Colleen Hoover - Losing Hope

She lifts her arms to tighten her ponytail and I feel like I’m the one out of breath right now. “No phone. My mother isn’t a fan of modern technology. No TV, either.”

I wait for her to laugh, but it’s obvious in just a few short seconds that she’s completely serious. This isn’t good. How the hell am I supposed to get in touch with her? Not that I need to. I just have a pretty good feeling I’ll want to. “Shit.” I laugh. “You’re serious? What do you do for fun?”

She shrugs. “I run.”

Yes, she certainly does. And if I have anything to do with it, she won’t be running alone, anymore.

“Well in that case,” I say, leaning toward her, “you wouldn’t happen to know what time a certain someone gets up for her morning runs, would you?”

She sucks in a quick breath, then attempts to control it with a smile. Three and a half.

“I don’t know if you’d want to get up that early,” she says.

If she only knew I would go so far as to never sleep again if she would just agree to run with me. I lean in a little closer and lower my voice. “You have no idea how bad I want to get up that early.”

As soon as her fourth smile appears, she disappears . It happens so fast, I don’t even have time to react. The sound she makes when she smacks the pavement makes me wince. I immediately kneel down and roll her over.

“Sky?” I say, shaking her. She’s out cold. I look toward her house, then scoop her up and rush her to the door. I don’t bother knocking, since I have no extra hands. I lift my foot and kick at the front door, hoping someone is home to let me in.

Within seconds, the front door swings open and a woman appears. She looks at me in utter confusion until she recognizes Sky in my arms.

“Oh, my God!” She immediately opens the door to let me in.

“She passed out in the driveway,” I say. “I think she’s dehydrated.”

The woman immediately runs to the kitchen while I lower Sky onto the living room sofa. As soon as her head meets the arm of the couch, she moans and her eyelids flutter open. I breathe a sigh of relief, then step aside when her mother reappears.

“Sky, drink some water,” she says. She helps her take a sip, then she sets the glass of water down. “I’ll get you a cold rag,” she says, walking toward the hallway.

Sky looks up at me and winces. I kneel next to her, feeling awful that I just let her fall like that. It happened so fast, though. One second she was standing in front of me; the next second she wasn’t. “You sure you’re okay?” I ask after her mother has left the room. “That was a pretty nasty fall.”

There’s gravel and dirt stuck to her cheek, so I wipe most of it away. She squeezes her eyes shut and throws her arm over her face.

“Oh, God,” she groans. “I’m so sorry. This is so embarrassing.”

I take her wrist and pull it away from her face. The last thing I want her to feel is embarrassed. I’m just thankful she’s okay. And even more thankful it gave me an excuse to carry her inside. Now I’m inside her house with an excuse to come back and check on her this week. Things couldn’t have worked out better for me.

“Shh,” I whisper. “I’m sort of enjoying it.”

Her mouth curls up into a smile. Five.

“Here’s you a rag, sweetie. Do you want something for the pain? Are you nauseous?” Her mother hands me the rag and walks to the kitchen. “I might have some calendula or burdock root.”

Sky rolls her eyes. “I’m fine, Mom. Nothing hurts.”

I wipe the rest of the dirt off her cheek with the rag. “You might not be sore now, but you will be,” I say quietly. She didn’t see how hard she hit the ground. She’ll definitely feel it tomorrow. “You should take something, just in case.”

She nods and attempts to sit up, so I assist her. Her mother walks back into the room with a small glass of juice and hands it to Sky.

“I’m sorry,” she says, extending her hand out to me. “I’m Karen Davis.”

I stand up and return the handshake. “Dean Holder,” I say, taking a quick glance at Sky. “My friends call me Holder.”

Karen smiles. “How do you and Sky know each other?”

“We don’t, actually,” I say. “Just in the right place at the right time, I guess.”

“Well, thank you for helping her. I don’t know why she fainted. She’s never fainted.” She turns her attention to Sky. “Did you eat anything today?”

“A bite of chicken for lunch,” Sky says. “Cafeteria food sucks ass.”

Cafeteria food. So she goes to public school. I might just be rethinking my educational decision after all.

Karen rolls her eyes and throws her hands up in the air. “Why were you running without eating first?”

“I forgot,” Sky says defensively. “I don’t usually run in the evenings.”

Karen walks back to the kitchen with the glass and sighs heavily. “I don’t want you running anymore, Sky. What would have happened if you had been by yourself? You run too much, anyway.”

The look on Sky’s face is priceless. Apparently running is as vital to her as breathing.

“Listen,” I say, finding an opportunity to appease all parties involved, especially myself. “I live right over on Ricker and I run by here every day on my afternoon runs. If you’d feel more comfortable, I’d be happy to run with her for the next week or so in the mornings. I usually run the track at school, but it’s not a big deal. You know, just to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Karen returns to the living room and eyes both of us. “I’m okay with that,” she says. She turns her attention to Sky. “If Sky thinks it’s a good idea.”

Please think it’s a good idea.

“It’s fine,” Sky says with a shrug.

I was hoping for a “ Hell yes,” but “ fine ” will suffice.

She attempts to stand up again, but she sways to the left. I immediately reach out and grab her arm to ease her back down onto the sofa.

“Easy,” I say to her. I look at Karen. “Do you have any crackers she can eat? That might help.”

Karen walks away to the kitchen and I give Sky my full attention again. “You sure you’re okay?” I run my thumb over her cheek for no reason at all other than the simple fact that I wanted to touch her cheek again. As soon as my fingers graze her skin, chills rush down her arms. She tightens her arms over her chest and rubs the chills away. I can’t help but grin, knowing it was my hand on her skin that did that to her. Best. Feeling. Ever.

I glance at Karen to make sure she’s not making her way back into the living room, then I lean in toward Sky. “What time should I come stalk you tomorrow?”

“Six-thirty?” She says breathlessly.

“Six-thirty sounds good.” Six-thirty is my new favorite time of day.

“Holder, you don’t have to do this.” She looks me directly in the eyes as if she wants to give me the opportunity to back out. Why the hell would I want to back out?

“I know I don’t have to do this, Sky. I do what I want.” I lean even closer, hoping to see the chills run down her arms again. “And I want to run with you.”

I pull away just as Karen is walking back into the living room. Sky keeps her eyes focused hard on mine and it makes me wish more than anything that it was tomorrow morning already.

“Eat,” Karen says, placing crackers in Sky’s hand.

I stand up and tell Karen good-bye. “Take care of yourself,” I say to Sky as I back my way toward the front door. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

She nods and it’s all the confirmation I need. I pull the door shut behind me as I leave, pleased that I somehow managed to redeem myself. As soon as I’m out of her driveway and back on the sidewalk, I pull my phone from my pocket and call Daniel.