by Stacey Lynn
Blond wisps of his hair stuck out from beneath the hat and that, along with the surprise of seeing him and the scowl on his face, sent my heart racing.
He was so damn sexy. “Hey,” I said, my voice breathy. “What are you doing here?”
He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You had to cancel and I wanted to see you. Was hoping I could talk you into hanging out for awhile after your shift.”
He what? I stared at him. Next to me, Hannah sighed. She nudged me with her elbow and snapped me back to the fact that Beaux had wanted to see me so he made a way to see me.
If swooning was still a thing, I would have done it.
“Wow. Well, that’s nice of you.”
He flashed me a lopsided grin. “I told you. I’m a nice guy.”
He had. He’d also proved it. My cheeks ached from the smile splitting my face. “I’d like that. But it’s another hour until I’m off.”
“I know. I figured I’d grab some dinner and a couple drinks while I wait.” He walked toward me, rested his hand on my hip and before I’d adjusted to his presence so close to me, he pressed his lips to my temple. “It’s good to see you. And maybe later, you’ll clue me in on Spencer?”
He pulled back and gazed down at me. Blond brows arched on his head beneath a frayed and faded red ball cap, there was a question in his eyes.
“An ex,” I said, waving him off. “Not a big deal.”
“Sounded like it.”
Damn it. Of all the things I wanted to discuss with Beaux, Spencer was definitely not one of them. I also knew he was determined, and because of that, he wouldn’t let up until I told him.
“Later,” I said. “We’ll talk later.”
“Good. Now get to work. I have a surprise for you when you’re done.”
He turned and walked away. I was still so shocked by his presence and his sweetness, and the fact he’d wanted to see me so badly he’d come to hang out where I worked, it was moments before I remembered Hannah was still standing next to me. Like me, she was watching Beaux walk away, but there wasn’t the sweet goofy expression in her eyes she usually had. Her body was pulled tight, her chin jutted out, and a frown wrinkled her brow.
“Hannah?”
“Hmm?” She turned to me. “What?”
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” She nodded once and her playfulness returned. “Of course I am. Told you Beaux was a nice guy.”
I followed her out of the hallway and was stopped by Ray who told me I had a new four top to take waters to.
***
I wiped off the last drink tray and placed it on the stack, tossing my cloth back into the wash bucket behind the bar.
My feet ached, my arches were killing me, but my apron was weighed down in tips as well as the count I’d taken from the credit card receipts. Hannah had been right. After Beaux showed up, I couldn’t stop smiling. My tips increased exponentially.
I would have been able to do all the tasks required of me before clocking out, but when I took my trays over to where Beaux was still sitting at the bar, only a glass of ice water in front of him, we started talking while I worked.
“I think I’m done,” I said, untying my apron and tossing it onto the bar.
“What do you need to do to leave?” He pushed his glass toward the edge of the bar and Joey grabbed it from him with a thanks.
While I’d been busy working on the other side of the restaurant, I’d kept my eye on Beaux. Even with his faded and frayed red ball cap on, dozens of people recognized him. He’d spent most of the night alternating between signing autographs and eating his burger.
He’d always been smiling, and more than once I’d caught that smile directed at me.
“You still have energy to go out?” I asked. I was thrumming with a mixture of exhaustion and anticipation. I wanted to see him, but he had practice in the morning. “We don’t have to.”
“Didn’t sit here all night drinking gallons of water and having a shit burger to end up spending the night alone.” His grin hit me in places, sweet places. Somehow, Beaux’s smile was a beacon, a light to all the stress I carried.
He smiled at me and it all melted away—while other things overheated.
“Okay. I have to grab my things from the break room and I’ll be off.” I turned to Joey and slid him my apron. “Hey, Joey, can you cash me out please?”
“Sure thing, Paige.” He winked at me and I laughed. Joey was almost forty, divorced with kids old enough to be starting middle school. A boy and girl twins, they often came in on the weekends he had them if he couldn’t get off work. I’d hung out with Bella and Bryan on more than one occasion. Sweet kids. That wasn’t unexpected since Joey was a nice guy, and even managed to co-parent his kids with his ex-wife with a grace that was sweet enough to be make believe.
He was also a huge flirt and winked at everyone.
Next to me, Beaux pushed off his spot at the bar. “I’ll wait for you out front. Don’t take long,” he whispered in my ear, hand on my hip like he’d done earlier.
My body gave the same trembling reaction.
He walked away and I hurried to the back, throwing on a change of clothes before heading back out to the bar.
Hannah was there, grabbing drinks for her last table.
“You headed out with Beaux?” she asked.
“Yes.” I bit down on my lip so hard it stung. “I can’t wait.”
“Have fun.” She flashed me a tight smile and hurried off.
Weird. She must have been stressed if she didn’t tease me about giving her the juicy details.
“Here are your tips,” Joey said when I returned to the bar. “Looks like you had a great night.”
“I did.” I didn’t count the stack of cash he handed me, but it was definitely thicker than normal. I shoved it into my purse. “Thanks for all your help.”
“No problem. Take care tonight.”
“I will. See you tomorrow?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Got the kids this weekend. I’ll be back on Monday.”
I grinned and waved. “See you then. Tell them I said hello!”
“You got it.”
I headed toward the door to the restaurant, unable to stop smiling when I thought of Beaux.
Even before I met Beaux, one of my largest concerns had been the chance of finding a guy who understood my priorities would always have my dad at the top of the list. I’d been burned enough to know it wasn’t easy, and after the last time I’d been rejected, I’d given up on dating at all.
So far, Beaux hadn’t only shown me that he understood my priorities, but he was okay with them. I might not have done it intentionally, but I suspected that for the last week, I’d been getting to know Beaux while keeping my arms up, forcing distance between us.
His actions tonight told me that distance might not be necessary with him.
My arms were getting tired from forcing it.
At some point, I had to let someone in, didn’t I? Why not risk it with a guy who made me smile and seemed to understand how much time I had to give?
I didn’t have long to think about it because as soon as I stepped outside, the beautiful sight in front of me wiped my concerns from my brain.
Beaux was there, standing in front of his giant black truck, arms crossed over his chest, hat bill pulled low, and jeans low on his hips. His T-shirt showed off the dips and ridges of his stomach so fiercely my girlie parts quivered. One of his feet was up on his grill, the other planted on the pavement.
It wasn’t just his body and the way he was standing that skewered through me like a hot summer night.
It was his smile. It was directed at me, and it told me all the things he wanted to do to me as soon as he got me alone.
CHAPTER TEN
BEAUX
Several times over the week I’d gotten the strange sensation that while Paige enjoyed being with me, she wasn’t really giving me all of her. It was too soon to push it, we could take our time, but I’d n
ever exactly been a patient guy when it came to something I wanted.
I was trying with her though, because not only did she mean something to me, I could tell she needed it. She was probably the only person I knew whose life was busier than mine, and that meant whatever we were doing wasn’t a sprint, but a marathon.
But I still sensed her hesitancy in sharing her life with me. Even the small way she shut down when I overheard her talking about her ex earlier showed it.
Paige lived her life with a wall around her so high I couldn’t even see the top of it.
And sometimes, I didn’t know if I was fruitlessly pounding my head against that brick wall, or punching through, getting closer to shattering it.
As Paige stepped outside and her face lit up when she saw me standing against my truck waiting for her, I hoped like hell it was the second.
“You need more lights in this parking lot,” I said, dropping my foot from the grill of my truck as she came close. “It’s dark and unsafe out here.”
She scanned the parking lot and shrugged. “We’ve never had any problems.”
Her car was parked out back with the rest of the workers, but other than a light near the dumpster, most of the lights in the parking lot were out.
“You walk out here alone?”
“Sometimes. Sometimes one of the guys walks me out.”
Grabbing her hand, I pulled her to me until her chest collided with mine.
“If you’re with me, people will recognize you. I travel a lot. When I’m gone, I want to know you’re safe and that lot out back where you park is dark. I don’t want to be staring down a line of three hundred pound assholes, worried about you, or wondering if you’re getting shanked on your way to your car.”
“Wow.” She laughed and her hand slid to my chest. “That’s quite the imagination.”
“I just want you safe,” I repeated, threading my hand through her hair. My thumb brushed against the bangs that had escaped her clip like she usually wore it. “Talk to your manager about the lights or I will.”
“Bossy when it’s late, aren’t you?”
Her tone had a bite to it, slightly defensive, a bit breathy. I liked the combination. Strong and vulnerable, a little needy. Yeah. Hopefully I’d punch through that brick wall around her soon.
“I prefer concerned, but if bossy is what it takes, I’m okay with that.”
She twisted her neck and looked at the back lot. “I see your point, though. I’ll talk to Paulie.” Her nose scrunched. “Or, wait. He’s cranky. I’ll tell the bouncers or have Joey talk to him.”
“Thank you.” I pulled her flush against me, trapping her hand on my chest between us. Then I slanted my head, tilted her chin up, and pressed my lips to hers. “I just want to know you’re taken care of when I’m not here to do it, okay?”
“That’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” Her grin went soft. It was a look that made my heart swell and want to pummel someone at the same time.
She deserved someone being nice to her. The fact she hadn’t had it, pissed me off.
It also made me think of Spencer, but we had time to get into him.
“Can we go now?” Paige asked, “or is there anything else you’d like to go alpha-male bossy over.”
“We can go.” I held her hand while I opened her door and then shut it. Her grin was still in place when I climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Do you want to tell me where you’re taking me?”
“Nope, but it’s not far.” I switched off my rap playlist so it wasn’t blaring through the speakers. “How was work tonight. Seemed busy.”
“Slammed. I haven’t worked there during a football season yet but if tonight’s any indication of how the next few months are going to go, I can’t complain. Tips are amazing.”
I understood that. My mom had loved waitressing jobs when she could get them and she never worked at a place as busy as Ride’Em. I still didn’t like that this girl was working just as hard as my mom used to.
If I thought she wouldn’t cut off my dick if I offered her money, I’d give her millions so she and her dad could rest easy.
“I bet,” I said instead. “Do you like working there? Or have you thought about looking for jobs in your field?”
As an athlete, and someone frequently in the media, I had a love-hate relationship with people who chose that as their line of work. The line between news and gossip was easily blurred.
“No.” She wiped her hands down her jeans, something she’d changed into before coming out. Now dressed in white jeans with small patches of frayed material and a navy blue tank top, she looked not only ready for a date but much classier than her typical Ride’Em Rough uniform. “I’ve thought about it, but it’s a tough field to get into unless you have contacts and if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to help my dad at the garage.”
“What about Mike? He seems capable.”
“Yeah,” she laughed, “at fixing cars, but he’d lose it if I asked him to do the ordering or payroll. Besides, that’s my family’s garage. It’s not only my responsibility, I like being there, sitting in an office my dad has used since before I was born, and my granddad used before him.” She shrugged, head falling to the headrest and turned to me. “It’s just a car garage, but we do a lot of great work with custom vintage cars. I grew up with that and it’s hard to let it go.”
“Then I hope you can figure out how to keep it all without having that happen.”
I could give her anything she asked for and financially, it’d mean nothing to me. Hell, I wouldn’t even feel it in my bank balance. I also knew I’d barely been able to get her to go out with me. Offering to help wouldn’t go over well.
There was punching through a brick wall and there was going full speed ahead like a man on a death mission.
I wasn’t ready to burn into a ball of flames quite yet.
Besides, my mom always said you had to pick your battles and this one could wait for another day.
I guided us to safer topics, mostly talking about practice when she asked and some of the guys on the team as I drove us through Raleigh to a little park near my house. I didn’t go there often, but it was quiet and dark. It also was sort of romantic, but that wasn’t what I was aiming for totally.
I just wanted to give Paige some peace and quiet for a while.
***
It didn’t take long to get to the park and when I pulled into the parking lot, car lights shining toward the pond out in the distance, Paige turned to me with sleepy eyes.
Damn. She’d worked a long, hard shift and she was tired. Yet she still came with me. That meant something good, right?
“Are we parking?” she asked, a glimmer in her hazel eyes.
“Well, you did make me give up the truck I lost my virginity in and I haven’t christened this one yet.”
Her eyes popped wide open, cheeks flushing. “Are you…what…no…”
“Relax.” I laughed and grabbed her hand. She tried to pull away but I yanked her closer, moving in until I was bent over the armrest. “I’m messing with you. I like this place and I come here when I need quiet. That’s all I wanted to share with you tonight.”
“Okay.” The breathiness of her voice shot straight to my dick.
“Besides, the first time I have your sweet little naked body in my hands it’s going to be in my bed, not straddling me over this seat.”
Her jaw dropped and I turned, hopping out of the car before she could protest. I’d play it slow and easy while keeping her on edge at the same time. This girl would never doubt how much I wanted her, or how good I’d be for her if she gave me an honest chance to show her.
Out of the truck, I flung open the back door and grabbed the cooler filled with wine and snacks. When I decided to surprise her at work, this was the first place that came to mind, and I figured she’d like a glass of wine after a long night of work. Inside the cab, Paige was still sitting there. Eyes wide open, lips still
parted, a furious blush staining her cheeks.
“Paige?”
“Uh, yeah?” She shook her head. Hot damn. She wanted what I was offering up.
“Are you thinking about what I just said?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Sure you’re not. Come on. Park closes soon. You going to come on out or am I coming back in there?”
“Out.” She jumped. “I’m coming out.”
Wise decision. I didn’t have a problem taking her in my truck, but I did want her in my bed. Spread out so I could roam my hands over every inch of her soft skin.
She climbed out of the truck and I beeped the locks, meeting her at the front. Grabbing her hand, I threaded our fingers together.
The heat from her palm spread to mine, up my arm. I liked touching this girl. She made me feel like I was eighteen all over again and horny all the time. This was one of the best parts of being with a woman. Each new discovery of how we connected, what made them tick, what made them smile. What made them come…that was my favorite.
They were puzzles and each one cut differently. Paige was by far the most complicated.
Or, she was the first I cared about to stick around to try and solve all the pieces.
I guided her down the path, lights sparse the further we moved into the park, and I took my time, neither of us really speaking.
I’d found this park one night when I was out running. I didn’t want to run around the city or drive to a track and run laps like a hamster on a wheel.
Instead, I’d plugged in my GPS, found this place and I’d run for what felt like hours. Exhausted, I’d plopped down on the grass near the small pond and rested. I stayed there for hours more, doing nothing but thinking. Relaxing. I didn’t run plays through my head. I didn’t think about my volunteer schedule that was crazy busy during the off-season. I hadn’t thought of anything important, and when I needed a break from life, I always ended up there.
“You ever been here?” I asked. We were only twenty minutes from where she grew up.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice whispering like we were afraid of disrupting nature. We were surrounded by the still of the night, punctuated with the buzz of cicadas.