I opened my arms as she ran to me, grabbing her up off the ground. “Todd!” There were tears of joy in her voice and my heart squeezed when she wrapped her arms around me.
“Hey baby, surprise.”
My heart and soul reacted to being this close to her again. Something inside me, something that had been asleep for the past year came alive, and I could’ve stood there holding her like that for the rest of my life. “Don’t cry baby!” I put her back on her feet and dried her tears with my thumbs, holding back the smile lest she think I was laughing at her.
I felt something tug at my pants leg and looked down to see a smiling Catalina. “Hey sis, you two wait over there for me.” I pointed off to the side out of the way of the kids that were filing out through the doors.
“Why, where are you going?”
“Nowhere!” I looked over the heads of the other kids for my prey and saw him coming with his friends. He either didn’t recognize me or didn’t see me standing there until I was on him.
“Hey asshole, remember me?” I didn’t give him time to answer, just picked his dumb ass up and body slammed him to the ground. Of course that caught the attention of the other kids who all stopped to watch. “Dude, what the fuck?” He moaned through the pain.
“I told you about messing with my girl didn’t I?” I felt around in my back pocket for the sheet of paper I’d left there. Since I wasn’t planning on wasting time on his ass, I came prepared. I got the bottle of water from the other pocket and wet the paper while keeping him in place with my knee pressed into his throat.
I held the wet paper over his face, covering his mouth and nose, cutting off his air, before leaning down to whisper in his ear. “See how easy it would be to end you? Next time you fuck with her I’ll make sure to finish the job; last warning.”
I got up off the fool and left him for his friends to tend to before going back to her. “Where are your brothers?” I took her hand and her little sister’s and started back to the truck. “Don’t look back at him!” She was busy trying to look back over her shoulder.
‘Todd, is he going to be okay? What if you get into trouble your first day back?”
“I asked you where your brothers are.”
“Um…The twins have football practice and Caleb has soccer.”
“Fine, let’s go.” I strapped her in after letting Catalina into the backseat and walked around to the driver’s side. I happened to look up and caught the asshole glaring at me from across the parking lot while clutching his throat. I wasn’t worried. I’m sure he’ll be having nightmares about what I just did to him for a long time.
“Why didn’t you tell me that he was bothering you?” I turned to her as soon as I was seated and had the truck in gear. “Damn, come ‘ere.” I couldn’t resist pulling her face towards me and sealing her lips with mine.
My heart damn near bounded out of my chest at that first contact. This kiss felt different, no longer as innocent as they used to be. I nibbled on her lips and dove in, sucking the breath from her lungs and giving her mine.
It would’ve gone on for much longer if the childish snickers from the backseat hadn’t penetrated and I eased away slowly, looking into her eyes that were now just a little bit cloudy. She’s even more beautiful than I remember, and more womanly, than the young girl I’d left behind.
“So tell me, why did you keep this from me?” I lifted her hand to my lips, heart racing with the excitement of being here with her now after spending so much time apart as I sat back in the driver’s seat.
“I didn’t want to worry you, how did you know anyway? What are you doing here? I thought you were coming week after next.”
I didn’t answer her, didn’t even look at Catalina in the backseat as I put the truck in gear and started driving, because I didn’t want to give our secret away. I forgot that for all the kid’s brilliance she’s still a little girl. “I told him.” Caitlin turned around in her seat to stare at her. “You? How? When?”
I saw Catalina shrug her shoulders when I looked into the rearview mirror but that’s not all I saw. Shit! Her dad and his crew were coming up behind us fast. How did he know I was here? I started to pull over but caught his hand wave telling me to go on.
This guy is scary as shit. That’s one of the reasons I never tried anything with his daughter, I always had the sense that he was going to pop up from out of nowhere if I ever went too far.