Shit. Stop that, I told myself. Bad time to let your imagination wander.
“Well,” I said, ignoring the heat that had suddenly gathered below my waist—and the slight twitch of something in my pants at the thought of her in my bed, naked and wanting, “we won’t be leaving this restaurant until I see you take at least two bites, so…” I shrugged and shoveled more into my mouth, lest I say something else stupid.
Needless to say, I could not let this girl know where my mind had gone. I couldn’t scare her off. Not yet. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be in town, how much longer I could hide from my problems at home, but I wanted to make the most of it.
I wanted to see Bree as much as I could, I realized, whether it was more dates or just hanging out.
A tiny glimmer of a smile crossed her face. “You can’t force me to do anything,” she said. “I could just get up and walk out.”
“And walk home? Do you even know how to get home from here?”
“I have a phone, dummy. Someone would come and pick me up.”
I blinked, feigning hurt. “Dummy?” I held a hand over my heart, as if her name-calling was like an arrow straight into my chest. “That hurts, you know.”
She picked up her fork and stuck it through a single noodle. “Oh, don’t be a drama queen,” she muttered, meeting my eyes as she slowly lifted her fork. Bree was unhurried in bringing the noodle to her mouth, rolling those beautiful eyes as she took her first bite of the night.
It wasn’t really a full bite—a single noodle wasn’t much to eat, but I knew better than to argue about the semantics with her. I’d let her have this one, even if she was only doing it to placate me.
“Happy?” Bree asked after she swallowed. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say swallowing had been hard for her, like she didn’t want to eat.
“I am, thanks for asking.”
By the time I was done with my plate, Bree had taken yet another tiny, child-sized bite. A deal was a deal, of course, so I asked for the bill and paid, telling the waiter we did not need any takehome boxes, to which he simply looked at the nearly full plate in front of Bree and lifted his eyebrows.
Oh, well.
Once we were back in my car, Bree buckled her seatbelt, a bit more relaxed than she’d been before. I watched her with a small smile on my face, waiting a few moments to ask, “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
She turned to look at me, giving me an unimpressed expression. I had the sudden, strange urge to lean over the center console and kiss that slight frown off her face, but I stopped myself. Had to remind myself that we weren’t together. She wasn’t my girl. Rushing into anything right now would be bad, especially with Bree.
Still…that did not stop me from wondering what those lips would feel like on mine.
“No,” Bree finally spoke, her voice a mere whisper in the car. “It wasn’t so bad.”
Outside, the world had become one of night, the moon hanging low in the sky. As I started my car up, I said, “That’s not the whole date, though, so don’t get your hopes up that it’s over.”
“How did you know that’s what I was hoping?”
I chuckled, backing the car up out of the parking spot. “Well, since you never go out and you’d rather spend all your time at home, I figured you’re dying to get back there.” I shot her a glance as I pulled out into the road. “It’s not so bad spending time with me, is it?”
Bree toyed with her hands on her lap, and it took her a long while to say, “No, you’re not too bad.” She bit her bottom lip, glancing out the window as I took us to our next destination. Down a few roads, maybe ten minutes away from the restaurant. “I still don’t know why me, though.”
It really bugged me that this girl didn’t think anything of herself. Did she go through something traumatizing as a kid? I knew if her parents were jerks, I would’ve heard that from Kyle. As far as I knew, the Stones were a nice, caring family, so I had no idea what made Bree this way.
As I drove, I asked, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why don’t you know why you?” That was a confusing question if I ever heard one. When she stayed quiet, refusing to answer, I said, “I mean, why not you? What’s wrong with you? And I don’t mean that like something is wrong with you—because there’s not.”
Bree took her time in answering, “I’m not anything special, Calum.”
Thank goodness we were close to our destination, for I pulled into the parking lot near the park and was able to give her a long, hard look. It was a look that made her squirm in her seat, an intense look, a look I hoped got to her. “Stop it,” I told her.
“Stop what?” Though she asked, she knew exactly what I meant.
“Stop putting yourself down,” I said, reaching for her. I’d never put my seatbelt on, so I was able to lean over and grab her hand before she could pull it away. Her hand was small and delicate in mine, her skin cool and smooth. My fingers wrapped around hers more tightly than I intended, but that was because I knew this girl wasn’t hearing me.
I mean, she was hearing me, but she wasn’t believing me.
I had no idea if she was too shocked at my forwardness to pull
