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I remained calm and smiled though. I was not letting this girl take me out of character. “You know very well I’m not his sister Kayla. Probably the furthest thing from it at this point.” I said it with a chuckle and stared right at her so she wouldn’t misunderstand, “He and I have a date, so I’m sure he will be occupied well into tonight.”
Of course, at that moment, he had to walk in. I blushed. I didn’t actually mean what I told her…or maybe I did. I don’t know. “Link, you’re back!” I exclaimed when I saw him.
“Thank you for the kind welcome, Songbird. Hey Kayla, what are you doing here?” She looked super pissed at me. She was giving me a look like I was her next murder victim. Then she turned and looked over at Link.
“Well, I was bringing you food, but I can see you don’t need it. Unless you want to change your plans and come to my house when you get out, we can eat it then. Maybe we could catch a movie or something.” She tried to lean into him, but he moved behind the counter next to me.
The audacity of this woman was like nothing I’d ever seen in my life. Link looked at me with his eyebrows raised, and I just shrugged. I’m pretty sure he was just as surprised as I was that she was being so forward. Then he looked back at her.
“No, I’m good, but thanks for the invite. Let me walk out with you. I need to grab something from my car anyway.”
Then she gave me a condescending look like she had won his attention, as they walked away. I saw the look Link gave her as they neared the door. It was almost like pity, and I couldn’t help the victorious smile that formed.
“Hey Kayla, I’m sorry if I ever gave you the impression that I wanted to be more than friends, but—”
The door shut and I couldn’t hear the rest of that conversation. He seems like he’s such a cocky, hard ass sometimes, and then he does something like that. I think he took Kayla away because he didn’t want to embarrass her in front of me. How freaking sweet could this man be?
When he came back, my heart did this weird flip thing. I touched his arm to grab his attention. “That was nice of you to pull her away like that for that conversation.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I had to get something out of my car.” The look on his face told me he knew he was caught.
I knew he was lying, but I played along. “Where is it then? What did you have to grab?”
He pulled a pen out of his pocket and held it up. “Needed my favorite pen.”
I held up the cup on the counter full of those exact pens.
He smiled. “You caught me; I was being nice for once.”
“It’s okay for people to know you’re nice, Link. It’s okay to let people know there is more to you than just a hot body and a pretty face.”
He slid up next to me behind the counter. “You think my body is hot?” He wagged his eyebrows and smiled. I just rolled my eyes. Then he backed away a little. “It’s okay. You don’t have to admit it. I know you want this.” He did some weird wiggle thing with his body. I think he was trying to be sexy, but it just looked silly. “You can’t lie to me, Songbird. Oh, and don’t think I forgot about what you were saying when I walked in.
Shit, he heard me. “You aren’t going to let that go, are you?”
“Nope. I just hope you weren’t kidding,” he winked.
I slapped him on the shoulder with the back of my hand as I walked away rolling my eyes. All in good fun, of course. I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen tonight, but I did know that it was getting more and more difficult not to kiss him. One of us is bound to get hurt, and I’m terrified it will be me.
I haven’t been with anyone since Max cheated on me. I just haven’t wanted to. Max was just like Link because he was always so suave; everyone loved him, and he knew he was hot. I knew Max was with a lot of girls before we met when he was in high school, but he always assured me that had ended when he met me. He wanted to be better for me. Even in college, he made it seem like he only had eyes for me. If girls hit on him, he seemed to brush them off immediately, and I never had the feeling I had to check his phone or anything like that, but I wish I had. Looking back I know how stupid I was for not seeing the signs, especially when he was pulling away. I probably would have saved myself a lot of heartache.
Link doesn’t deserve the comparisons, but I’m afraid that even getting involved with him will be bad news for me. I can’t have my heart broken like that again. He loves going out and meeting girls, so why should meeting me change that? You can’t change a man like that. Right?
It was almost time to go out with Link, and I was getting nervous. All my thoughts about Max were making me rethink this. We also hadn’t said anything to August about leaving early or at the same time, or at least I hadn’t. I saw Link go into the backroom and I was hoping he was saying something. I heard raised voices but didn’t hear exactly what was said. He came back out with a shit-eating grin on his face.
He put his arm over my shoulder and handed me my purse. “You ready to go, pretty girl?”
I looked back over his arm at the office. August was standing there with his arms crossed. He looked like he was worried about me or something. I looked back at Link because I wasn’t sure whether to stay or go, which wasn’t helping my anxiety.
“Uh. Yes. Is August okay with us leaving together? I can wait and meet you wherever we’re going.”
“He’ll get over it.” Then we started walking towards the door, and he called over his shoulder to August. “Love you, Pops.”
“Behave, Lincoln. That’s precious cargo you got there. Don’t do anything stupid. I’ll kill you if you do. Aubrey, call me when you get bored.”
I looked back at him and nodded my head in agreement trying not to laugh. Link’s arm went up, he raised his hand and gave him the finger. Luckily, no one was in the store because they may have taken him seriously if they didn’t know them. August’s concern warmed my heart; it felt like a real father-daughter moment.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
