His Reverie by Monica Murphy

busy?”
    Michael chooses that moment to light off the biggest bottle rocket he had in his collection, along with a bunch of little ones, all at once. Not quite sure how he did that but he yells out an enthusiastic fuck yeah as they all shoot into the sky, exploding with bursts of color that casts Reverie’s face in a rainbow of red, white and blue.
    Fuck yeah is right. Just looking at her hurts. What if I actually got a chance to get my hands on her? I might not be able to stand it.
    “I’m not busy,” I say as I take a step toward her. Heather follows me and I shoot her a look that says what the hell?
    Because really. What the hell?
    “Rev!” Michael jogs over and stops in our circle of three, making it four, which fills me with relief. Heather’s being totally weird and I don’t like it. She came here for Michael but she’s following after me like she wants to be with me or something. Is she trying to make Michael jealous? Or maybe even Reverie? That makes no damn sense. “Whatcha doing? Come to watch the master at work?”
    “You know it.” Reverie shoves him on the shoulder, all easy flirtatious girl, not resembling the timid, crying girl I’d rescued not twenty-four hours ago.
    “Everyone like the show? That was the grand finale, if you were paying any attention.” Michael puffs up his chest, as if he’s looking to make a career out of lighting fireworks. Reverie giggles and Heather sends her a deathly stare before moving away from me and going to Michael’s side, curling her arm around his and looking nice and cozy.
    “You did an awesome job,” Heather murmurs to Michael, her face so close to his I swear her lips are brushing against his cheek as she speaks.
    Michael looks stunned and thrilled. He’s been after Heather since the moment she started working for the Hales and she constantly plays hard to get. I have no idea what she’s doing tonight but it’s weird. Like she’s jealous of Reverie or something.
    “I’ll uh, let you guys get back to whatever you were doing. I just wanted to say hi.” She offers a tremulous smile, once again the unsure girl of last night. My chest aches. I hate how uncomfortable she seems. “I should head back to the house before they send out the search and rescue.” Reverie starts walking backward, offering us a little wave. “See ya.”
    “Bye,” Heather calls, all sugary sweet as Reverie turns on her heel and practically starts running away from us.
    “Reverie, wait,” I say, shooting Heather a dirty look over my shoulder before I take off after Reverie.
    Second time in twenty four hours that I’m literally chasing this girl. She’s fast I’ll give her that but I catch up with her quick.
    “Reverie.” I grab hold of her arm and turn her around so she’s facing me. She looks upset, her eyes narrowed into slits as she yanks out of my hold and crosses her arms in front of her chest. The move only makes her boobs look bigger and my gaze drops. Lingers.
    Wishes.
    “What do you want Nick?” She sounds irritated. Sweet but irritated.
    I jerk my gaze back up to hers. “Why did you leave just now?”
    “I didn’t want to disturb you.” She practically spits the last two words out.
    “What are you talking about?” I think I know exactly what she’s talking about.
    “Are you with Heather?”
    “What? No way.” I shake my head, shocked she would come out and ask me point blank. “Michael’s hot for her, not me.”
    Her expression softens though she still sounds skeptical. “Well, she seemed very interested in you.”
    “It was nothing, I swear. We were talking while Michael was lighting the fireworks. He let me set a few off but after a while, he wanted to take over completely. So I let him.” I shrug. “He was just showing off for Heather. Trying to impress her.”
    “She acted like she was trying to impress you. ” She sounds jealous. And sick ass that I am, I like it.
    “Not even,” I scoff because yeah. I doubt she’s interested in me.