Entrelacen (14 page)

I grab the door open quickly. I have
this sense of urgency that I need to hurry.
Before I can think about why I'm in such a
hurry, someone slams into me. I look
down to see the most beautiful girl I have
ever seen. This girl is the perfect height.
She fits into me so well that it's like she
was made specifically for me. She's not
skinny like all the girls I’m used to seeing;
this girl has major curves. I never knew I
could be this attracted to someone, but
this girl has my skin buzzing with
electricity. My heart feels like It’s going to
beat out of my chest. My hands are flexed,
I notice they’re on her hips holding her in
place. She is shaking. Can she feel the
current zapping between us too?

She must have realized that she was
pressing against my shirt because she steps
back removing her hands. I drop mine to
my side, and they automatically ball into
fists. I have the urge to pull her back to
me. She smells like sunshine and
something I can’t place; I just know that
all I want to do is get lost in that smell.
Her eyes finally make their way to mine.
Our gazes connect, and we’re locked in.
She has the most beautiful hazel eyes I’ve
ever seen. They’re green with bursts of
orange in them and a grey-blue outline.
She breaks the stare and examines my
face like she’s trying to memorize it. Her
eyes roam slowly from my eyes, to my
nose, and then linger on my lips. I feel
them start to curve into a smile that
breaks her examination. How can I be so
turned on from just being checked out?
I’ve been checked out before, but nothing
compares to the way I’m feeling right
now.

Her face is flawless. And those lips!
They look soft and perfect for her face. I
want to devour them to see if they’re as
soft as they look. She has blonde hair with
a red undertone. She’s wearing some
faded jean capris with holes in them, not
the kind of holes you get from excess
wear, but the kind that you can buy. She
has a black shirt on that’s been cut to
form a scoop neck. I notice the front of
the shirt has lettering on it, and my
breath catches. It says Adelitas Way 2011
and has a sparrow up on the right side by
her breast.

The sound of her voice breaks me
out of the daydream that was forming.
Her voice is soft and sweet. You can tell
she’s shy.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to,
umm, fall into you and, uh, mess up your
shirt.”

Mess up my shirt? Oh she’s talking
about the wrinkle marks from her hands. I
smile at her, “No, I’m sorry. I was so busy
talking to Gran that I got distracted, and
I wasn’t paying attention to see if
someone was outside.”

This girl has me all over the place. I
just want to grab onto her and kiss her
senseless. What the hell is this about? I
don’t ever act like this. It’s totally
different from when I went out with... I
can’t even remember her name.

I wonder why she phrased that as a
question. She has to be feeling it too. Her
eyes are shining like they have a secret. I
find myself wanting to know her secret.
She starts to walk around me, and her
words finally catch up to me.

“No problem at all,” I say a little
late. Then I start walking away before I
make a bigger fool of myself.

As I make my way to the car, I can
still feel her hips resting in the palm of my
hands. I can still smell her and see the
flush of her cheeks when I caught her
checking me out. The electricity is running
through my veins. What the hell was that?
How can my attraction to her be so
strong when I don’t even know her? I
shake my head and try to focus. What was
I supposed to go do again?

I start the car, and the bass removes
the lingering fog that was hiding in the
recesses of my mind.
Just forget abouther
Logan. You probably won’t ever see her
again anyways.
With that settled, I head
toward Wal-Mart to get the stuff Gran
needed. My thoughts are muddied with
the girl with the soul-searching eye. Every
time I close my eyes, I see those soft, pink
lips calling to me and begging me to
devour them. Thinking about her eyes, I
feel lost, but at the same time I feel at
home. I’m walking through the store to
the coffee aisle. I don’t even remember
getting here or grabbing a cart. This girl
has completely taken over every thought
in my head and has sent my heart beating
faster than it should. I want to see her
again. I need to, but why?

I get all the errands done and start
to head back to the bookstore. I’m driving
down Bermuda, heading toward St. Rose
where the shop is, and the damn song
plays again. This time I have a face for the
song. Just when I finally got her out of my
mind, she’s been brought back to the
surface because of this song. Maybe Gran
will have some answers.

I’m almost to St. Rose when I see
the elementary school on my right. Kids
are playing out on the field, and my eyes
start searching for the four that I picked
out of the building 5 years ago. I never got
their names or checked to see how they
were doing. I remember all the flowers
and balloons that Gran had saved. A few
cards were drawn by those kids. I’m
relieved that I was at least able to save
them. I’ll always regret not being able to
save my mom though. I miss her like crazy
every day. I’m thankful for Gran though. I
don’t know where I would be right now
without her. She’s the grandma I never
had. Don’t tell her I called her that. She
might throw a fit.

I pull up to the store and park in
my normal spot. My heart starts to
hammer away. My breathing accelerates,
and I fumble to get the shopping bags out
of the car. I start making my way to the
door. The weird sensation I felt when I
was leaving is absent. She’s not inside. I
guess that means she has already left.
Disappointment washes over me. I drag
my feet inside to find Gran at the counter
smiling at me.

I’m
so excited about getting a job at the
bookstore that I’m literally dancing in the car. I’ve
always wanted to work around people who share the
same passion that I do. I’m riding high on the
excitement as I pick up the boys up from school and
head home to get them some snacks before venturing
out to the park to blow off some of their energy.
Taking care of 3 boys is enough to make most people
go insane, but having 3 boys that are so close in age is
beyond insanity. We make it to the park finally, pull
their bikes out of the car, and start the trail. I should
probably get a bike so I can keep up with them better,
but they’re good, and we make a game out of it. We
do about two or three laps around the park and put the
bikes up, so they can play for a little while on the
playground. After a few hours, we head back to the
house to do homework, eat dinner, and take bath.
Then, It’s time for them to go to bed.

The weird thing about today, other than falling
into a complete stranger, was spending all day
thinking of that stranger. After I fell into him, I
couldn’t shake him no matter how hard I tried. It was
the strangest thing. From the looks of things, I’m
going to be working with him so I need to figure out a
way to control the madness inside my head. A part of
me is thrilled that I’ll be seeing him all the time. Who
wouldn’t want to work with a hot guy with killer eyes
and lips that probably taste like heaven? Then the
other part of me is saying to get over it. Why would
he give me the time of day? On top of the fact that he
is gorgeous, I’m totally not his type. I have three kids!
There is no way in hell would he want that, right? He
looks to be about my age, which is 24, so he’s
probably into the party scene, not the ‘I want to settle
down and raise children that aren’t mine’ scene. Oh
well. At least I’ll have something good to look at.

While the boys are upstairs in their rooms,
hopefully asleep, I start to do laundry. Do you know
how much laundry we go through in a matter of days?
It’s unbelievable! Then there's the dishes and
trash...don’t get me started. I absolutely adore those
boys, and I’m so happy that I was able to adopt them,
but good lord, I need to clone myself to get everything
accomplished! There was a time that I thought it
wasn’t going to be possible, and I would have to leave
them with their unfit parents. Thank the gods that I
didn’t have to. I have no clue how these boys' lives
would have turned out.

Matthew is so smart. He reminds me of how I
was in school. He loves science. Every day he comes
home after learning something new and repeats it to
me. It’s the cutest thing. Then there’s Lee. That boy
thinks he knows absolutely everything about
everything. He will argue his point even if he has no
clue what he is talking about. He would make a good
lawyer. Then there’s my baby Michael. He’s a little
different since he is partially deaf. Because he was
still a baby when I started taking care of them, he
doesn’t really know that I’m not his biological mom,
so we have a stronger bond. He has no problem
calling me momma. When he wears his hearing aids.
He’s almost normal, or what people consider
“normal”. He’s absolutely brilliant. He always want to
learn, and if you sign to him wrong, he likes to correct
you.

The first time I took him to a hearing test back
in Texas, they told me there was a significant chance
that he wouldn’t ever speak. These people are doctors,
and we’re supposed to trust them, right? Well, I was
damn sure they were wrong about him. I knew he
could hear well enough that he would be able to
speak. So every day I worked on developing his
speech. Now he’s 4 years old and putting sentences
together. I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal,
considering that most 2 year old kids can put
sentences together. Michael has just had so much
progress, going from having absolutely no speech to
talking like he’s been doing it for years. It’s amazing
to me. Plus he proved the doctors wrong, and that is
pretty awesome.

I get all the laundry done, and the house is
clean for now, so I head up to my room to catch up on
some sleep before we have to get up and start all over.
As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out for the
count.

I’m walking down a street in my
neighborhood, following this butterfly. Why on earth
am I following a butterfly? It’s that pull again, that
same pulling sensation I felt when I touched the guy at
the bookstore. I look up at the street sign to see
exactly where I was, Gillespie and Neal. I know these
streets. They’re the ones I take to get the boys to
school. I wonder what brought me here. There’s
movement across from me. I’m standing by the stop
sign on the side of the abandoned house, which really
needs to be torn down. It’s an eye sore, with its
boarded up windows and graffiti. Not to mention how
it seems totally creepy. The butterfly makes it way
over to a stranger who has knelt down. It sits atop his
shoulder and waits for my feet to move again.

I make it over to him to see if he’s okay, and I
scream. It’s not one of those screams you squeal when
you see a spider or mouse, but It’s one of those blood
curdling screams. It made him jump and turn around.

I sit up in my bed, gasping for air. How is this
possible? I met this guy once, and now he’s plaguing
my dreams. Or was it a nightmare? Seeing a dead
body scared the crap out of me, but seeing how sad he
looked terrified me. I look at the clock; I was only out
for about two hours. With no sign of sleep in my
future, I grab a book to read. It’s by one of my
favorite authors, M. Leighton. I allow the story to take
hold of me, and I lose myself in a world of mermaids,
fairy tales, and forbidden love.

The sunlight is streaming into my window, so
I know it’s time to get the boys up and ready for
school. I love their elementary school. The kids have
to wear uniforms, which makes my life much easier
because I don't have to pick out their outfits. I drop
them off in the cafeteria so they can eat breakfast. I
chat with Michael’s teacher for a little while. I just
love her. She has been the greatest. Michael has
learned so much from her. Between her and my mom,
he’s going to be set. I see a normal kindergarten class
in his future.

I get back to the house and rush to take a
shower. As I’m washing my hair, Logan’s face makes
an appearance yet again.

I get lost in the depths of those gorgeous eyes.
Behind closed eyes, I picture him smiling at me as he
pulls me in by my waist. Then, he kisses me hard. I’ve
never been kissed like that. It leaves me breathless.

I open my eyes to see the white tiles staring
back at me, “I guess I still haven’t been kissed like
that.”

I open up iTunes to play some music while I
try to figure out what to wear on my first day of work.
I need to dress comfortably obviously sinceIt’s a
bookstore, but what if Logan walks in? I don’t want to
look grungy, but I also don’t want to look I’m trying
to gain his attention, even though I actually do want
him to notice me. Why I set myself up for torture is
beyond me. I make my way to the closet to grab a pair
of my favorite worn in jeans. They were black at one
point, but I have worn them so often that they have
faded to grey. I pull on a pink spaghetti strap and head
back to the bathroom to blow dry and straighten my
hair. I decide against the contacts today, as my eyes
are a little dry, and they would just annoy me. I put on
a little foundation, add some black eyeliner and light
pink eye shadow, and finish off by coating my lips
with some pink tinted chapstick. I find my black shirt
that looks like a net and pull it over. My black and
pink Nike shoes are the last things I put on before
making my way out the front door and into my white
Expedition.