Shattered Edge(32)

“Have you told anyone?”

I grunted. “I went to admin but everything was closed up. The weekend you know.”

“You need to notify them first thing Monday morning.”

“Yeah, that’s my plan. What is it with these nut jobs? I’ve never given her any indication that I was interested in her. I even told her I was seeing someone.” I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my pounding head.

“Crazies. They’re everywhere. Just be careful Justin. You never know.”

My phone beeped. I looked down to see a text from Terri.

“Damn it,” I said out loud.

“Bad news?”

“Yeah. It seems I’m in the middle of a shit storm right now.”

I left the room and called her. Her house had been broken into. The window had been smashed. She was fine, but the police had notified her and her dad was on the way there to check things out. The police had recommended for her to stay away and I agreed. She was going to text me when she heard more.

Well, I thought, things couldn’t get much worse. I was wrong. They would go from bad to really bad right before the bottom fell out.



********



Later that evening when I made it home for a couple of hours, I found Terri in the den watching a movie.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were on your way here? I would’ve made you something to eat. You must be starved.”

“Hey, no worries. I’ll just grab whatever’s in the fridge. So did they get everything worked out at your house?”

She followed me into the kitchen and answered, “Yeah. My dad has a window guy coming in tomorrow. They boarded it up so it’s okay for now.”

“Good. I’m glad you weren’t there when it happened babe.” I gave her a tight hug.

She squeezed me back and said, “Yeah, me too. Thanks for letting me take over your place Justin. You’ve been the best.”

I leaned back and brushed her hair back. Her eyes had tiny crinkles around the edges and dark circles beneath them. I ran my thumbs along them in the hopes of easing her mind a bit. “Honey, everything will all work out just fine. Preston will leave town again and things will go back to normal before you know it.”

She shook her head, “I don’t know Justin. Something is so different this time. I’m just so worried, not about me, but about him. I can’t help but think back when we were kids. I always looked up to him. All my friends had crushes on him. And now...he’s nothing but an ex-con with a heroin habit. Just imagine if that would be Pearce.”

My heart sank into my gut when she said that. I hadn’t thought about it that way. If either of my brothers, the two people I loved the most, ever went that route, I would want to bleed right along with them. “Oh Terri. I can’t. I’m just so damn sorry you have to deal with this. Please promise me something.”

“What?”

“Look, I know how hard this must be, but please don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said nodding.

“If he calls you, don’t meet him or anything. He was way too aggressive towards you and I can’t bear the thought of him laying a hand on you.”

We stood in the kitchen as I waited for the microwave to ding. She was dressed in a sexy pair of low cut black yoga pants with a matching black tank top and a little jacket over it. Her hair hung down her back and she wasn’t wearing any make up at all. She smelled like lavender and all I wanted to do was tangle my body in hers and kiss her like crazy. There went that little thing poking me on the inside of my chest again. My gut tightened right along with it as I watched her eyes go all soft on me. She lifted herself up on her tip toes and circled her arms around my neck. Now why’d she have to go and do that? My whole body responded with a jerk and I saw her eyes widen as she felt it too.

She pulled my head down and right when my mouth was on hers, she said, “I felt you Justin. Let me just say I’m glad I’m not the only one.”

“Babe, no worries about that,” I said back.

“Thanks for being here for me.”

The microwave started going BEEP BEEP BEEP. It was probably a good thing because we were both on fire for each other. I could see it in the rise and fall of her chest, in the way her heart was beating faster, in the flush of her skin.

“I’m glad to be here for you.”

BEEP BEEP BEEP

“You need to eat Justin.”

“Yeah.”

She finally released her hold on me, but I could tell she didn’t want to. I huffed as I pulled the plate out and set it on the counter. She moved to take the seat next to me, but I couldn’t allow that. I pulled her onto my lap instead and had her sit there while I ate. She even started feeding me after a while. It was with great sadness when I cleaned my plate. We laughed and I asked her if she could feed me dessert. She brought out some cookies I had in the cabinet.