NO MATTER WHAT GWENN did, she could not forget the feeling of Ronan's touch. Every waking moment since their break-in escapade plan was spent reliving the way he took ahold of her, pulling her into him like she was his missing puzzle piece. It didn't help that it had felt so natural, so right. She had never had a guy make her feel like she was meant to be held.
After the night she'd had, she scoured the local news, reading up on conflicts she had no idea were occurring under her nose, just to see if their break-in had spread through the media. She found an article detailing the event, but when Stephanie Xu assured everyone that nothing had been taken, everything calmed down. They weren't wanted criminals.
That left Gwenn focusing again on their escape plan in his truck.
She squeezed her eyes shut, wiping her forehead with the sleeve of her cream sweatshirt. Children squealed behind her, throwing one of the bouncy balls around the playroom like they were plotting to dominate the universe one hurl at a time. She turned just in time to see the bouncy ball of doom coming at her face, and reached out to grab it before it slammed into her nose like it did to poor Alice.
"You guys have so much energy today," Gwenn commented, tilting her head to the side. That got a chorus of giggles from the kids. "Please be more careful on how you throw the ball, you might hurt someone."
"Okay, Ms. Davidson," a few replied. Gwenn smiled, taking in the fresh, chubby faces of the next generation. She wondered all the things that group would accomplish in just a few years. Maybe she'd even recognize their names one day.
"Alright," Gwenn said, and rolled the ball to the closest child—Kerrie. She raised the ball over her head, gave an excited cheer, and launched to the middle of the playroom where mayhem resumed immediately.
The clock ticked by, and soon the last parent whisked away the remaining child. Devon waved goodbye at Gwenn with droopy eyes, settling his cheek over his father's shoulder as they stepped out of the daycare.
Her knees buckled, and Gwenn plopped down on the desk chair, staring at the computer screen with the day's report almost done. She registered Devon being picked up before taking a breath to tackle the rest of the paperwork. She would be done by the time five o'clock rolled around, and she'd go to her apartment and take the longest, hottest shower before sleeping until her muscles atrophied.
After cracking her spine, she went back to the keyboard, writing down the events of the day, reporting on any incident no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, in order to have the evidence needed in case anyone thought to do something annoying to her boss. If parents found any sign of abuse, they would stomp through their doors demanding answers, and rightfully so. But Cathy's Day Care did not abuse their children, so if anyone tried to place blame on them for their convenience, they had the paperwork to prove their innocence. (Though if Gwenn found out any one of her coworkers did anything to harm the children, she would take matters into her own hands).
She typed up the last of the report, and saved it to the hard drive, not before printing a copy to file it as well. She was standing up to put the copy in its respective folder when the front door pinged with a new presence. Her spine tingled as she reared around to find Ronan frozen at the entrance, gaze locked on her.
After the previous night, they hadn't spoken at all. Meek goodbyes were exchanged when she was dropped off at her apartment complex, but neither of them could even dare look at the other in the eye. She had fallen asleep to the feeling of his lips on hers, then fearing that she'd welcome the morning to the police barging through her doors to arrest her, she gasped awake to a silent apartment in the middle of the night and could not go back to her dreams. Having been running on pure caffeine and the mind-jolting memory of his touches, seeing him again was like taking in a thousand hits of a drug and feeling its effect instantly, but she feared she would overdose and convulse on the daycare floors.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Luminescent
General Fiction"Just shine like you always do." Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
