Love Hacked
Page 39
“Sparky,” then to truly seal my fate, I added, “he’s real.” Don’t ask me why I felt like I had to justify my lie to him or why I chose to sound like a four-year-old when I said it.
He nodded thoughtfully. “Where are you going to keep his ashes?”
I could have lied then, but something stopped me, and instead I found myself telling him, a stranger, about the secret adventure I’d been planning for the last month.
“I’m spreading them on a road trip.” I said it with a shrug and a soft voice.
Without missing a beat, his smile unpeeled an inch wider. I couldn’t strip my gaze away.
“I’ll save you the trouble of asking. Of course I’ll come with you.”
I stared at him in utter bafflement. Every pre-set pathway in my brain was thrown for a loop by this guy, leaving me gaping in silence. He was the most arrogant person I’d ever met, but there was something hidden beneath his jokes. I think he actually wanted to go on the road trip with me even though he didn’t know me at all.
Just as a retort formed on my lips, Fred stepped back through the storage room door. I paused and took in the stranger for one last moment before turning toward Fred.
A black urn was cradled in his puffy hands. Bingo.
“It’s the only one we have, but it’s got a chip on the corner,” he muttered.
“Will you sell it to me for a discount?” I asked. It didn’t need to be perfect for the plan.
“You can just have it,” he shrugged, reaching out to hand it to me.
“Oh, okay, thanks. It’s for my dog,” I told him, letting the lie multiply and take root.
“Okay,” he answered dead-pan. “Anything else?”
A whiff of sexy cologne brought my attention back to Gravelly Voice.
“I think this guy is looking for a casket,” I offered, pointing behind me.
His throaty laugh followed me as I took flight toward the exit. My hands pushed against the thin metal handle of the door and soon the Texas heat greeted me with a vengeance. Oh, July, must you be so cruel?
“Hey, wait!”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end. I tried to assess the situation as quickly as I could: It was the middle of a Saturday in a suburb of Dallas. People were milling about on the sidewalk. Cars zoomed by, making the hot asphalt seem even more extreme. This guy couldn’t do me any harm in broad daylight. Though, if he did, we would definitely end up on the five o’clock news. Talk about living on the edge.
With that thought, I decided I could spare him a few more minutes.
“What’s your name?” he asked the moment my ballet flats spun me around to face him.
His eyes were a light hazel with a bit of swirly green madness. I could see them perfectly now that we were in the sun.
“Abby.”
He smiled like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery. It split his face in two, and instinctively I felt the corners of my mouth lift in response.
“Abby,” he repeated. It sounded better coming from his lips than it ever had from mine.
“Yup.” I tapped my foot.
“I’m Beck,” he answered, pressing his hand over his heart. It seemed endearing even though I hadn’t decided what to make of him yet.
“Like the band?” I asked, squinting my eyes and holding a hand at my brow line to shield the sun.
“Literally.”
I smiled then because I couldn’t help it anymore. It’s hard fighting relentlessly quirky charm.
“I want to go on your road trip,” he said again, so confidently that I had to wonder if he’d ever been rejected before.
I cocked my head, and then shook it back and forth. “My road trip isn’t accepting any new passengers, but I’m sure there are plenty of other road trips occurring throughout the world at the same time that mine is taking place.”
He thought I was funny. He smiled at my comment, but I could see it more in his eyes. They were pinned on me, scrunched at the corners as he contemplated my rejection.
“I’m sure,” he began, “but something tells me that yours is one I don’t want to miss.”
I rolled my eyes and took a step back for reasons I later realized were my bodies last attempt at staying away from someone like Beck.
“How long will you be gone?” he asked. Maybe he had short-term memory loss. Either that or he was really good at sports as a kid. No one had beaten the fight out of him yet.
“Two weeks… but I’m not sure why you’re asking since I would never go on a road trip with a stranger unless I wanted to end up joining a cult and drinking the Kool-aid.”
He thought my rambling was funny enough for another smirk. “Not everyone drank the Kool-aid,” he clarified. “Some people were sleeping or deaf, and they missed the call. Besides, it was Flavoraid.”
My mouth hung open. Then I studied him with narrowed eyes. “You’re the strangest person I’ve ever met.”
He didn’t fight that comment. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out what looked to be a beat-up business card and a pen. With a flick, he flipped it over and wrote something down quickly.
“Let me know if you change your mind about the additional passenger.” He smiled one last time and handed me the card. I took it even though I knew I wouldn’t be changing my plans.
He didn’t say bye or anything. He turned on his heel and jogged across the street like the last thirty minutes had never happened. I stood there, frozen, long enough to see him walk inside the gas station’s store. When he emerged a minute later, he had a blue slurpee in hand and a pair of wayfarer sunglasses masking his greenish hazel eyes. Maybe he hadn’t been feeding me a line about the slurpee.
His gaze lifted to me, and when I squinted I could see his wide grin across that expanse of suburban asphalt. No amount of sprawl could keep his charm from reaching me. He sidled over to an old blue Ford truck, hopped in, and pulled away without a second glance.
~End Sneak Peek~
This book will be released March 24, 2014
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
Epilogue
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Acknowledgements
Other books by Penny Reid
Tattooed Dots
Geoducks are for Lovers
With This Heart