Entrust by Skye Callahan

Author:Skye Callahan [Skye Callahan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skye Callahan
Published: 2022-01-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Lena

The dimly lit restaurant was busy, but we were seated in a booth at the end of a narrow section near the back, where—for better or worse—it was quiet. After the waitress brought our drinks and took our dinner order, I was left to fend for myself as the sole object of Eric’s attention.

“How long have you been teaching?” he asked.

“I managed to get a subbing position last year, and they hired me full time this fall.” I fidgeted, playing with the napkin roll, then the little coaster under my glass. Now, there were no sports games, crowds, or dimming lights to offer an occasional diversion, just plenty of quiet space for the doubt and anxiety to wind around my spine and cloud my head. I hated the feeling and wished more than anything that I could really be the girl Eric had met in Diggers. The girl he claimed to know was really me.

“What grade?” he asked.

“Third.”

Eric chuckled and sat back. “This isn’t an interrogation, you know. I’m trying—”

“I know.” I took a deep breath and dropped my hands into my lap, leaning as far away from the table as I could get. “You make me nervous.”

“You weren’t nervous when you fell asleep on me.”

My heart gave one big thud that took my breath. “I don’t know myself when I’m with you,” I blurted. “I say and do stuff that normally wouldn’t make it out of my brain—just like I seem to be doing right now.”

I clenched my jaw to make sure I didn’t continue.

Eric tilted his head, trying to catch my attention, but I kept my head lowered and my gaze on the table. “So, what you’re saying is I get under your skin.”

He used Oliver’s words.

“Which is harder,” he whispered, “being the fun, slightly shy, and open girl when you claim you’re playing or wrapping yourself up so tight you start to shake?”

I grabbed ahold of my napkin and squeezed, but I refused to lift my eyes from the table. He was right. So obviously right that I didn’t know what to do about it. Ollie had known me since I was ten, and he couldn’t break me down this easily.

I saw him reach over the table toward my hand, and I tried to pull out of his reach, but he caught my wrist. “No.”

My muscles seized under his hot grasp. His fingers grazed the rubber band around my left wrist. I’d gone through three since last Friday, snapping one and misplacing the other two.

“Let me go,” I whispered through gritted teeth.

“Let yourself go.”

I met his gaze expecting anger to swirl around his eyes as well, but his face was relaxed—a stark contrast to the tight grip he had on my wrist. His hold was firm, but he didn’t hurt me, instead, he slipped his thumb just under the rubber band and held it there, pressed to the inside of my wrist.

“What do you want?” I asked.

As soon as I stopped trying to pull away, he loosened his grip.

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