“Sure.” I’m sure the look I give her says it’s not my favourite idea, but the smile that breaks out across her lips is so fucking spectacular I’d consider riding on the back of her scooter every day of my life just to see that flash of pretty white teeth.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this is Sugartown. There’s not exactly an abundance of places to go.”
“There’s a pub isn’t there?”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“There a pool table?” She nods, and I feel myself smile so wide I know my dimples are coming out. “You play?”
Her cheeks turn the prettiest shade of pink. I have to fight the urge the grab her face with my hands and force her lips to mine.
“Not for a long time.” She holds my stare for what feels like forever, and there’s something calculating behind her eyes, but then she looks away. “Listen, I can’t go out with you tonight, I have to babysit Sammy.”
“I thought he was staying at what’s-his-name’s house tonight?” Holly pipes up from behind the counter. Clearly, pretending she’s not listening to our conversation is something she’s not fazed with.
“Holly!” Ana shoots her a look, it’s one I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of, but Holly just shrugs her shoulders and stares defiantly. Her friend may be as freaking crazy as a monkey on meth, but I think I’m beginning to like her.
“What? It’s true.”
“Well, it may be true, but you know what he’s like at a sleepover. He’s there ten minutes before he’s begging an adult to drive him home.”
“Couldn’t you just go until you get a call to come pick him up?”
“Come on, Ana Belle, it’s the least you could do after humiliating me in front of your dad for the past two weeks.”
“Hey, you brought that on yourself.”
“How so?”
“You came strutting in here all cocky, with your dimples and your tattoos and your big brown eyes and expected us to swoon.”
“Baby girl, if that’s all it takes to make you swoon then you just wait ‘til you see what I do with my hands.”
Ana swallows hard and becomes a little misty eyed before her face shuts down into the scowl she often wears around me. “I don’t think so.”
She turns to walk away and I lurch forward and grab her wrist. “Come on, Ana. I’ll be on my best behaviour.”
“That’s not saying much, Elijah.”
“Do you judge every guy this unfairly, or just me?”
She turns with a cocky grin, but when she sees I’m deadly serious, the smile fades. I don’t mean to be such a dick, but I’ve lived most my life living up to the bad expectations others place on me and I won’t have that with her. I can’t have her thinking of me that way, even if it’s all I deserve.
“I’m sorry. You must think I’m a complete bitch?”
“Well, not a
“Hey.” She swats at my arm and, like a complete tool, I flex my bicep beneath her fingers. It wasn’t even deliberate, just instinct. For a half second I imagine what it’d be like to give into the urge to bend her over the table and fuck her senseless, but then the way she smiles at me makes me feel like a complete arsehole for objectifying her so blatantly. This should tell me I’m in over my head with this girl.
I’m not the guy who stays in one place long enough to have a second date. When they’re seeing proposals and picket fences I’m checking out of shitty motels and watching road signs turn to dust in my rear-view mirrors. I’m practically married to that white line.
“You can make it up to me by letting me pick you up at eight o’clock,” I say.
She shakes her head, but her smile tells me I’ve won. “I thought you said I could drive?”
“You can,” I say and tuck into my pie. “You can drive my bike. As long as you can handle the pace, that is. I have to warn you, though; the steering’s a little different from a Vespa.”
“I can drive anything.”
“Somehow I don’t doubt that, Ana Belle. I don’t doubt that at all.”
Chapter Five
Ana
Holly bounces up and down on my bed and I have to count backwards from one-hundred so I don’t choke her. I can’t believe she screwed me over so thoroughly. I tell her as much, and she pokes her tongue out at me in her typical response to being reprimanded.
“Come on, Ana, would it really kill you to go out with Mr I’m So Freaking Hot Even My Mother Would Sell Her Soul to Get a Piece Of This? Would it kill you to have a little fun for once?”
I wrinkle my nose. “You have some serious issues. That’s gross.”
“Gross, but true. Ana, he’s gorgeous and you
“I do not
“Okay fine, you know what? I need a date with Elijah. Take off that outfit, I’m gonna trade places with you.” She grabs at my top and tries to lift it over my head but I bat her away.
“Elijah’s my date, and I’m not having you steal him away like you did with Matt Roberts at Vanessa Carter’s party in year nine.”
Holly rolls her eyes. “Are you ever going to get over that? I told you, I was standing in the hall and he just happened to fall onto my lips. It wasn’t my fault that the place was so crowded you could barely breathe without making out with someone. And I thought you said this wasn’t a date.”
“It’s not. I mean, it is, but it’s not. I don’t know. He makes me all twitchy.”
“Aww, you really like him.”
It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “He’s all kinds of wrong for me, Holly.”
“Who cares? No one’s asking you to marry him.”
“He’s trouble. Exactly the kind of guy I should avoid.” I sigh. She’s looking at me like I just strung up her kitten as a Christmas ornament. “You know what this town is like. Within five minutes of walking into that pub tongues will be wagging and Sugartown will be rife with gossip. You know how antsy my dad gets with talk like that? The next time Constable Davis sees him throwing down, he’ll be locked up for weeks.”
“Ana, this is exactly why you need a distraction like Elijah. Between Sam, your dad, the dragon and the shop you have too much stress in your life. If you don’t blow off a little tension, you’re gonna explode! And I am not cleaning up chunks of Ana from the shop floor.”
“And you don’t think a date with Elijah’s just going to add to the stress?”
“Not with those hands, he’s not. I wonder what kind of orgasm face he makes?” she asks and performs some kind of facial gymnastics. Either that, or she’s having a stroke. I’m kicking myself that my phone is in the other room, because moments like this should be documented for all time. “Ooh, oh, take a picture of it for me, will you?”
“You are sick. You know that, right?”
“Yep.” She leaps off the bed and scoops up a black top that I’d been considering. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a hot date with Zac Effron. He is so freaking hot post
After she leaves I apply a little make-up and consider pinning up my hair, but then I think about dealing with the helmet hair that’s bound to have me fussing all night and I decide to tie it in a loose knot at the back of my
