His townhouse was cozy and new, filled with oversized furniture and that fresh, breezy smell new houses had, like maybe it had just been freshly painted.
“Sit down,” Declan said, pointing to a round maple table with blue-cushioned chairs that was set up in the eat-in kitchen. “Do you want a drink or something?”
“A drink would be great.”
He opened the refrigerator and peered inside. “Sprite and cranberry?”
“Do you have that?” I asked, grinning. Sprite and cranberry had been our drink, the drink we used to have in our foster home. Our foster dad worked for a huge beverage company, and he would get all the free cranberry juice we wanted. It wasn’t that great on its own, so we’d mix it with Sprite to try and get the soda to last longer.
“Of course,” Declan said, rolling his eyes at me teasingly, like the thought of him not having cranberry and Sprite on hand was preposterous.
He fixed our drinks, then brought the glasses to the table and sat down next to me.
“God, Olivia,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Me neither.” I took a sip of my drink, rolling the sweet, fizzy liquid over my tongue. I suddenly felt surprisingly calm. This was Declan. Of course he was going to be happy to see me. It had been silly of me to worry.
“So what have you been up to?” he asked, leaning back in his chair. There was faint stubble on his cheeks and a tiny scar on his forehead that I didn’t remember him having. I wondered where he got it and what other parts of his life I’d missed. “Where are you working?”
“Um, I’m in between jobs. I was doing book keeping for this restaurant downtown, but it fell through.” It was a lie, of course, and it slipped off my tongue effortlessly, confusing me.
You couldn’t really call Loose Cannons a restaurant, unless you counted the free buffet they offered while the girls were dancing, and the job didn’t just “fall through.” But none of that was the confusing part. The confusing part was that I was lying to Declan. I never lied to Declan. He was the one person I didn’t have to lie to, the one person who really knew everything I’d gone through.
“What are you up to?” I asked, taking another sip of my drink and immediately turning the conversation back on him.
“I’m working in insurance,” he said sheepishly. “I know, I know, don’t laugh.”
“Why would I laugh?”
“Because it’s so boring.”
“Boring is good, Declan,” I said. “We always wanted boring, remember?”
“I do.” He scooted his chair closer to me. His presence was so familiar, so comforting. The closest thing I’d ever had to a family, the closest thing I’d ever had to someone really caring about me, was Declan.
Colt.
His name flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning, zapping and stinging my heart. I wrapped my hands tightly around my drink as images of what we’d done together flash banged against my brain. His hands on my body, my panties stuck to my pussy, his dick sliding inside of me.
Fuck you, I thought. Fuck you for ruining this for me. But I couldn’t muster up the kind of anger I needed to in order to forget about him.
“Olivia,” Declan said. He reached up and pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. “God, Olivia, I missed you.” His touch sent a weird sensation coursing through my body. It wasn’t bad, exactly – it felt familiar, warm, good. I remembered the way we would cuddle sometimes at night when no one was around, putting on a silly movie and making microwave popcorn that we’d buy at the dollar store and hide from the other kids. We’d watch TV and snuggle under a blanket, and I’d rest my head against his chest. It was as far as we were willing to push it, since we knew if we got caught even doing that, we’d be in trouble.
Back then my heart would pound in my chest so hard and my body would feel hot and flushed.
Now, though, I didn’t feel any of those things.
All I could think about was Colt.
My hands gripped the glass in my hand even tighter, so tight I was afraid it would break.
“You have no idea how much I’ve thought about you,” Declan was saying. “I wanted to find you, but I wasn’t sure how.”
The words should have made me happy, but again, all I could think about was Colt -- how he’d said that anyone who knew how to google could have tracked me down easily.
No! It wasn’t true! I told myself. I hardly had any presence online, no email, no facebook. It would have been nearly impossible for Declan to find me.
I forced myself to relax as Declan took my drink out of my hands and set it down on the table.
“Do you remember the promise we made to each other?” His green eyes were staring into mine, and his hands were on my thighs now, gripping them gently.
“Of course.”