And I began to run.
I started off slow then increased my speed, running like something that was going to end my existence was chasing me. I envisioned leaving my problems in a pile behind me withering on the ground as they gasped their last breath. My resilience grew with each step as my feet hit the pavement. I didn’t have a care in the world until I passed the four-mile marker and spotted a man selling roasted peanuts from a cart. The smell held a temptation that once again left me weak.
For fuck’s sake, I was easy. Thankfully, I had a twenty dollar bill in the pocket of my shorts.
With a warm bag of nuts clutched in my hand, I made my way to a park bench just off the edge of the graveled path facing the water. I cracked open a couple and tossed them into my mouth when a crowd of bushy tailed squirrels appeared. Flinging them a couple of the nuts, I laughed when they picked them up in their tiny hands and rapidly ate them.
Except for a lingering hollowness in my chest, I was feeling somewhat better. What weighed upon me the most was knowing my draft on Dr. Ass was incomplete since I had ripped it to shreds the last time I’d looked at it.
I sighed and chewed some more. Okay, so maybe somewhat better was incorrect. I was still pissed, confused, and hurt. I didn’t understand where I stood with Kean Bennett. It irked me that I had allowed him to constantly push and pull, back and forth. I would get an inkling that he felt something for me, then I got hit with the no commitment speech. He let me stay the night and treated me to several rounds of extremely hot sex and then he lost his temper and informed me I was a waste of his time. Knowing the man was making me seasick.
On top of all that, I still didn’t have a clue who tipped me off about his father. Based on the pressure Shawna was putting on me to include Kean’s personal information in my article and the encouragement I was getting from Stuart to add the incident from high school, I heavily suspected either one of them. But why be so secretive about it? If they knew all about him, why not just come out and include it in the magazine themselves? The only reasons I came up with were maybe they didn’t have all their facts straight or they were afraid of Kean.
My cell sang Melany’s theme song, fittingly scaring the squirrels who chittered loudly from where they were spread out around the bench. Answering it didn’t appeal to me but I had been avoiding her for a while now and felt obligated to pick up.
“Hey, Melany.” I threw another couple of shelled nuts into my mouth.
“If I didn’t know you better, Ciaran, I would think you are avoiding me,” Melany snapped.
I had been avoiding her my entire life but didn’t have the strength to get into that type of discussion over a long distance phone call.
“Guess what? Estaban took me scuba diving today. Me. Scuba diving, Ciaran,” she sang out.
“I thought the name of the guy you went with was Chris?” I asked, confused.
“You’re so self-absorbed. I told you Chris and I broke up last week when I ended up in Estaban’s hotel room and accidentally had sex with him. I don’t know why I bother sharing things with you when you only ever think of yourself.”
The news of Melany’s breakup and rapid reattachment halted my chewing. I was pretty sure she hadn’t mentioned it all because there was no way in hell I would have forgotten a tiny detail like that.
“How do you end up in the wrong hotel room and accidentally fall on a guy’s dick?”
“It wasn’t my fault. I got confused. All these rooms look the same and Estaban’s room was right next to the one Chris and I were in. That shit falls on the hotel. You know I would file a complaint but they honestly did me a favor,” Melany whined.
“I can’t believe you treated Chris like that after he paid for your trip to begin with. Do you know how wrong that is?”
Not wanting anymore nuts, I set the bag next to me on the bench and kicked a foot out to shoo away the squirrels who were creeping up closer than I was comfortable with.
“Ciaran, it’s no wonder you can’t find a real man. Estaban is wealthy. Like, really wealthy.”
I rolled my eyes and in my peripheral vision caught movement down the pathway.
A man was jogging shirtless while next to him a skinny platinum blonde kept his pace. I refused to look directly at them but I could tell the tiny, hot pink sports bra the woman had on was struggling to contain her supersized, bouncing chest. I giggled like an adolescent and wanted to turn to get a better look but didn’t want to seem like a creeper.
Biting my bottom lip so I wouldn’t burst out laughing, I continued to listen to Melany gloat over her luck. When the couple pounded closer I finally got a good look at them and instantly regretted it.
I knew that male muscular chest.
Keeping the cell phone pressed tightly to my ear I dropped my chin and said a silent prayer to become invisible. As I waited for them to pass the bench, my inner voice mercilessly shouted that this was the reason why I didn’t fall for men like Kean. They have no problem fucking you right out of your stilettos and discarding you like a piece of trash immediately afterwards in order to move on to someone else.
When Kean and the blonde finally passed where I sat, I hung up on Melany. Grabbing the nuts, I scrambled off the seat but unfortunately lost my grip. The bag slipped from my hand and nuts scattered onto the gravel pathway in front of my feet.
The squirrels went berserk. They sprang out from all directions jumping at my legs and made me lose my balance.
My body met the gravel with a painful thump.
The bastard rodents didn’t mind one bit. They swarmed around and over my legs as their number multiplied and their chittering became deafening. And they were hostile. I did the first thing that came to mind and screamed for my life. Tails twitching, they completely ignored my wailing as they continued to fight over the nuts I was sitting in. I screamed again.
“You might want to stop screaming before a park ranger accuses you of squirrel harassment,” Kean said from above me and the angry hoard.
Was there no one else in this whole damn park that could see my predicament? No one else who could hear me and come to my rescue? Did it have to be the ass I despised?
A squirrel scampered across my lap.
“Oh my God, will you please help me up. I’m scared to move,” I cried.
Kean laughed as he stepped around the fur balls closest to me. I hated him more for finding the situation funny. I eyed the fuzzy butts secretly hoping one with rabies would bite him on the ankle.
“I swear, Kean, if they bite me because you’re laughing, I’m holding you personally responsible for the damages to my body.”
Kean grumbled something I didn’t hear because I was too distracted by one fat squirrel who was pounding his tiny fists on his chest in some type of war dance just inches away from my arm. Meeting my widened eyes, the war squirrel twitched towards me. I was mid-scream when I was scooped from the ground and straight into Kean’s arms.
“Stop screaming, I’ve got you,” he said as he gathered me into his chest.
I promptly shut my mouth as I glared up at his face. Now that I had been rescued from my tormentors, I was back to disliking the impromptu hero.
“You can put me down,” I snapped.
Kean’s mouth stretched into a closed lip smile as he kept walking across the parking lot. When reached the passenger door of his Mercedes, he set my feet down.
“Don’t move,” he ordered, opening the car door.
Pushing against my left shoulder he forced me to sit sideways in the seat while my legs remained on the outside of the car. The new position gave me a good look at my legs. There was a large amount of blood trailing from both knees.