideration, she lets go of my hand and leans forward as if to give me a hug but stops herself mid-lunge.

“For everything,” she adds with finality.

Our gaze breaks
, and I wonder if that’s my cue to take the lead. But there’s a faraway look in her eyes, and I want to know what she’s thinking, but I don’t ask. As Faith turns to walk away, I reach out for her hand and give it a small squeeze in hopes she will turn to me again.

My lips quirk in a lopsided smile before I speak.
“Anytime.”

Slowly, she
slips her hand from mine and nods before walking away. I miss the connection the second it’s broken.

Topher, a guy from my hometown, c
alled yesterday to let me know that he was going to be in town. He’s visiting Denver with his fiancée and some others I used to know. I have so much going on, but when I tried to tell him that, he pushed until I finally caved. I figured I might as well, since I’d probably need to get out after presenting everything to Cavette the other day. He’s not quick in making decisions, so we’ll see how things turn out.

It’s Friday night
, and I find myself standing in front of
Wired Spirits
waiting for everyone to show up, when all I want to do is go home.

Jett already went inside to meet Cayenne -
Cheyenne
.
Shit
, I need to remember her name, but it’s hard when Jett calls everyone by the stupid nicknames he gives them.

“Holy shit, you showed!” I turn to see Topher with his arm around a petite blonde who’s wrapped on his arm like a vine. “I thought for sure you were going to bail.”

“Thought about it,” I answer before giving him a single-armed hug. “How ya been, man?”

“Not bad. Trey, I’d like you to meet Gabby, my
fiancée.”

She dips her chin as her cheeks flush but steps forward to take my hand. She seems very timid, completely opposite of Topher.

“Congratulations,” I say to Topher, before I look back to her. “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?”

She laughs and relaxes into him when he wraps his arm around her. “Yeah, I think I’ll keep him.”

Topher and I graduated from high school together, but the other two guys with him, I recognize, but they were younger than us. I’m willing to bet they know my brother. “Ready to head in? Jett’s already here, hopefully he got a table for us.”

“No shit, Jett’s here?”

“Didn’t I tell you that he moved out here?”

“Must have slipped your mind when we talked for all of thirty seconds yesterday
.” He slaps my back and walks past me into the entrance gripping Gabby’s hand.