The Distraction by Sierra Kincade

Author:Sierra Kincade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-12-15T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Back outside, the girls were making flower chains with clovers and telling each other stories. Paisley was making a princess crown for Chloe. Chloe was talking about how people during the plague wore flowers in their hair so they couldn’t smell the zombies.

“That’s nice,” I said.

Amy gave me an exasperated look as she poured lighter fluid over the charcoal.

“Need a hand?”

The voice slid over my skin like silk, and despite his recent unexplained absence, my heart leapt. I didn’t turn around. I wanted to be mad at him for making me worry, and that was hard when all I could feel was relief that he was here.

His footsteps slowed as he stepped onto the grass from the sidewalk, and I could feel his eyes on my back.

“Oh good, you made it,” said Amy, as if the plan had been for him to show up all along. “Yes. Be manly. Make fire. Cook meat.”

“Hold on,” said Alec. I turned now, and found him just as sexy as ever in jeans and a casual navy shirt, the sleeves rolled up at the elbows. His eyes were narrowed, and he was holding a plastic bag from the supermarket in one hand, which he tossed on the picnic table, as if annoyed.

Resentment straightened my back. He didn’t get to be upset with me, not when he was the one who’d disappeared.

“No one told me she was coming,” he said.

My mouth had just opened to ask him what the hell he was talking about, when Paisley’s friend Chloe jumped to her feet. After straightening her black sleeveless play dress, she cocked her hip out and jutted her chin forward.

“You got some nerve, mister.” She tapped the toe of one of her sparkly pink shoes that matched her sparkly pink belt.

Baffled, Amy and I watched as Alec engaged in a very intricate high-five handshake with the little girl. By the end, he’d tossed her over his shoulder and she was giggling hysterically.

“How do you two know each other?” I asked.

Alec’s gaze met mine for the first time, and it stung to see some of the joy drain from his eyes. Before he could answer, Chloe’s legs kicked out, and he tickled her ribs, eliciting a scream right in his ear. Across the table, Paisley had latched herself to Amy’s side, and they both were watching Alec with cautious smiles.

“Daddy!” screeched Chloe suddenly.

From the entrance to the courtyard behind Alec, a familiar figure emerged. A man with milk chocolate skin and a killer smile. He was wearing basketball shorts and a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, which showed the definition in his arms. It looked like he’d just finished working out.

I rose from the bench. “Mike?”

“Oh God,” muttered Amy.

“What’s this?” Mike asked, grinning. Any tension that had existed between him and Alec dissipated as they shook hands, and exchanged a small nod. Men.

“I found this thing running around wild,” Alec told him. “Rabid, I think.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Mike said. “Come here, thing.” He took the giggling little girl, and planted a noisy kiss on her cheek.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.