Chapter 7

Months had passed since that day as well as my birthday, and at what I thought of as the advanced age of nineteen, I believed myself to be a mature, sophisticated woman. Needing no further guidance into adulthood, for I, in my mind, had become that very thing. With that thought circling within my head, I prepared for my evening out with my friends.

The blare of a horn outside the house reached my ears, and I realized my time of primping had ended. Or at least according to the shouts that came floating in through the open window of my room, telling me to get my ass in gear and get a move on.

As I trotted about my room, looking for my tennis shoes, my eyes fell on the birthday gift half hidden beneath the shirt I’d tossed haphazardly on top of my dresser a few minutes earlier. I’d had the gift made for Declan months before everything had fallen apart between us. It wasn’t anything expensive, just a crystal that I’d had converted into a key-chain. A stone that to me held a wealth of meaning, as it was the only thing which had solely been mine. A possession I’d guarded ferociously, for it was the only connection I’d had with my birth parents and I’d felt it the perfect gift to give to a man just as special to me.

The blast of the horn sounded again from outside and changing direction I headed toward the window. Poking my head against the screen, I shouted, “Hold your damn horses... I’ll be there in a second!”

Turning back around, I made a quick survey of the room, and spotting the flip-flops where I’d kicked them off beside the bed, I made my way over to them.

Sliding into them, I grabbed my purse and pulled a few crumpled bills from its depths in case of an emergency.

As I set my purse back down on the dresser, my eyes again fell on Declan’s gift. Should I try to find him and give it to him? More likely, I’d be hunting from now until his next birthday if I did!

Letting out a slow breath, I shrugged then grabbed the present. After shoving both it and the bills into the pocket of my shorts, I headed out of my room. If nothing else, I’d drop it in front of his bedroom door.

As I hit the top of the stairs, I felt my heart thud against my chest and my steps slowed. Surprise echoed throughout my system at seeing Declan gazing out the window. Well, I’ll be damned… The invisible man was home! I had seen nothing out of him in over a week, and over the last three months, he’d been like a ghost within our home. One minute you’d see him, the next, like a puff of smoke, he was gone. I’d enter a room, he’d leave it, and I was getting a complex over the whole situation!

However, now, the sight of him caused a tingle of longing to flow throughout my system. With a breath of pure hope skittering throughout my system, I continued the rest of the way down the stairs, my eyes starved as they feasted on him. Yet, as I stepped onto the last step, I became hesitant, indecisive. He continued to stand with his back to me, his body language speaking volumes in the tautness of his frame: in the unapproachable air damn near hemorrhaging out of his pores.

Hurt infused me and hope disintegrated into a whisper of dust. Moisture stung my eyes at the buffeting coldness of his unfriendliness and shivers of unhappiness trembled across my heart; a cloying suffocation of despair consumed me.

He still held the excessively unapproachable manner cloaked tightly around him: one I’d been unable to get through. He’d been mad at me before, but I’d always got around it. This time though, I was standing at the bottom of a mountain he’d drug between us. One I had no clue of the rigging required to climb it. By all appearances, it was insurmountable.

Finally, and at a loss of what else to do to reach him, as I’d tried everything over the past months, I drew in a deep breath and took the final step off the stairs. As my feet landed in the deep piling of carpet, I breathed a soft, “Happy birthday, Dec—”

The words died a cruel death upon my tongue, for I knew he’d heard me as his body had tightened further, yet he’d turned from the window and walked away, ignoring my words.

Wounded to my very soul at the more than obvious rebuff, I wrapped my bleeding heart within my anger, and before I could think better of my actions, I lunged after him.

As I grabbed his arm, I heard him snarl something low and deep within his throat, before wrenching loose, he took two steps forward then paused. His shoulders heaved as he drew in several deep breaths, but he never glanced in my direction, though he remained standing in the same spot.

Making funny little sounds in the back of my throat, as well as my hands shaky and uncoordinated with the emotional pain assaulting me like hailstones in a thunderstorm, I struggled to slip my fingers into my pocket. By the time I snagged his gift from within its depths, I was almost gasping with tears, and ripping it free of its hiding place, I shoved it at him, as voice a deep emotional throb, I hissed, “I said…happy birthday, dammit!”

Still, he refused to turn and face me.

Fingers now numbed with the pain that rippled its way to every cell, every molecule of my being, I could no longer hold the gift within my hand and it tumbled from my fingers.

As it hit the floor with a soft thud, I gave a low whimpering cry, then turning, I ran out of the house, as from behind me, came a volley of curses.

###

Several hours later, I was shoeless and dancing in the sand as I waved a long-necked bottle of beer around in front of me.

Drunk off my ass, I swayed back and forth to the music, grumbling about what a total dick Declan was and what a hopeless idiot I’d become.

Earlier, I’d spotted his pickup parked a little further up the tributary. Already half drunk, I’d had the insane hope he’d come to apologize for his asinine behavior; silly, foolish girl... I should have known better.

But no, I’d started to run toward his pickup, heart racing and an idiotic grin on my face, however, I’d quickly found my steps faltering, then coming to a complete stop as I’d watched him slide from the cab of the pickup, then reach back inside and help a shapely blonde slide out.

The sight had slammed into me as if a Mack truck had hit me, leaving behind pieces of me strewn in a wide path in its wake.