Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Then he became more than that. He had followed me to Nashville. We had just fallen into a relationship. It had seemed simple. Like it was expected. As if it had been what was supposed to happen. But deep down I had known I could never love him the way he wanted me to. I did try, though. I did.
His final words to me had been “You didn’t completely walk away from Asa Griffith’s truck that day. You left part of yourself behind. I can’t keep waiting on you to get it back.”
Until today I had thought those parting words were ridiculous. I had told myself Malecon had wanted to hurt me because my not being able to love him had hurt him. So he went after something in my past he remembered that had broken me, but I was over that. I was a grown woman now. I had even called him immature for bringing it up.
Now, I wasn’t so sure if there wasn’t some very tiny bit of truth to his words. I did not think I left a significant part of myself behind with Asa. That would be insane. I had moved on, gotten a degree, made new friends, found a new life. I rarely thought of him. Well, maybe once or twice a week. But that was normal. He had been my first love and sadly my only love.
The door swung open and banged against the wall as Teresa came rushing inside. “I need help! I need an excuse to get out of this house tonight. There is this guy…” She began to prattle on so quickly I only caught bits and pieces of what was said. My own problems continued to plague me while I tried to follow along with Teresa’s.
I wasn’t sure, but by the time we went down to dinner I thought I might be a part of a plan to leave the house after dinner to go to the drive-in movie with her, although she wouldn’t really be watching it with me. I doubted our parents believed this, but then she seemed certain they would. I decided I would go along with it. Besides, who doesn’t like to go to the drive-in and watch a movie alone?
CHAPTER FIVE
ASA
Trying to get my mind off Ezmita I spent the rest of my day visiting some friends. It was just before eleven when I pulled back into the parking lot of the hotel. Nash had ended up inviting over several people to his house, and we had ordered Chinese food and sat in wooden Adirondack chairs in his backyard around a metal firepit drinking beer like middle-aged men. It had been nice.
Ryker and Aurora had arrived in town last week to prepare for this weekend’s events. With Ryker now playing for the Cowboys, it made it harder for him to get back to Lawton regularly, but his plan wasn’t to stay in the NFL long. Just a few years, then he wanted to come back and settle down in Lawton. Aurora hadn’t come to Nash’s with Ryker. No one brought a girlfriend with them, and I wondered if that was because of Nash’s single status, but I didn’t ask.
I was walking across the parking lot when I saw headlights pull into the Stop and Shop and then park around the back beside the house. It wasn’t my business who it was, and it was late. Ezmita had sisters who could drive by now. I kept telling myself that, among other things, but instead of continuing to walk toward the hotel entrance, I turned and walked across the street.
The car lights were still on as I crossed the empty street, and I could see a definite female getting out of the driver’s side door. I made longer strides, and just when I reached within a few yards of the car, I heard voices and realized the driver wasn’t alone.
“If we are caught, they can’t ground me. You realize that? This is all on you,” Ezmita said.
“We were at a movie,” the other female voice replied.
“No, I was at a movie. I don’t know what you were doing,” Ezmita said.
She was with her sister, I realized. I didn’t know which one. I stepped under the security light so they could clearly see me before speaking. “I hope it was a good movie at least.”
Both heads spun around and looked at me with wide eyes. Ezmita didn’t look scared, just surprised. She would have recognized my voice. Her sister, however, began to curse in Spanish, then asked Ezmita if I was there to see her.
“Go inside, Teresa,” Ezmita replied to her sister. “And try not to get caught,” she added in Spanish this time.
Teresa studied me closely a moment, then smiled as if she approved before doing as her sister told her. Before she went inside, she called out, “You need to make this one stay. He’s much better than the last one. He’s a brick wall of sexy!” She said it in Spanish.