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I sigh and look up at her front door. “She’ll text when she’s ready to go. Kodiak is at the boyfriend’s office, and he’ll let us know if he leaves.”
He nods and stares straight ahead as my phone buzzes in my pocket.
Ali:
How about I buy dinner this time?
I grin and shake my head, quickly typing out a message back to her.
Me:
That’s not happenin’.
Ali:
Why the hell not? This still isn’t about Bear, is it?
Me:
Naw, Sweetheart, it’s not about that.
Like it was ever really about Bear. He just serves as a perfect excuse to go over and see her. I wish she hadn’t gotten hurt but I can’t deny that I love the outcome.
Ali:
Why not?
Me:
Baby, this whole independent woman thing
you’re doing is really sexy but there is no way in hell
that I’m letting you pay for dinner.
“Dude, you got it bad,” Chance says, and when I look up at him, he’s smirking at me.
“What?”
He makes a circle around his face. “It’s all over your face. You’ve practically got hearts popping out of your eyes.”
“Shut up,” I snap. I’m not ready to talk about this yet. I need time to figure out what the hell is going on between us and to end the shit from my past that’s coming back to haunt me. I switch over to my texts with Streak and type out a quick message to him.
Me:
Need you to look into someone. Ian Blackwell.
Find everything.
“Who is she?” Chance asks, glancing away from the road to look at me. I almost tell him that she’s no one but I can’t even force the words out of my mouth. There’s no scenario where Ali is no one to me.
“My neighbor.”
He laughs and nods. “I would ask if it’s serious but I can tell by the expression on your face that it probably is.”
“Man, I don’t know what the fuck is going on,” I admit. I was born and raised here in Baton Rouge, and Chance moved here in the third grade. We’ve been best friends since the day we met. He’s been like a brother to me, staying by my side through all the dark shit I’ve been through and always having my back. So he already knows what I’m going through right now. He knows how hard I’m fighting this and how badly I’m losing that fight.
“Yeah, you do. It may have been awhile since you felt like this but you know what it is.”
