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A shooting star streaks overhead. The fire’s nothing but glowing embers. The magic of the night won’t last much longer. I ease from his arms. He mutters in his sleep protesting. I take a rolled sleeping bag and stuff it in his arms. Deep in slumber, he grumbles but jerks it close. I shove into my jeans, press one last kiss to his lips and murmur my goodbyes.
The trip down is easy since I use the well-marked one, he’s used many times before. Halfway down I turn the flashlight on my cell on. When I finally land safely inside the cab of the truck, turning it over, I flip the visor down.
“What the fuck did you do, Amber?” My hair is wild, sexily tousled. My lips are plump, swollen from his kisses. My eyes are wide and full of knowing. A knowledge of what it feels like to taste the passion movies are made of. I don’t look like a mouse. I’m all woman full of stolen confidence. But I’ll take that. I’ll keep that. What happened here tonight, I’ll take to the grave with me. Mandy can kick my ghost-ass when it’s time for what I did. I flip the visor shut, charge my phone, and carefully drive off. Hopefully, he’ll be too hungover and confused to notice the tracks from the truck.
The smell of him clings to my skin. My eyes are on the road, but they don’t see anything but him. How he looked as he whispered the words locked in his heart. How his eyes gleamed with ownership as they worshipped my body… I wonder if maybe… somehow, someday he could love me? Love Amber instead of Mandy?
It’s a wish I make on a star as I roll down the highway. I slow, finding the dirt road with the broken for sale sign. It seems like days not hours ago, as I drive up to the little log house sheltered by trees.
It’s mine in less than forty-eight hours… I pick up a rock, smashing a pane of glass by the backdoor and turn the lock. I’m already a villain. What’s breaking and entering compared to the crime of stealing love?
Squinting in the dark, I find the master bath turn on the shower, relieved the water’s hot and use someone else’s soap to rinse away a touch I still feel.