Entwined Hearts by Dakota Davies

Author:Dakota Davies [Davies, Dakota]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Briar Rose Press
Published: 2020-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Anya

I lay my head against the corner of the backseat, the cold from the window glass cooling my cheek. The radio plays softly in the background while Kabir and Jo talk, but I’ve lost track of the conversation.

Colby still hadn’t returned when the food arrived, so we decided to eat without him. I started worrying. Did something happen? He said he needed to check on something, but what?

I remember the tattoo on his arm. Was it about his niece and sister?

Though why wouldn’t he come back? Or at least send me a message to explain what was going on?

Because he doesn’t care about you, a voice inside my head says.

I shut my eyes as a tightness spreads through my chest. I think about the way he kissed me and how we rushed back to his truck last night. Even though I knew it was wrong, even though I knew the risk, I let myself believe that I was somehow different.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I was hurting after seeing Jake with someone else. I wasn’t thinking straight.

The tightness spreads into my belly, turning my dinner into rocks.

I see Kabir’s gaze lift to the rearview mirror and land on me, but he doesn’t say anything.

Jo catches him looking and turns. “I thought maybe you were falling asleep.”

“No,” I reply, my voice hard.

“You okay?” Jo asks.

No, I think as an angry snarl threatens at the corner of my lips.

A look of compassion fills her eyes. “I’m sure he’ll call to explain what happened.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Anya,” Kabir says with a shrug.

Images of Colby and me in the back of his truck play in my mind like a movie. I relive the sweetness of his caresses, searching for any clue that it was all some elaborate act. But it hurts too much because I realize it’s probably over and he’ll never touch me like that again.

A sharp, tight pain seizes my middle. I curl into myself.

He doesn’t want you, that voice says.

I distract myself with the details of my schedule for the next few months. The training I plan to do. The handful of climbs I have my eye on once I move to the Valley.

When Jo and Kabir drop me off at my empty house, the emotions I’d been holding inside come rushing out since they no longer have an excuse to stay there. At the sight of the coffee table where Jake sat every morning, poring over his Baffin Island project, tears start to burn my eyelids. Sobs rattle through my chest when I see the empty spot on the kitchen counter where Jake used to leave out his boxes of tea. By the time I get to the bed with its single pillow, I’m gasping and choking.

And then I’m in the shower, trying to scrub all traces of Colby and the California dust off my skin. I stay there until the water runs cold, and I have no more tears to shed.

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