Whispered Prayers of a Girl

“Mocha macchiato with a double shot.”

At least the conversation moved to a normal topic.

“Oh! A Gerard Butler look-a-like OB-GYN. Can you imagine the size of his–?

“Kiersten!”

“What?” She feigned innocence, but I’m not stupid. “I was going to say hands, you perv.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll see you in fifteen.”

“That would make a good movie though. Gerard Butler, the hot, mercurial OB. By day, he feels up vaginas and by night he fuc–?

“Goodbye, Kiersten!” I cut off her ridiculous fantasy. My cheeks suddenly felt hot, even though the rest of me was cold.

“Oh hey, what time is the party? And what should I get her? I suck at buying gifts.”

Finally, a topic I’d happily discuss in the middle of a coffee shop.

“This Saturday at noon. My place as usual. What does any fourteen-year-old like? Makeup, books, music, clothes. Nothing dating related.” Coming from Kiersten, that’d be a disaster. “I can’t believe how old she’s getting. I’m not ready for this age.”

“You’re a great mom. You can handle anything. Okay, see you soon, chick.” With that, she hung up.

As I lowered the phone from my ear, ready to indulge in a serious amount of coffee, an ominous vibe hit me. I didn’t realize where it was coming from until I placed my phone into my purse and looked up. Hairs stood up on the back of my neck as a shiver ran down my spine. The tall man in front of me had turned so that he was now facing the back of the line, his angry eyes aimed at me.

All of a millisecond passed before I got my first look into the fourteen-years-older face of my childhood love, Lawrence Briggs.

Or as I’d always called him—Law.

Oh, God.

He was as beautiful as always. Same dark, unruly hair and gray/green eyes. Except now that dark hair had a few threads of gray near the temples, and his eyes were outlined by creases.

And he was tall. So much taller than the last time I saw him. And built. Law was always strong but more lean than buff. Now he had big, rounded biceps that I was surprised fit into the sleeves of his Henley.

My mental calculation of all the ways he’d changed was cut short when he opened his mouth.

“Explains a lot,” he growled, not concealing the tone or volume of his voice.

Panic stole over me, and I looked around the room for assistance. Everyone was conveniently rushing around or ignoring my blatant plea for an intervention.

“

I-I’m sorry?” That shiver turned into a full-on tremble.

“Fourteen years ago, you disappeared into the night. Without a trace. Nobody knew where you’d went. Hearing you now, it sounds like you got yourself a teenaged daughter. Explains a lot.”

I opened my mouth to deny, deny, deny, but playing dumb would get me nowhere. There’s no way in hell I wouldn’t recognize the man standing before me, just like he knew it was me as soon as I got into line behind him. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he clocked me the second I opened the door to this place.

I studied my wet shoes. “You don’t know anything.”

“I never was a stupid kid,” he bit out.

For a second, my heart completely stopped, and my eyes snapped to his. He knew. I didn’t know how, but he’d figured it all out.

“I’m sure as hell not a stupid man. I can do simple math. I know you wouldn’t have run away for the hell of it. Even if your whole life went to shit, you still had me and you knew it.”

“I’ve got to go. I’m sorry.” Screw getting coffee. If I stood there another second, I was going to break down.