CHAPTER SIX

 

After lunch McCoy and I went to Peace Park. We hailed a cab and sat in the back seat wrapped around each other. He had one arm draped behind my shoulders. His fingers played with my hair. His other hand was across his body and resting on my knee. My cheek rested on his shoulder.

We sat like that for the entire ride and McCoy made small talk with the driver, who we learned was from Canada and had been driving a cab since he was sixteen. Apparently he had been driving people before he was even legally allowed to. McCoy took a liking to him and the cab driver indulged him in funny stories he had from driving for so many years.

When we arrived at the park McCoy took my hand and we made our way down the path and into the treeline. The park was a big place. I used to walk it with my parents and our dog when I was a kid. It looked a lot different than I remembered. The trees weren’t quite as large as I recalled- although, they were still massive. The leaves and branches created a canopy above us as he followed the trail. We passed the occasional other group of walkers and nodded polite hello’s. McCoy never let me go. If his fingers weren’t wrapped around he had one hand resting lightly on my back. Or he had his hand on my ass. Both were frequent. I didn’t mind. I liked it. I knew it for what it was: he was possessive. Another red flag. But I couldn’t help but want him to touch me.

By the time we were half an hour into the trail McCoy pulled me off the path and guided over roots and moss. We made our way over a slight ridge and dipped down the other side of it, out of sight of anyone who may be walking the trail behind us. He turned to me and I saw that all too familiar sparkle in his eyes.

“I can’t control myself around you.” He confessed.

“Then don’t try to.”

That was all the permission he needed. He wrapped me up in his arms and we went down to the forest floor. He wasted little time. My pants were down around my knees and I was on all fours in seconds. His hands held my hips to him as he entered me and I did everything possible to keep quiet.

We lay in the moss and twigs and branches when we were done, staring up at the blue sky through the trees. When we caught our breath he helped me to my feet and looked apologetically at my white pants.

The knees were stained green and I had somehow managed to get mud on my thighs. I shrugged. “It was worth it, trust me.” He kissed me and offered to buy me another pair.

I laughed. “It’s okay. I have another pair that are similar.”

“Thank the Gods,” he breathed, “I’d hate to never see you looking like this again.” He pulled a bramble out of my hair and we laughed.

We returned to the path but didn't follow it too much further. By the time we walked another half mile McCoy turned us around and we started to head back. We talked more as we went, and I learned more about him.

He had grown up with both his parents and two siblings in a small suburb outside of the city. His father had been an alcoholic who used to hit McCoy's mother when he went on a bender. Suddenly all of McCoy’s miniscule movements and his ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude started to make sense.

“I'm sorry,” I offered when I could see that discussing his family wasn't a comfortable topic for him. “I don't know what that's like. I wish you didn't have to live it.”      

He looked down at me and gave me a weak smile. “Me too. But, we don't always get what we want.”

“What do you want, McCoy?”

The question confused him. He lifted a brow at me and pursed his lips.

“I mean big picture. You hate working construction. What do you wish you were doing instead?”

He blushed. It was weird. His cheeks grew rosy and he rubbed the back of his neck and refused to meet my eyes. Then he started talking. “I like to take pictures. I like to capture things that people miss. I'm good at it. I've never told anyone before.”

 “So you want to be a photographer? That's amazing. Do you have a portfolio? Can I see some?”

I had overwhelmed him. I could see him struggling to sort through his thoughts and his feelings about it. Perhaps I was asking him to share too much too soon. It was fair. He didn't have to if he didn't want to. “McCoy, it's okay to say no.”

“I'll show you sometime. Promise.” He gave me another small smile.

McCoy hailed us another cab at the entrance to the park. We were surrounded by cyclist and other walkers and I felt the need to be some place quieter. He asked me what I wanted to do next. I asked to go home.

He paid the cab driver when we pulled up in front of my house and we went up my front porch. He joked about how ruined my pants were and I scowled playfully over my shoulder at him. “No thanks to you. Maybe next time you could show a little restraint and keep your hands to yourself?”

He stepped up beside me on the porch and tucked the fingers of both hands into my back pockets. “Do you want me to keep my hands to myself? It could be arranged, you know.”

Someone cleared their throat to our right and I jumped in surprise. Jason was sitting on my porch swing, watching us with irritated eyes. McCoy left his hands on my backside buried in my pockets, and I found myself wishing he would take a step back.

Jason stood and rested his hand on the railing of the porch. He picked a bit at the blue paint before he finally met my eyes. “Vee, this may be a bad time but I was hoping you would have a free moment. Just to talk.”

“Jason, I'm sorry, but I don't want to talk.” I didn't offer him any other explanation besides that. In my mind, it was enough.

He disagreed. His eyes fell over McCoy for the briefest moment, and I saw all the same anger from the previous night build up in him again. “I think it's important that you hear what I have to say.”

“And I think it's important that you listen to what I have to say, Jason.” My voice hardened. Anger of my own bloomed within me. “I don't want anything to do with you. Ever. You hear me? Now get off my porch and leave me alone.”

His eyes were pleading. He stared between me and McCoy, who was remaining quiet. I was exceedingly grateful for this. Although he was protective he respected me enough to fight my own battles. He felt no need to step in and tell Jason to take a hike.

Finally Jason submitted and sulked by us, his shoulder childishly bumping into McCoy’s. McCoy barely moved and Jason sort of stumbled off of him and down the first couple steps before he regained his balance. He looked over his shoulder at me and I took a dig at him by resting against McCoy’s chest.

We watched Jason sulk down the sidewalk until he was out of view. I unlocked the door and took McCoy’s hand, but he didn’t follow me in.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Nothing, there’s just some stuff I need to take care of.”

“Oh, okay.” My heart felt like it had deflated in my chest. I had been expecting this earlier. It made sense that he would only go so far before he decided to abandon ship.

“Don’t overthink it.” He said as he hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “Can I see you again tomorrow?”

I nodded.

He leaned over the threshold and braced himself on the doorframe. He planted a kiss on my cheek before he turned and hurried down my porch steps. He crossed my lawn and went the opposite way of Jason, shoulder checking to watch for a taxi. I closed the door and called Carly.

She showed up at my place shortly after. The disappointment in my voice had tipped her off, and she wasted no time in coming to my rescue. She arrived with chocolate and her copy of ‘A Walk to Remember’. If either of us ever needed a good cry, it was our go to. As I popped a mint chocolate wafer into my mouth, I filled Carly in on what had happened that afternoon. She sat tucked into the corner of my couch and waited for me to finish. When I was done, she unfurled her legs from beneath herself and stretched her legs out to rest her heels on my coffee table.

“Veronica, I think you might be getting a bit ahead of yourself. I know I’m not his number one fan, but I don’t think McCoy is bailing on you. It doesn’t add up.”

I washed my wafer down with a sip of white wine. “How so?”

“Well. First he spent the night. It would have been easier for him to just slip out while you were sleeping. Then he took you out for food. Nothing spells ‘I’m into you’ like taking a girl out for food after you sleep with her. Then he took you to a park, which is actually kind of romantic-”

“Yeah, or he just wanted to have sex.”

“Most probably, but he could have brought you home and had sex with you here. And maybe there really is stuff he needs to do. He has a life, you know. Maybe he didn’t expect to spend so much time with you and now there’s stuff that he needs to catch up on.” She clasped her hands behind her bed and stretched. “I’d bet money that he’ll come back tomorrow. I saw how he looked at you in the kitchen. Why did you think I left?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know Car. He seems too good to be true.”

Carly laughed. “Oh come on now, he’s not too good to be true. Sure, he has good things going for him, like his looks. And his charm. But besides that… he’s kind of a criminal, right?”

It was a fair point. Maybe I was idolizing him too much.

No, I wasn’t. McCoy was unlike anyone I had ever met before. I felt empty now that he was gone. “I’m such a fool,” I muttered, resting my head back on the back of the sofa and sighing as I stared at the ceiling.

“You fell way too fast, is all.”

I fake sobbed and covered my eyes. I ran my fingers down my face in exasperation. “This is so stressful. What do I do if he doesn’t show up tomorrow?”

Carly rolled her eyes. “Then you move on.”

That was easy enough for her to say. She didn’t know who he was. Carly had no idea what kind of power he held over me. I had believed, for the briefest moment, that I held that power over him as well. But then he was able to walk away from me and never even look back.

Carly handed me another chocolate wafer. “Don’t agonize over this. You’re going to feel like an idiot tomorrow when he shows up.”

I hoped she was right. When we put the movie on I spent most of my time trying to think of all the reasons why McCoy would bother to come back. He could probably get sex anytime he wanted. You don’t get to walk around looking like that and not enjoy the perks. There was nothing that set me apart from any of the other women I was sure he had programmed in his phone. Not to mention, I had baggage. I had a crazy ex boyfriend who randomly liked to show up at my house. And, just for bonus points, he also tried to fight McCoy. It ended horribly for Jason, but I was sure it would be a red flag for any sane man. And McCoy, despite his history, was definitely sane.

When Carly left just past midnight she tried to reassure me that everything would be fine. I still went to bed sobbing. I couldn’t control it. It poured out of me and the sadness that sat in my gut was so much more powerful than what I had felt when I ended it with Jason. How it was possible to feel this way for a man I had known for only a week I had no idea.