A Red Leaf & Ten Orchids Ch. 03

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TaLtos6
TaLtos6
1,930 Followers

"Jilly," he heard her hiss, "what do you think you're doing? Go back to the house. Joshua is sleeping and you shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be here either."

"Holy cow," he heard her whisper to herself, "I hope to God he's still asleep. I can't believe this. Get going, Miss."

Jillian wanted to protest that she'd only been following Daisy, but she knew that it wouldn't fly with her aunt. She turned and went down the stairs quietly with Daisy tagging along and hoping that she'd get something out of this in the form of a half a piece of bacon.

Josh thought his options over and kept his eyes closed as he struggled with the full bladder that he was lying on. He just hoped that there wouldn't be any more discussions.

Kayla turned to follow and noticed several things that caused her to pause. She could smell the coffee in the coffeemaker that she assumed had been set to start on its timer and she heard the hissing burble as it finished its task.

She looked around quickly and noted the sparseness of the loft. It didn't slip her attention that the place was spotless. Kayla gave a thought to the bed. She wondered why a man who lived alone as far as she could tell would sleep in a double bed, and since she was in this part of town anyway, so to speak, she regarded the form there in it for a moment.

He was on his front with one arm hanging over the side and his face turned toward her. She took in his general form and then her eye went to details. The bed was low, and his hand easily reached the floor. There was a tattoo on his left bicep with what she thought might be a scar through it. She wanted to get close enough to really look at it, but she didn't dare, and anyway, she knew that she had no business being here like this. She was about to turn and go when she noticed his face.

She decided that she liked to look at him when he was asleep and not glaring his dislike at her. The lightning bolt was still there, and today, it was back to being brown. She still wondered what would possess anyone to have that done to them, but like it or not, it seemed to fit him somehow.

She felt a strange urge to step closer and touch that face, but before that stupid idea could get any stronger within her, she decided to leave before this got ridiculous. She turned to go and managed only one hopefully silent step.

"Kayla," he said very quietly.

She froze and wanted to groan. "Yes?"

"I'm uh,... I'm very sorry for yesterday."

Kayla looked back and saw that his eyes were open and regarding her.

He groaned as he raised his arm to place his hand on the bed, palm down to push himself up a little so that he could pull his pillow a little closer. He put his head down and looked at her again. She could see that he wasn't angry at the intrusion, but then she wondered just how awake he really was.

Kayla decided that he was awake at least enough to be good enough to try to apologize for the day before. She thought about that and doubted that she'd be this nice about everything if it were her who had been woken up this way. She decided that she had to give him points for it.

As far as that went, she realized that while he was lying there looking that nice to her, she couldn't keep an insane little thought from her mind. A double bed with that in it?

She wanted to smirk, but kept her face as impassive as she could.

She wanted to ask him to move over.

He exhaled, "I just wanted to say that before I do anything else wrong."

"That wasn't all you," she said, "I'm sorry too."

She looked down for a second, "I'd like to say that I didn't really mean it when I told you to ..., you know. I actually can't believe that I went that far."

"Well you did," he said, "and you meant it," he said as well, rubbing his eyes a little, "because I pushed you that far."

"Yeah," she admitted with a sigh, feeling foolish, "I meant it."

"It's ok," Josh said, trying to offer a better smile, "I deserved it."

Kayla actually thought that he looked a bit sweet like that.

She smiled, "It's alright, Joshua. I was pushing back just as hard, and I was the one being stupid with a gun - which I can't believe I did either, so let's just call it a draw."

"Ok," he smiled a little, and Kayla knew that she couldn't stand there for much longer.

She had to remind herself that they'd wanted to kill each other not that many hours earlier.

She reminded herself of her previous relationships and how they had all seemed to go - with her feeling used.

She reminded herself that she'd had no desire to even get near a man again afterward and how she'd told herself that everybody else must be idiots to let a man into their lives.

Really nice guys only lived between the covers of novels. In reality, they were as hard to find as leprechauns, or unicorns, and other fictional creatures. And they were that hard to find because just like true love, they didn't really exist. All that she'd ever found were bastards, and none of them had looked like this.

She thought about how he'd looked to her the previous night through the dirty glass.

She thought about how much she wanted to hold on tightly to what some cruel twist of her rotten luck had laid out right in front of her in that bed. It came to her that under that thin sheet, he was very obviously naked.

She watched him sigh and wished that her arm was over his back when he did that just to feel it.

"So before I really get the chance to add another day of being an idiot, I just want to tell you that I'm regretting it a lot. You didn't deserve that."

It came to her right then just how badly she wanted right now to taste his skin.

"Joshua," she said, "look, I'm really sorry that we disturbed you. I've got to have a talk with Jilly. Daisy came to see you and Jilly just followed, but I'm not dumb enough to think for a moment that she didn't want to see you. Anyway, I followed her, once I'd figured out where she'd gone. She seems to like you quite a bit, but that's no excuse for just walking in here the way she did."

"That's ok too, I won't leave the shed doors open again, "he said, "I didn't think of it. I'm just glad that I don't have that much to be embarrassed about. At least I didn't throw off the sheet while I was sleeping."

Kayla nodded and turned to go. "I think Aunt Rose will have breakfast on soon."

Josh nodded and Kayla walked down the stairs and out of the shed. Josh smiled a little to himself for just a second before it left his face and he stood up to head for what passed as his bathroom. He wanted a cup of coffee and he wanted to brush his teeth and shave. He wanted to get dressed.

But he didn't want to have breakfast. He had other things on his mind.

TaLtos6
TaLtos6
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  • COMMENTS
3 Comments
LuvinWritinLuvinWritinabout 11 years ago
Only made it to ch. 3

I knew you were going to do that. I guess you wanted the tension. You had Josh feeling guilty for and feel like apologizing for ABSOLUTELY no reason. You should have at least made him do something wrong in ch. 2. Let's see. He rescued her, prevented both of them from being snake bit put them in an air conditioned cab to cool them down and prevent heat exhaustion and then was driving them to safety. Hmmm alot to apologize for.

AnonymousAnonymousover 12 years ago
Getting there

I like the story AND character development. I am sure there will be more twists and turns yet...

GimletEdgeGimletEdgeover 12 years ago
Calm after the storm

Despite their capacity for explosiveness, the characters here are gentle people. This chapter has them grappling with the emerging draw they feel toward one another. Sweet and oh so promising.

I like the secondary characters and the grace notes they bring, Jilly with her yearning optimism, Rosa with her wisdom and eye on the long haul...and especially the irrepressible Daisy.

It's a very good story, and I'm enjoying it.

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