Finding June (6 page)

“I should get back to work.” My voice wavered, shaken by not only the conversation with Reece but with myself.

I got up from my chair and finished bussing the table, but for the rest of the night I couldn’t get the conversation with Reece out of my head.

It was Sunday and I had the day off. I tried not to work Sundays because they were slow and I wanted something resembling a weekend. Oh, who was I kidding? There was no such thing as a weekend to a server; we took what we could when it came to days off. However, it was still a nice day in Boise and I wanted to take advantage of it. Jo was working and Bethany was spending the weekend with her new boyfriend, so I was riding solo this weekend. Or every weekend. Whatever.

My apartment was pretty crappy, but it was in one of my favorite parts of the city, the North End. It was close to downtown, but still had a young, hip vibe with its unique houses that all held a homey charm.

I grabbed my bike from the small storage area behind my apartment and decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall day. After throwing on jeans, my purple fleece jacket, and a rainbow colored beanie, I headed out the door. I planned on riding down to the co-op to stock up on items I could only get there. Once on my bike, I leisurely pedaled down the road, taking my time and looking at all the different houses that resided in the area.

Alex Clare was blasting through my headphones. I was trying to jam and ride at the same time, taking in all the cool houses that lined the streets. One was a bungalow type of house painted a deep green with almost black trim. It had a porch with one of those porch swings, and was a cute, older house in good shape. What caught my attention, though, was not only the house, but the tall shadow standing on the porch. The person stepped to the right and the sun lit up his face with that damn half-smile. It was Reece. I glanced back and didn’t see the speed bump in the road. I shrieked as I hit it, losing my balance and crashing onto the ground. I rolled toward the sidewalk as my bike fell on top of me. Groaning, I laid on the side of the road, but everything felt like it was in working order. I was pretty sure I hadn’t broken any bones.

My spirit.

That I had broken.

I had just crashed and burned while I stared at Reece. Fucking Reece Day was once again causing me to lose my shit.

“Oh my God, are you okay?” a husky voice asked me. The shadowed face covered the setting sun, but there was no mistaking that voice. Reece lifted my bike off me and tried to help me sit up. My beanie fell off and my braid of golden hair stuck up everywhere.

“June? Holy shit, I didn’t realize it was you with the hat on. Are you hurt? Do I need to call an ambulance? You hit the ground pretty hard,” Reece said with panic in his voice.

I had yet to say anything, but only groaned when I tried to stand up.

“Wait, let me help you.”

Finally I was able to push myself up and onto my feet.

“No, I’m fine. Just a little bump on my head.” I felt said bump.

Reece scrunched up his nose. “Um, that little bump on your head is actually bleeding.”

I took my hand away from my head to realize there was in fact blood on my hand. “Huh. Well, look at that.” Wow, that was poetic. Sometimes I just killed myself with my tact.

“Here, come inside and I can clean you up. I should have a first aid kit somewhere.” Reece grabbed my hand and guided me to his house. I was starting to feel the bump on my head turn into a painful knot as we walked. While my head was throbbing, my hand in Reece’s didn’t go unnoticed, the warmth of his large hand covering my small one. It was the first time he had touched me since the day I had met him and it was only because I was bleeding. Terrific.

We walked into the house; a living room on the right and an informal dining room with a wooden table to the left, the open kitchen behind it. There was a hallway in front of me, which must have led to the bedrooms. Reece plopped me down at the dining room table and headed down the hallway, only to reappear a minute later with a first aid kit. He sat in the chair next to me, and turned me to face him. As Reece reached over to the kit, I saw the strain of his muscles under his short sleeve grey shirt. He wasn’t overly defined, like someone who lived his life in a gym, but it was enough to catch my attention. I glanced down at his hands and caught black script on his right arm, but in my state I wasn’t able to see exactly what it was. Well, wasn’t that a pleasant surprise. With the shirts we wore at work, I had missed the ink on his arm. I didn’t have any tattoos, but I always enjoyed one or two on a guy. It gave them an edge.

What
? Yeah, I looked, but I never touched. Girls are stupid if they think because they are in a committed relationship they can’t take in the scenery. Of course now I could touch if I wanted to, and that was the problem. I knew I shouldn’t, but there was a part of me that wanted to. I directed my attention back to Reece and his doctoring skills.

He opened the kit and grabbed some goop, which I figured was a type of disinfectant gel that was going to sting like a bitch. He silently put a bit of it on a towel and applied it to my still bleeding head.

Shit! Yep, burns like a bitch.

After he took away the towel, he put a butterfly bandage tenderly on my head.

“This should do. I don’t think you will have to get stitches, but if it starts to look worse I would get it checked out,” Reece said as he returned the torture devices to the first aid kit.

“Thanks.” There was approximately fifty-five seconds of awkward silence. I know. I counted it. And as I counted it, I looked around the house. Looking at Reece right now seemed to be too much. I was thoroughly embarrassed and avoiding his deepening gaze. I could feel the throb from the bump on my head, but the pain almost had the inverse reaction of focusing everything.

As I glanced around, I noticed Reece’s house was downright charming. It seemed pretty lived in for someone who had only been here for a few months, but I also started to see some of the furniture was older in style and didn’t really seem like something a young twentyish guy would have in his place. I started to turn back to Reece, but saw in the corner of the living room a large collection of records and a pristine looking record player. As I was staring off, I felt Reece try to put a piece of my hair behind my ear. I tensed and whipped my glance back to him, only to find him holding a twig in his hand. His touch felt more intimate than the one earlier.

“Sorry, I was trying to get this out of your hair,” he replied to my shocked look. “What were you looking at?” he asked, directing my attention from his tender touch. I took in his soft features for only a split second before following his gaze back to the record player.

“That record collection over there, it’s pretty intense. Have you been collecting for long?”

While my parents were pretty uptight growing up, I swear the only time I saw them let their hair down was when they would put on some Motown group or the Beatles throughout the house. Music was an important role in my childhood. These ended up being some of my favorite memories growing up, music flowing through the house during summer barbecues and family holidays. I guess it was something that had stuck with me through adulthood.

Reece glanced over to the corner I was looking at. “Well, it technically isn’t mine, it was recently acquired. Actually, a lot of this stuff in the house was.” His gaze swept over the room and for a second his eyes showed unfamiliarity, like he was seeing this all for the first time.

“What do you mean?”

My words brought Reece’s gaze back to me, the unfamiliarity gone. “I inherited this house and everything in it back in March. It was my aunt’s house, but she passed away last January,” I could hear the small tinge of sadness in his voice.

“Is that why you are back?” Why that was the first question I thought of, I wasn’t sure. No sorry from me or sending my condolences. That was my bluntness coming out again, and it actually quickly offended most people. Luckily, Reece looked unaffected by my questions.

“I didn’t know that you knew I was from here.”

Oh shit. That’s right, we hadn’t really gone over the basics yet.

“I think I overheard you saying that to someone,” I lied.

“That’s a lie.”

Well, hell.

Reece gave me a sweet half-smile. “Unless you overheard it from Jolene talking very loudly and probably directly toward you.”

Busted. “Yeah. Okay. Jo might have mentioned you when I got back to work.”

Reece smirked. I realized he hadn’t moved his chair away from mine and we were still pretty close to each. Time to diffuse this tension.

“I wouldn’t believe everything Jo says.” I stated, trying to take down any pre-notions Reece had about me.

Reece sat there for a few seconds as I watched the internal battle within his eyes. He sighed, put his strong hands on my knees, and leaned forward as he whispered in my ear, “I believe what I can see with my eyes, and what I see is a very interesting story.”

With that, he walked into the kitchen.

“Do you want something to drink?” he asked easily, not even acknowledging the fact that he just whispered in my ear, which I thought was pretty intense from where I was sitting. I could still feel the heat from where his hands had been on my knees. I hadn’t moved an inch since Reece had moved away from me. When could a guy with a simple statement throw me so off guard?

I hadn’t actually answered the question, but Reece sat back down and handed me a beer. Ahh beer. While most girls were prone to fruity drinks that usually had some sexual act in the name, I was good with a nice cold beer. Plus, the type Reece had handed to me was a local brew I liked. Okay, points to him for good taste in beer.

I took a long pull, the coolness bringing me back to my senses a bit, enough to realize that if I was to have any relationship with Reece right now, it would have to be friendship. It couldn’t be anything more. I was in no position to try the whole relationship thing again. And while I was okay with being friends, I wanted to know more about him..

“So the only reason you came back was because you had to?” I mentally shook my head. One day I would tactfully learn how to pose a question. Today was not that day.

Reece simply shrugged. “It was time.”

“Where were you living before moving back home?”

When I said home I could see Reece tense up a bit, but it quickly disappeared. If you weren’t watching him, you wouldn’t have seen it. The difference was most people put up walls that made them closed off; a big sign saying stay away. Like myself, I know. Reece, on the other hand, put up this happy go lucky front, and only in quiet times did I catch that there was more to him. We were both trying to figure each other out.

Reece still answered, “That is a tricky question. I guess the correct question to ask is where haven’t I been before moving back to Boise. And that answer is a bit of everywhere.”

“What do you mean?” I was intrigued by his answer.

“When I graduated from high school, I moved out of my parents’ house, living here and there across the country.”

“So you are saying you haven’t been back here since you were, what, eighteen?”

“That would be correct.” He ran his finger around the opening of the bottle he was drinking. He wasn’t looking directly at me, but rather staring intently at the bottle, as if it were going to combust. Okay, so maybe this was a tough topic to talk about. Maybe I should drop it.

“So where exactly have you lived in the past seven years?” I asked bluntly. I was honestly curious about why Reece hadn’t been home, and why he had lived in so many different places.

“Why do you care?” Reece’s hand stilled on the bottle as he turned his eyes toward me. His face had a look of disinterest, but his eyes were more intense, more knowing.

That was a good question. Why did I care? I had only wanted to take a Sunday bike ride and grab groceries, and now suddenly I was sitting in Reece’s house. A guy, a ridiculously hot guy, who I had only been lukewarm to since I had gotten back had me all sorts of curious. In all reality, he didn’t owe me any answers about his mysterious life. Which, of course, didn’t mean I didn’t want to know. Oh, I wanted to know. I felt drawn to him and I couldn’t explain why I was hell bent on Reece telling me the secrets he held.