0986388661 (R) by Melissa Collins

thinking of him being with her, or anyone else for that matter, is all I need to garner the courage to call him. Besides, he wouldn’t have given me his number if he didn’t intend for me to use it.
    With shaking fingers, I pull up his number on my cellphone. Of course, it’s already been saved. It rings four times before the voicemail picks up. His deep voice greets me, prompting me to leave a message.
    “Hey. It’s me, Gracie. I was just . . . uhh–” I stutter into the line, overcome by a sudden nervousness. “I . . . uh . . . just wanted to say hi.” After taking a deep breath, and pulling on my big-girls panties, I finally put together an intelligible thought. “I wanted to see if you were doing anything tonight. Give me a call back if you’re free.”
    And with that, I hang up and silently curse myself and my nervous jitters. Figuring the best way to keep myself distracted is to finish cleaning my room, I get to the task at hand. I’d like to say I’m an organized person, but then I’d be lying. Add in the fact that the last semester of school, coupled with student teaching provided me with very little free time. And whatever time I did manage, I sure as hell wasn’t going to spend it on cleaning my room.
    After the last of my laundry is put away, I start organizing the piles of books stacked in the corner. “Looks like I’ll need another bookshelf,” I say to myself, trying to squeeze yet another paperback onto the already filled shelves.
    The buzzing of my phone startles me and forces me to drop the book in my hand. As I slide it out of my back pocket, I try my best to calm my racing thoughts. But when I see David’s name flash across the screen, my heart leaps into my throat.
    “Hello?” I answer, my voice wavering with my all-over-the-place nerves.
    “Hey,” he responds, almost breathless. “Sorry it took me so long to call back. I only just got your message.”
    It couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes since I called him, so the fact that he’s apologizing for the delay is somewhat sweet to me. “That’s okay. Did I catch you at a bad time?”
    “No. Of course not. I’m at my parents’ house working on their new kitchen.” There’s rattling and banging going on in the background, echoing his words. “I’m trying to help out on the demolition, save them some money. You know?”
    “That’s really nice of you.” Imagining his handsome, yet rugged face, warm over with a smile at my compliment makes me smile as well. Thinking of him all sweaty and worked up isn’t so bad either.
    His simple explanation that he has to help, they’re his parents after all, makes him all the more attractive.
    “So,” he drags out the word, calling me back to the conversation. “What’s up?”
    “Huh?”
    “You called me, Gracie.” His voice, holy hell. My name falls from his lips, raspy and sexy as sin.
    “Oh, yeah. Uh, I wanted to see what you were doing tonight. I thought we could get together.” Silently, I curse myself for rambling like a teenager.
    “Just as friends,” he mocks, a hint of sarcasm in his words.
    Mainly to save face, I laugh and ignore his comment. “So are you doing anything?”
    When he says, “I am, actually,” a punch of disappointment lands in my gut.
    “Oh, okay. Well, sorry I bothered you today. You probably have a lot of work to get back to. I guess we’ll talk later,” I prattle on, trying my best to conceal my dissatisfaction at not being able to see him tonight. “Please tell your parents–”
    “Grace,” he says, cutting through what would be the continuation of my rambling. “Breathe,” he coaches me. A soft chuckle accompanies his word, and I follow his advice. “I would love to see you tonight,” he says, making breathing almost impossible again. “I have a charity baseball game, though. Would you want to watch the game and we could grab something to eat afterward?”
    Stunned into silence, I sit there, searching for the words to