Page 29

DEAN

I hate it here.

I glance around my empty apartment with a heavy feeling in my gut.

I don’t dislike it just because I’m practically starting from nothing and there’s nothing inside.

It’s everything else that’s wrong.

Nothing is where it should be. The layout is flipped and there’s not a single thing in here that feels right .

It’s funny…I used to love my apartment. It was my favorite place in the world. A space that was all my own. Something just for me.

Now when I look around, I notice all the things that are missing.

Starting with her .

I sigh, scrubbing my hand through my hair and tugging on the ends in frustration. I am bored out of my fucking mind. The loneliness I haven’t felt in the last month is kicking in.

I could call up Nolan and see if he wants to get a beer, but not even that sounds appealing. All he’ll do the entire time is look at me with those I told you so eyes he’s had trained my way since I moved out, and I’d rather not be reminded of what a mess this has become.

Leo’s shell knocks against the glass of his terrarium, and I roll my head to the side to find him staring at me. He looks just as pitiful as me.

“I know, buddy. I miss her too.”

How has it only been one week when it feels like a year?

I want to see her.

I need to see her.

I want to know why she wasn’t there the morning I moved out. Why I woke up to a cold bed and haven’t seen her since. Why she’s been hiding in her apartment avoiding me when that doesn’t sound anything like the promises we made.

I want to know why she didn’t ask me to stay.

Why the hell did I want to stay?

I have to stop thinking about this. Have to stop thinking about her.

We said we’d go back to the way things were before. It was just sex, just relieving some tension.

No attachments.

I need to un attach myself from her.

I push myself up off the couch.

If she wants things to be normal between us, then back to normal they’ll be.

Today is Sunday, and I should be at The Gravy Train getting some cherry pie.

It’s exactly where I intend to be.

All week I’ve felt like a bit of a circus sideshow.

Any time I run into someone else in the building, they stare or give me a sad smile, and any time I’ve walked into The Gravy Train, the same thing happens.

Like now.

I guess the news of me moving back into my apartment and River and I no longer spending time together has traveled fast through the busybodies.

I step in line to order my breakfast, Leo tucked safely to my side.

Usually when I bring him here, there are people clambering to see him.

Not today.

It’s like I’m some sort of pariah and I don’t understand why.

I peer around the old diner, and almost everyone who makes eye contact with me quickly looks away.

All right then. Weird.

Then, I see her.

And suddenly I don’t see anything else.

She’s by herself. A cup of coffee and bag of M&M’S I know she’s spent too much time separating sit in front of her.

Her red hair, the sight of which makes my fingers tingle as I vividly recall the feeling of having it wrapped around my fist, is pulled into a tidy bun, a few tendrils hanging down around her face.

Her plain white shirt stands out against the brightness of her hair and her burnt orange shorts.

Her legs are crossed, the top one swinging back and forth with impatience as she waits on Maya and Sam.

Her fingers are busy pushing around the chocolate candies, and it’s the sole focus of her concentration, so it takes her a while to notice my longing stare burning through her—but I know the second she does.

Goose bumps form across her skin, and she turns her head my way.

Even from across the diner, the hitch in her breath when our eyes collide is obvious.

I want to swallow that breath with my own because fuck I have missed her lips.

She sits up straighter on her stool, pushing her shoulders back and averting her gaze.

I smirk, moving forward in the line.

I guess that’s where we’re going with this.

“Hey, Darlene,” I say with a smile when I reach the front counter.

She doesn’t return my pleasantries. Instead, she sighs. “What’ll it be, Dean?”

Okay…

“Just a slice of cherry and a coffee, please.”

“We’re out of cherry.”

“Out?” I slide my gaze to the pie station, which obviously contains two full cherry pies. I point at them. “There’s some right there.”

“Like I said, we’re out,” she insists.

Ah. I see.

She’s mad at me for what happened with River, even though nothing happened with her.

“Can I get the apple then?”

“Out.”

“Pumpkin?”

“It’s summer, kid. You know that’s seasonal.”

“What about blackberry?”

“You’re in luck—we just so happen to have some.”

Of course. Because that’s River’s least favorite kind.

I reach into my wallet to pay and peek over at her.

She’s watching me with a satisfied grin on her face.

Brat.

“Darlene, did I, um, do something to upset you?”

Her eyes flit River’s way. “No.”

I sigh. “You know we didn’t break up, right? We weren’t dating. She was just letting me stay there. That’s all.”

Darlene pins me with a stare. “I wasn’t born yesterday, Dean.

I know you two had a thing and I know you left and moved back into your apartment.

” She points toward River. “I also know that girl hasn’t been in here with a smile since and missed cherry pie day all last week.

” A shake of her head. “If you’re going to go with the ‘just roommates’ bit, might want to make it more believable. ”

With that, she scurries off to grab my order.

I’m left standing there surprised.

River hasn’t been in since I moved out?

That’s…interesting.

And damn surprising.

Maybe my moving out had more effect on her than I thought.

“Thanks,” I say to Darlene when she slides the pie and coffee across the counter. I toss her a big tip in her jar, just to make her feel bad for taking River’s “side.”

She grunts again, and I grab my slice, balancing my plate on Leo’s hut with ease, something I’ve perfected over the last year.

I make my way over to River’s table. Slip onto the stool across from her. Not to be an ass and screw with her, but because I always sit here on Sundays. Besides, it’s a community table. I can sit where I please.

Lucy, who I didn’t even notice before, is sitting in her usual corner. She snickers when I plop down, and I toss her a wink.

“Hey, Lucy.”

Another laugh. “Dean.”

I pull my plate off Leo’s hut and work to get us situated.

“River,” I say to her, reaching for a green M&M.

She slides them all away before I grab hold of one. “Ass.”

She’s not calling me one. She’s using it as my name.

My lips twitch. “No Maya and Sam today?”

“Nope.”

“How have you been?”

“Doing great,” she snaps. “I’ll be even better here soon.”

“That so?”

“Yep. I—oh goodie! Here they are!”

She holds her hands out for the two full pies being thrust her way.

“Thanks, Darlene,” she says. “You’re the best.”

“Anything for you, dear.” She smiles sweetly at her, then shoots daggers my way before returning to her spot behind the counter.

River sets her pies on the table and pops the lid open on one of them. She grabs the fork I didn’t even notice she had and stabs into it.

Right in the middle.

“That is just wrong on so many levels.” I shake my head.

She ignores me as she shoves a forkful of warm cherry pie into her mouth, moaning dramatically around the utensil.

The sound goes straight to my cock, and it twitches with excitement.

Then she drags her tongue slowly over the silverware, making sure to get every last crumb off of it, and I have to spread my legs, needing the room in my jeans.

I swallow thickly, trying to get a hold of myself.

She gives me a mischievous smirk.

She fucking knows what she’s doing to me.

It’s been just over a week since I was inside her, and that’s far too damn long for me, especially with her torturing me like she is.

“ Wow. I think they might have put extra love in these today. This is amazing!”

Another bite. Another fucking moan.

I get it. It’s payback. For all those times I “stole” her pie, even though I always technically bought her some.

But there’s something else to it that feels…vindictive, especially because we’re in public and I can’t do anything about it.

It’s like she’s mad at me for leaving when she’s the one who never asked me to stay.

Part of me wishes we were anywhere else right now so I could talk to her about it.

Another part of me knows being alone with River is only going to lead to one thing, and it’s definitely not part of our “back to being neighbors” plan.

No attachments. Just neighbors.

Last I checked, most neighbors don’t tongue-fuck a fork right in front of you.

Game on, River.