HOW I LOST YOU

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

James and I glared at each other over the counter at work. He was working on something at the computer. I was in front cleaning the glass. Kya was in the arena with Indie, cleaning up.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat things for you. You do that on your own. Anything Kya does, you have an excuse for her. Including ruining your trip to Seattle.”

“I wasn’t telling you so you could condemn her. I told you because I’m worried about her.”

Our conversation about her behavior in Seattle was not going the way I planned. James didn’t feel bad for her at all. He thought I should have left her with the sales guy from the get-go.

“That’s not what friends do,” I said.

“Exactly,” he said.

I sighed. Clearly, we couldn’t have a rational talk about Kya. I was getting sick of it. He needed to know the truth and I was sick of holding it back.

“I’m going outside to do the windows,” I told him and left.

I scrubbed at the windows to get rid of some of my frustration and then took a break. My face was tilted up to the sky outside the front of Splatterfest, my eyes closed, enjoying the warmth of the sun when something startled me.

“Grace?”

I spun around, caught taking a break. Then when I saw him, a smile turned up my lips.

“Hey!” I said. “Hi!” My heart thumpity-thumped and the grin on my lips stretched up and an urge to dance tingled in my feet. So much for playing it cool.

“So you got home okay?” Levi stood so close to me I smelled his slightly soapy scent. His hair was wet on the ends. Good grooming habits. I glanced at his face and my hormones swooped into action. My physical reaction to him was much more than friendly, if there’d been any doubt in my mind.

“How was the trip?” he asked, one hand awkwardly behind his back.

I glanced behind me at the building that currently housed Kya and bit my lip, wondering what to tell him. We’d texted of course, but I hadn’t filled him in. Split-second, I decided I didn’t need to. I didn’t want a reaction like James’s.

Instead, I made googly eyes at him and told him a little more about Betty and the other things we’d seen at the show, leaving out the parts involving Kya’s meltdown. The tightness in my gut loosened. My insides smoothed. Telling Levi the good parts brought back some of the excitement I’d been robbed of.

A goofy smile with a will of its own possessed my face. I looked around the empty parking lot. “You’re early. Your league doesn’t start for about forty-five minutes.”

“I came to see you,” he said simply.

My cheeks reddened. “Oh.”

“Actually, I brought you something.” He pulled his hand from around his back and held up a colorful box with a silver flower sitting on top of it. He held it out and I put down the Windex and took the box. Nerds. I lifted the flower to inspect it. It was heavy and the material seemed very familiar. I laughed.

“Is this made from duct tape?”

He grinned again. “Yeah. My dad taught me to make them when I was a kid. He’s kind of a rogue duct-tape crafter.”

“Very cool.” I grinned down at it.

“I never made one for a girl before,” he said.

Music. The words floated into my ears like music. Blushing, I looked into his eyes and we stared at each other, grinning. Swoon. He took a step closer to me. His lips were so close all I had to do was tilt my head up to kiss him.