Focusing on getting out of there quickly, I headed for the checkout with my basket. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone, and I refused to look for Ezmita again. Wasn’t my business. Maybe she’d been kicked out of her house too and been on lockdown with Brett Darby. I seriously doubted that, but whatever. Didn’t matter.
EZMITA
He was back.
Asa was back in Lawton.
My heart sped up at the sight of him. I had hoped it wouldn’t. I had hoped my silly crush on Asa was gone. Brett had been a nice distraction over the past two weeks, and having a guy give me attention had been nice. Part of me had believed that would put out the little thing I had for Asa, but deep down I think I knew better. His being gone had helped me not dwell on him so much, but seeing him standing there, looking as beautiful as I remembered, with a basket in his hand as he put a jar of peanut butter in it and glanced at the jelly next, proved I was not over my crush.
Dangit.
“You know Asa?” Brett asked beside me.
I had been obvious with my gawking. I jerked my gaze away from Asa’s nice backside and looked at Brett. “Yes, no, kinda,” I said, not sure how to answer that. It wasn’t like I could tell him the truth. For starters, the night on the bridge was a secret I’d never tell. Second, the fact I’d been obsessed with Asa for years was embarrassing. His simple act of kindness one day had made me place him on a pedestal. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to remove him.
Brett laughed. “Yes, you know of him, no, you don’t actually know him?”
I nodded because that was a better explanation. “He used to come into the store,” I said with a smile.
“And Asa Griffith the playah never hit on you?” he asked, looking surprised.
I shook my head. Because no, not once had Asa flirted with me. Which was sad to acknowledge.
“That shocks me.”
I shrugged it off as if I didn’t care. When in reality, I did. I wished just once he had flirted with me.
“My flat tire was damn lucky,” Brett said, then winked at me.
I picked up the deli pizza we had come to get. “Why’s that?” I asked him, still distracted from Asa’s return.
“Because I’d never been inside your parents’ store before. If I’d known you were in there, I’d have come in a hell of a lot sooner.”
Brett was sweet. He said nice things. He flirted with me. The day his Mini Cooper had gotten a flat tire and he’d come inside to get a soda while he waited on the tire service to come change it, I had waited on him. He’d asked about what smelled so good, and I told him about my mom’s churros. He had bought three, then asked me if I had Snapchat. If it had been a few months earlier, my answer would have been no, and any other question he’d asked me would have been no.
However, after the night on the bridge and Hunter Maclay’s murder, my dad changed. It was as if he feared he’d lose me the way he had lost my sister. Against my mother’s wishes, he had given me a smartphone and told me that I could attend a college out of state, but it needed to be in a safer place than Los Angeles. In fact, California was completely off-limits.
I’d applied to other colleges already, and although I didn’t have a full ride to any of the ones in places he felt were safe enough, I had a partial scholarship to Walton University in Oxford, Mississippi. It was close enough to make them happy, and, well… it was in the same city as Ole Miss. Yes, it may appear stalkerlike, but I had made a lot of excuses as to why it was the best choice for me. They all sounded very good.
Brett wasn’t Mexican, and my mother had issues with that. My dad had overruled her, though, and Brett was allowed to come over to watch a movie. Then I was allowed to go get a burger with him as long as we didn’t eat inside a restaurant. His charm soon worked on my momma, and now I was free to go to his house as long as his parents were there, and Momma would call and check on that. Today we were getting a pizza and some other snacks, then going to binge-watch a new series on Netflix. Brett had mentioned swimming, but I wasn’t sure asking my momma if I could wear a swimsuit in front of Brett was a good idea. That, and the only swimsuit I owned looked like something my momma would wear. I needed to buy a new one.