Page 57 of Dotted Lines (Runaway 5)
“That you’d forgotten about us. That maybe we weren’t as good of friends as I’d built up in my head.”
Friends. That word rang through the air like a gunshot. Pain speared my chest. Direct hit.
Was that all she’d thought we were? Friends? Clara had to know that she’d meant so much more. And because of what she’d meant, it was the reason I hadn’t gone to Vegas with her in the first place.
I’d had to get my shit together. I’d had to realize that the words she’d once told me were true—that I wasn’t toxic to the people in my life. I’d had to grow up. Too bad it’d taken me so damn long.
By then, it had been too late.
“I never forgot about you. You know why I didn’t come with you to Vegas after the junkyard. I didn’t want to taint your life. I might have run away from my mother, but that didn’t mean her words hadn’t come to the junkyard with me. It took me a long time to erase them from the back of my mind. To move past them. You were right, what you told me. Wish I had listened. But I needed to figure it out on my own, you know?”
Understanding crossed her face. “Karson.”
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go with you. I just didn’t want to bring my bullshit into your new life. And by the time I realized it was just that—bullshit—well, a lot of years had passed.”
“I get it,” she said. “It’s the same reason all of us lost touch for so long. We all needed that time to put the past away.”
“Exactly.”
What I was never good at articulating, Clara could voice perfectly. There was no person on earth who’d gotten me like she always had. She knew it had been my mountain to climb.
God, how I had missed her.
“Thank fuck for that goddamn Cadillac.”
She laughed and the sound was a blast to the past. Sweet. Musical. Sincere. Clara’s face was like a shooting star when she laughed. You didn’t want to blink and miss a second of the show.
A soul-shattering shake ran through my entire body. The same feeling that had come over me years and years ago while I’d been by her side, staring up at the stars from a rusted Cadillac.
I wanted to kiss her. In this moment, I wanted to take her cheeks in my hands and kiss her until I forgot my own name.
Goddamn it. Why? Why now? Why hadn’t she come a year ago?
When I was nineteen and after Londyn and I had broken up, I’d known my time with Clara was short. Hell, for the longest time, I hadn’t realized she’d liked me that way. I’d done so well at keeping her as a friend and nothing more. Then I’d felt that shake and my willpower had shattered.
That had been the best damn kiss of my life.
But I wasn’t nineteen anymore.
Tearing my eyes away, I focused on my food, finishing the last few bites of my pasta. August had decimated his slice of pizza in record time because Clara had promised he could play games but only after eating dinner.
“We’ve talked so much about the past today,” she said, going back to her salad. “I’d like to hear more about you. What do you do for work?”
“I’m a realtor.” I put my fork down and found August changing games. This time he was at the Big Game Hunter. To Clara, it probably looked like I was checking on her kid. Really, I just needed a minute before I faced her again.
I needed to fortify the walls.
Not that it did any damn good. When I turned to her, my heart skipped. So I focused on answering her question. Maybe then she’d answer more of mine.
“I got started about seven years ago. In Temecula, actually.”
“I’m surprised you went back.”
“For a while.” But that was not a story for tonight. “The market was booming, and a friend was working construction for a builder who could barely keep up. The builder had a broker selling all his homes, so I went to work with my friend one day and met the agent. Talked to her for about three hours and decided to get licensed. She sponsored me and I worked for her for a few years. Then I decided to branch out on my own when I moved to Elyria.”
“I’m not at all surprised you’re successful. Do you like it?”
I nodded. “I do. I work hard. Have some flexibility in my schedule, which I appreciate, and it pays the bills.”
