Page 23 of Rescuing Macie

“We won’t have time to get there to see the bats tonight, and I figure we’ll both be tired by the time we arrive. So I thought we could just order room service.”

“Sounds perfect. Colt?”

“Yeah, Mace?”

“I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. I mean, I know I’m Ford’s sister and he’s one of the soldiers under your command, but I appreciate it all the same.”

He looked confused then. “Macie, you know I’m not helping you just because you’re Truck’s sister, right?”

Macie heard the incredulity in his voice, and began to get nervous in a way she hadn’t felt around him since she’d moved in. “Well, no, because that would be crazy. I mean, you can’t move everyone’s siblings into your house if they need help. But I get that you were there with Ford when I called him that night. And when I refused to stay at his place with him and Mary, you were put in a weird spot. All I’m saying is that I’m thankful.”

She couldn’t interpret the look on his face now, and that was beginning to freak Macie out. She’d obviously said the wrong thing, again, but didn’t know how to fix it. So she tried to fill the awkward silence.

“I mean, it’s not like we aren’t friends, because I think we are. I like you, and I think you like me. But when you didn’t call after my brother’s wedding, I kinda figured out where we stood with each other, and I’m okay with that.”

“When I didn’t call?” Colt asked, breaking his weird silence. “Mace, I didn’t have your number. I could’ve asked Truck, but I didn’t know if that’s what you wanted. I also didn’t want you to feel weird about what happened that night…but I sure didn’t. I loved talking to you. Getting to know you. But I wasn’t going to force you to go out with me if you didn’t want to.”

“I left my number,” Macie got up the courage to say. “On a note.”

The confusion left his eyes, and determination took its place. “Where?”

“Where what?”

“Where did you leave the note?”

Macie’s head was swirling with confusion. “Right next to your bed, so you’d see it when you woke up. On the nightstand.”

Without a word, Colt grabbed her hand. He turned and pulled her after him as he went up the stairs toward his bedroom. Macie didn’t protest or say anything. She was too weirded out by the way he was acting.

When they got into his room, he turned to her and said, “Show me where.”

Macie pointed at the small table next to the bed. The same notepad she’d used that night was still sitting there, along with a pen.

Colt looked at the table, then back at her, then back to the table.

Just when Macie was about to completely wig out, he said, “I didn’t see a note from you, Mace. And believe me, I looked. When I woke up and you weren’t next to me, I was upset. I had been looking forward to having breakfast with you. To talking with you some more. I got dressed then went downstairs to see if you had left a note there. And once again was disappointed when I didn’t find anything. I figured you simply didn’t feel the same connection between us that I did.”

“I did. I do,” Macie said. “It was hard for me to leave that note because I was scared you were just being nice. That you didn’t mean it when you asked if I wanted to have lunch or something. But I liked you. So I left my number. And you didn’t call.”

He rubbed his free hand over his face. “God, what a clusterfuck,” he muttered. Colt dropped her hand and went over to the bed. He got down on his knees and looked under it. Macie had no idea what he was doing.

Then he reached under the bedframe and pulled out a white sheet of paper and held it up.

She held her breath. The paper had some dust bunnies attached to it, indicating that it had been under his bed for a while.

He hadn’t lied. It looked like he really hadn’t seen her note.

He stood and walked back to her, holding the note between them. She looked down and saw her own handwriting on the small piece of paper.

Colt. Thank you for last night. If you were honest about wanting to have lunch sometime, I’d like that. ~Macie

Her number was clearly written under her short note. Swallowing hard, she looked up at Colt.

“Damn it all to hell,” he said softly. “I can’t believe I didn’t get this. I’ve wasted so much time.”

Macie wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“I remember shutting my bedroom door that morning and thinking how glad I was that I didn’t live in an apartment when it slammed harder than I’d intended,” Colt mused. “I bet it blew off then. All this time, I could’ve been with you, and I fucked it up.”