Time Again

Chapter 2: Not that I was thinking of him shirtless

Adelle

The rest of the week slowly crawled by. I went to class, I went home and did homework. Wes showed up wednesday and that was it. His first week and he was already ditching. Typical. By the time saturday morning came I was anxious over seeing Wes and just wanted to get the study session over as fast as I could. Since there was only one music store on main street I had no problem finding it. "Cripple Creek Music Co." I didn't play any instruments so I had no reason to go inside though I've passed it many times on shopping sprees with my best friend, Abby Trenton.

Walking in, a little chiming bell announced my entry. The music store was cramped with books, sheet music, and instruments. Dust moats swirled in the rich golden light coming from the high windows. I passed a grand piano and ran my hands across the keys, twinkling notes filled the store. Where was Wes? Walking deeper into the store I noticed a spiral staircase leading to what looked like a loft. I put my hand on the polished wood railing and started up.

The loft was a cozy little place with a hideous yellow couch and a ginormous bean bag chair. It had high windows that let in plenty brilliant sunlight. But that was not what caught my attention; shoved up against a floor to ceiling bookcase- which was calling my name- was a random looking hutch and sitting in the middle of it was a steel box, not unlike a small safe. Scattered across the top of the box were five little buttons, each marked with a design of some sort. I started towards it, reaching out my hand to touch it, when something heavy tackled me from behind. I screamed, squeezing my eyes shut as I was thrown to the floor. When I opened my eyes I found Wes five inches away from my face.

"What the heck Wes?" I yelled, placing my hands on his chest and shoving him off.

"You don't like me lying on top of you?" Wes replied mockingly, pulling me up with him.

"Actually I don't." Actually I did. His hands held mine still, so I stepped back, putting much needed distance between Wes and I.

"Well your loss," Wes turned to the hutch and shut the doors before locking it with a small silver key that was attached to a chain hidden under the collar of his shirt. "But you can't touch that hutch or the box within."

"Well you didn't need to knock me to the floor," I voiced.

"My apologies, I didn't mean you any harm," Wes replied, his accent becoming more prominent, "But I couldn't let you touch it."

"You already said that," I crossed my arms.

"It contains extremely valuable documents and things that belonged to my parents. I brought it with me when I moved to the states," Wes explained, ignoring my comment.

"Wow! Thats amazing!" I exclaimed, "How old is it?" My curiosity sparked.

"I can't tell you that," Wes cast his eyes to the floor.

"Why not?" My stubbornness was coming out, my mom tells me it's unbecoming but I couldn't really help it. As Wes's clear agitation became more apparent his accent became more and more thick and it was hard to understand his words.

"Because I can't okay?" Wes said through gritted teeth.

"Where are you from?" I asked, switching the direction of the conversation. Suddenly I craved to know more about him. Where did that come from? I only wanted to get this project done, that's all.

"I'm from a small coastal town in Ireland called Blackrock. I lived there until just recently, when I moved here." I noticed then how gorgeous he really is with his hard mask gone; black, slightly wavy hair that curls under his ears and falls onto his forehead. The lean line of his shoulders and strong look of his arms. I even bet he has a six pack hidden under his black t-shirt. Not that I was thinking of him shirtless.

"Mhm, done looking now?" All openess displayed before was locked away, the cocky arrogance back in it's place, snarky remarks included. My cheeks flamed red.

"Who said I was looking?" Bad comeback Adelle. I reprimanded myself. Just get the project done and this will all be over with sooner. I turned away from Wes and reached into my bag for my laptop.

"Okay so our project is on the spies in the Civil War so we can start by researching a few. I was thinking we could do four spies. Two female, two male, and then display it on a poster board. Is that okay?"

"Sure," Wes says reclining on the bean bag.

"Okay... do you have a laptop or something you can use because it might be hard to just use mine," I asked.

"Yeah I have a laptop," Wes supplies.

"Great."

...

One grueling hour later I had enough of staring at a computer screen.

"Okay, I'm done," I stood up and stretched my arms above my head. Wes looked up from his seat on the bean bag.

"Good 'cause my brain is shot," Wes stood as well. I started gathering up my things.

"Well I think I'm going to go now. Good work today I think we got a lot done," I gathered my things and walked toward the staircase.

"I'll walk you out," Wes moved to follow me.

"On Monday we have the whole period to work on our project so bring all of your research from today and we can start putting the board together."

"Okay," Wes said simply, by then we were at the front of the store.

"Well see you later."

"Yeah bye," Wes seemed to be thinking of something. Like his mind was somewhere else.

I walked out to my car with an odd feeling of loss, even though I was pretty sure I didn't lose anything.

Authors Note

This is the second chapter in Time Again and I am so excited to be writing this book. I started this book in Janurary and already it has been such an journey creating my characters and laying out the plot. If you have any comments on the book or how I can make it better please leave comments. And please vote!! It means so much to me! Thank you so much for reading!