COMING HOME

Chapter Six

Elijah

I can’t believe she agreed to come eat with me. I knew she would put up a fight, so I had to use something she would have a hard time resisting. Even though it's been years since I've seen her, there is one thing I can guarantee hasn't changed. Lexie has always loved food. How could she say no to food after being at work all day?

When she walked away from me at the hospital, some of her nurse friends walked by and I convinced one of them to tell me what time she got off. Luckily, she still drove the same car, so it wasn't going to be hard to miss her. I think she felt a little guilty about my bruise, and that might have helped my case. I was just going to take this win, and see where it takes us.

I open the door to the restaurant for her and walk beside her until we are sitting down. When I take a seat next her, she's giving me that 'really' look.

When we dated, I told her once that we were equals, walking through life together side by side. When we were younger, people, including my mother always tried to make her feel like she was inferior to me. Just because we had more money than her family. My mother and some of the kids from my school always had something to say about us. The protector in me tried to shield her from everyone, but when she showed me that she could hold her own I stopped shielding her. It made her feel good and respected when I told her we were equals in everything, and walking side by side, made her feel like I was telling the truth. Such a simple gesture meant a lot to her, so it became important to me too.

"Yes really, you like to make getaways. If I have to block you the entire time I will." She scrunches her face and when I start smiling, she stops and instead she picks up her menu.

"I see you still have Hulk, he looks good." Hulk is her car; a green '65 mustang her dad gave her when she got her license.

"Yea, he's been good to me." Lexie looks outside towards the parking lot where the car is. It looks to be in really good shape, her dad must be keeping up with the maintenance.

"I can see that. How are your parents?" Before she gets a chance to answer the waitress comes over and asks for our orders. Lexie order pancakes, bacon, eggs and orange juice. I go with the stuffed French toast, eggs, bacon, and a side of hash browns with some chocolate milk. She isn’t the only one who loves food, especially breakfast. The waitress takes our menus and leaves, so I get back to my question.

"So, where was I?"

"They're fine. Mom retired and dad still works at the shop, he can’t stop messing with cars." She's smiling now. Her parents had always been nice people, you could tell they loved each other and her. When I was with Lexie they treated me as their own.

"Joey pretty much lived under a car, from what I remember." I smile and she just nods her head. Joey was the one who taught me how to do my own oil change and taught me a few other things that have come in handy. He said if I was going to be his son in law one day, I needed to know how to take care of his daughter. I feel like I'm beating around the bush because what I want to talk about, I'm too chicken s**t to bring up. I don’t want her to get upset and leave me just yet.

"Why were you at my job?" Her tone is one of annoyance, but I ignore it. That's an easy question to answer.

"I had an interview." She didn’t look happy with the answer, but it was the truth. That hospital has been my number one choice. When I found out she worked there too, well that was just an added bonus. After that she doesn’t say anything else, and neither do I. We sit in silence for a while until our food comes and we dig in.

After we eat, I pay the bill and we walk out to her car. Before she opens her door, I back her up against it and put my hands on both sides caging her in.

"I missed you." I get closer to her and put my mouth by her ear, and I can feel her breathing picking up.

"You said you'd keep your hands to yourself." I was, I never said anything about the rest of my body or lips.

"I'm not touching you."

"You're too close." Was I? I'm nowhere near as close as I want to be, so I step closer still and I hear her let out a breath.

"Did you hear me? I said I missed you." She won’t look at me. Instead, she looks past me, but I can see her facial expression change when I say it.

"Elijah what are you doing?" I'm trying to see if those feelings are still there, or if I made it all up in my head the last time I saw her. The answer is all over her face, and in her body language. There are definitely feelings there.

"Baby, look at me."