Infatuated (3 page)

“During the week is fine.”

“I have school. And no, I’m not just coming up with excuses.”

He grabbed my hand, rubbing the top with his thumb. “So pick a day that ends in ‘y’ and I’ll be there. Name the time and place.”

“Are you always this persistent?”

His gaze was steady, unblinking. “When it’s worth it? Always.”

“And after knowing me ten minutes, you think it’s worth it?” I realized how it sounded after I said it and shook my head. “Never mind. That sounds like I’m fishing for compliments and I’m not.”

“It doesn’t. And to answer your question…” With his eyes locked on mine again, he leaned up and wrapped one strong arm around my waist, reminding me I was still in his lap. He ran a finger down the side of my face. “I think it’s worth finding out.”

The air in the room became thick and hot. It made me dizzy and breathless. I didn’t fall for quick and easy words like a gullible teen, but man, I was falling for his. And his mouth. Those too-pretty lips were raised slightly, in the barest of smiles. I licked my lips and nodded.

His gaze fell to my mouth and he leaned closer again, this time angling his head down. He stopped there, like he changed his mind, and I almost swore at him. Then he lowered his head again and his lips brushed against mine, smooth and warm. The hand at my waist roamed up and settled in the middle of my back. I felt him fist the material in his fingers. His tongue ran along my lips, once, then twice, before he backed away. He groaned. “One of us better leave,” he whispered huskily, “before my restraint fails completely.”

I nodded again, unable to think of a coherent—or safe—thing to say.
Let it fail
sounded good. Or maybe
I’m okay with that
. Instead of saying either, I said, “That would be me.” And then I didn’t move. Couldn’t move, because his eyes were on mine and I was too busy studying his face. The lines of his jaw, the bristly not-quite-shaved whiskers of facial hair. The way his eyes stared into mine.

I’d thought he was cute since the first time I’d seen him, but I’d never given it—or him—much thought before now, because Earl had always been around. It was hard to focus on the cute guys when the creepy ones were focusing on you.

When he grinned at me, I blinked. “I was going, wasn’t I?”

He started to rub circles over my back. “I don’t really mind if you stay.”

“Ha ha. I’ll bet you don’t.” Carefully, trying my best not to smash anything smashable, I got to my feet. “Thanks for the conversation.”

“You’ve thanked me a lot tonight.”

“They’re called manners.”

He rose. “I have them too, so I’ll walk you to your car.”

“To the door is good enough.” I grabbed my purse off the table and searched for my keys, which Kale ended up having as he dangled them in front of me.

“To your car.”

I didn’t argue yet or tell him I would be walking home. It wasn’t exactly a conversation I wanted to have in a bar full of strange men. “Okay.”

“Where’s your car?” Kale asked once we were outside.

“I walked here. I’m close, so I’m good to—” I broke off when I spotted a familiar truck at the end of the lot, partially tucked behind the dumpster.

“What?”

“It’s nothing,” I said, trying not to make a big deal of things. And it probably was nothing. Blue Toyotas weren’t exactly uncommon, even in small towns. Even trucks with similar dents on the passenger side door… “I think I forgot something inside.” I turned to leave, but Kale smoothly clutched my arm and kept me in place.

“You’re a bad liar.”

“I am not.” Only I probably was at the moment. Lying under pressure I could do. Lying when I was upset…not so much.

Kale’s gaze followed mine when I glanced back at the truck. He drew his shoulders back and straightened. The lines of his jaw hardened as his teeth smashed together. “That’s the guy, isn’t it? Earl or whatever, the one who watches you?”

“Yeah, but he probably just forgot something. People leave things behind all the time. I’m just going to go in, okay?”

“Go ahead.” He started away. But not toward the bar—he headed toward Earl’s truck.

“Where are you going?”

“To say something to him. If the guy’s been bugging you, someone needs to set him straight.”

“Don’t!” I raced in front of him and threw my hands against his chest to physically stop him. “Look, I appreciate the thought—really, I do—but don’t say anything. I’m probably overreacting to the whole thing and…I need this job, okay?”

Kale looked down at me, fury blazing in his eyes. “I’m not going to beat him up or anything, just tell him to lay off.”

And he was off again, forcing me to either sit by and watch or follow him. A ball of panic clawed into my stomach as I chased after him. What if he did attack Earl? What if Earl attacked him?

I couldn’t see inside Earl’s truck this time, even with the streetlight above it. The glare was over the windows. But I knew he had to have seen us coming.

I pleaded with Kale the whole short trip to the truck but he ignored me. If I got in his way, he moved around me. Finally, he reached Earl’s truck and politely knocked on the window. Now I could see Earl clearly. It amazed me how normal he looked. Average short, brown hair. Average looking face. Everything screamed normal. All but the eyes. No, not the eyes. The way he stared. The unreadable emotion in them that made me shudder.

He wore a neutral expression on his face as he rolled the window down. “Yeah?”

“Ally’s taken.”

Earl’s expression never changed. “Excuse me?”

“I’ve seen you watching my girl, and I’m asking you, man to man, to knock off the staring. You’re freaking her out and it’s pissing me off.”

I expected…something. Earl to argue or deny that he’d been watching me, but he did neither. He shot me a scathing look that had my stomach reeling and goosebumps raising on my arms. He looked at me the whole time he rolled his window up again. He stared at me until he started his truck and drove away.

Was he innocent? I wondered. Had he not been staring at me? Did I, like Laura offhandedly suggested, just remind him of someone? Guilt set in. Had I unintentionally had Kale accuse Earl of something he might’ve been innocent of? And then worry set in next. Worry that Earl would say something to Dave, my boss, and I’d lose my job. It didn’t pay a lot, but for now, it was enough to keep my bills paid.

Kale stared at the exit before slowly turning toward me. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “That’s what you put up with every night?”

Wordlessly, I nodded.

“No wonder you’re freaked out.” He looked over my head and his hand went to my shoulder. He peered down at me. “He shouldn’t bother you again. If he does, just tell him I’m the jealous type.”

It should have made me smile but it didn’t, so I just nodded, hoping he was right and that Earl wouldn’t stare at me anymore.

“Where’s your phone?” he asked. I pulled it out of my purse. He took it from me and started typing in numbers. “If he bothers you, call me. Day or night. I mean that, okay? Any more creepy looks, or if he says anything to you, just let me know.”

“Okay.”

“And I’m walking you home. Save the protest,” he added when I tried to reply. “I’ll leave my ID with your friend in there if it’ll make you feel any better. I just want to make sure you get home safe, okay?”

“Okay, thank you.” Normally, I would have argued, and I was surprised I didn’t. Kale was, in a way, more of a stranger to me than Earl. I’d seen Kale before in the bar, usually with one of his guy friends, playing pool or something, but I saw Earl more often.

Or maybe he saw me more often. I didn’t know which was actually technically correct and I didn’t care.

Hanson’s didn’t close for at least two more hours, and I couldn’t wait around for Laura to walk me home, especially when she didn’t see anything wrong with Earl’s behavior. ‘He’s harmless’ was one of her many comments about the guy. Among the others were ‘he wouldn’t hurt a fly’ or ‘he’s just lonely’ or, like tonight, her line about him maybe having a kid that looked like me.

My parents never, ever looked at me like that. They never looked at me the way Earl looked at me, the way he could look at me like he was studying me or trying to look
through
me.

Like he was trying to stare a hole into my head.

I didn’t know why he did what he did, and I didn’t even know if it was wrong, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something off about it. I couldn’t pretend I was okay with it when I wasn’t.

“Now you do the stare-into-space thing.”

I blinked at Kale’s voice. “Sorry.”

“You do that a lot, too. Apologize. Fortunately for me, I don’t think you mean it half the time. Either way, you have nothing to be sorry for, so knock it off, okay?” He took his jacket off again and wrapped it around me, this time actually putting it on me. “You’re shaking again,” he murmured, and then he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Come on. Let me get you home.”

I led the way across the street to my apartment complex, looking around me the whole time, searching for signs of Earl. It was asinine that, when I found none, I almost felt worse. At least when he’d been across the street, I’d known exactly where he was. Now… Now I was checking every bush, praying no one popped out of them. And when a pair of eyes appeared in the bushes, I nearly whimpered like a baby. A cat jumped out and ran.

Kale pulled me closer. “You’re okay.” He looked down at me and smiled. “But you realize you do have to go on a date with me now, right? I defended your honor and told that creep you were my girlfriend, so now you owe me one.”

I shook my head. “Are you always so charming?”

“You called it persistent earlier. I think I liked that better since I can hear the sarcasm beneath the ‘charming’.”

“You’re…”

“You’ve already called me cute and persistent, so I think you need something better now.” He puffed out his chest. “Manly works.”

The laugh eased the clenching in my stomach. “You’re Kale. I don’t know how that fits you, but it does. Just Kale.” I stopped on the sidewalk and looked up at him. “How did you know my name, anyway? I never told you.”

He looked away, refusing to meet my gaze. “Your friend said it in the bar. Plus, I’ve, ahh, heard it before.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “Who’s the bad liar now?”

“Fine, so sue me. My friend dragged me in there last month, I saw you, and…I wanted to know your name. I asked that blonde waitress and she told me. You should really say something to her, by the way, about giving your name out to strangers.”

It didn’t surprise me that she’d done just that. It should have, but it really didn’t. “Is that why I’ve seen you in there twice this week?”

“Yeah. I kept coming in, hoping to catch you alone to talk, but you were always working.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “And admitting that I’ve been watching you after what just went down probably isn’t my best move, but wrong or right, it is the truth. When I saw you tonight just sitting at the bar, I had my chance to talk to you, so I took it.”

Now that he mentioned it, I remembered seeing him watching me a few times, but he always looked away immediately or made it seem casual. Normal.

Un-Earl like.

He gave a dramatic sigh. “And then you turned me down in two seconds flat and nearly crushed my manly ego.”

“Only nearly, huh?” I asked as I walked the rest of the way to my door. I stopped just outside it and turned. “I must be losing my touch. Bitch-mode didn’t even scare you off.”

Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me close and lowered his forehead to mine. “I don’t believe in kismet, but when I got another chance to talk to you—after you nearly crushed my ego for the second time in one night—I wasn’t about to let it slip by. I believe in working for what you want if you get a chance to.”

His focused, unblinking gaze had my heart picking up speed.

He’s going to kiss me again
, I thought, hoping he would. Hoping he wouldn’t. Hoping he’d do something before I went crazy wondering what he’d do.

He cupped my face, brushing my hair aside with his thumbs. They were a little calloused. I stared up at him, waiting, wanting.

“I’m going to kiss you again—”

I almost sighed with relief.

“—but not now.” He ran his fingers down the side of my face, my shoulders, and then he shoved them into his pockets. “Not tonight.”

“Oh.”
It’s for the best. Making out right outside your apartment is a bad, bad idea. Making out inside your apartment is better, but still a bad, bad idea.
I tried for a flirty laugh. “Tease.”

“Shit. I just lost man-points, didn’t I? Maybe I should, I don’t know, throw you against the door and kiss your face off or something. That should make up for it, right?”

I laughed. “Too late. The points, they’re gone forever.”

“Damn. That would have been fun.” His eyes were dark, voice husky. He took a step away. “Go inside before I change my mind and do it anyway. Because I want to, or something very, very similar.”

“You’re very…forward,” I said, though it wasn’t a complaint like it should have been.

“I guess I am, at least tonight.” His brows furrowed together slightly. “I’m not usually.”

“Thanks, Kale. For the conversation and walking me home. I’ve never particularly wanted or needed a Knight in Shining Armor before, but I’m glad I had one tonight.” I turned away and unlocked the door. I paused before going inside and smiled at him. “They come in handy.”

“You’re welcome. I meant what I said, you can call me if you need anything.” With his hands tucked into his pockets, he strolled away.

I watched him leave. He was halfway down the sidewalk before I remembered I had his jacket on. “I have your jacket!”

He turned, grinning. “I know. Guess you’ll have to go on that date with me to give it back, won’t you? Night, Ally.”

I thought I heard him whistle as he walked away, and I decided he was either the cockiest person in the world or just bat-shit crazy.

Smiling, I shut the door and decided I could use a little crazy in my life if it looked like that.

CHAPTER 3