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Oh God no. I don’t want fancy. I don’t want fun. I just want to get this over with. Easy and fast is the name of the game.
“Listen, Petal. I’m gonna be straight up with you,” he says, tapping his hand on the steering wheel. “I know you don’t want to be doing this with me, and no offense, but I feel the same way. I’d much rather be home with a beer in my hand, my feet kicked up on the coffee table, watching ESPN.”
I look at his giant hands, then his profile, which, I have to admit, is pretty fucking perfect. His square jaw is covered in a day’s stubble, there’s a slight but cute bump on his nose, and a shock of red hair is flopping over his right eye.
At least he’s nice to look at.
“I hear that,” I mumble, looking away before he catches me staring. I reach for the radio. “Mind if I put on some music?”
He presses theonbutton. “Go for it. Your pick.”
I connect my phone to the radio and pull up a Cardi B song. She’s not my favorite, but I want to test him, see how he deals with a badass woman.
He nods his head in time to the music. “Didn’t take you for a Cardi girl.”
He takes the exit for the San Francisco airport.
“Why not?” I ask. “And where are we going, anyway?”
“You seem kind of straight, you know? On the uptight side. No offense. Anyway, we’re going to the private jet terminal.”
I sit up straight in my seat, ready to defend myself. Why did I let Gilly talk me into carrying a real purse? My pepper spray is in my backpack.
“First off, I am not uptight,” I say in my bestdon’t fuck with mevoice. The man needs to know what he’s up against. “Andsecond, why are we going to the private jet terminal? I’m not flying anywhere. I have my bookstore job tomorrow.”
He throws me a look. “You work in a bookstore? Figures,” he snickers.
What. A. Dick.
“You know, Rake, some people like toread. And if you like to read, you often go to bookstores. But I guess you don’t know about things like that,” I huff. “How would you like it if I stuffed you into the dumb jock category, even though I barely know anything about you?”
He pulls into a parking spot at the private terminal and stops the car. “People put me in that category every day. When you’re an athlete, they do that to you. I’m used to it. But I let it roll right off my back. If I worried about everything people said about me, I’d be fucked. And by the way, I like to read too. So chill the hell out.”
He gets out of the car and comes around to my door. I press thelockbutton.
I vaguely remember doing the same thing when I was about eight, when I was pissed off at my mom.
“What the hell?” he says loudly enough to be heard over a plane taking off. He pulls the door handle a couple times, then presses the remote key. But I am holding the lock button down and while the other doors unlock, mine doesn’t. “Open the damn door. How am I supposed to tell you where we are going?”
I look at him through the window. “I can hear you just fine through the glass. I’m not going anywhere with you. Lunch is fine, but that’s the extent of our ‘date,’” I say with air quotes.
He rolls his neck on his shoulders like I’m causing him frustration.
“Fine. Look, Petal, you do not have to go anywhere with me if you don’t want. I’m totally fine with that. But I have friends who just chartered a flight to Vegas for the night. You should join us.It will be fun. We’ll have a nice dinner, gamble a little, and I’ll get you your own hotel room and anything you need.”
Is he fucking kidding?
“I don’t even know you. Why would I leave town with you?”
He rubs his hands over his face and looks at the sky. “I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head. “I guess I thought you might like to, I don’t know, do something crazy. You know, just hop on a plane and leave town for a night. But it’s cool if you don’t want to go.”
I keep my focus straight ahead. I can’t keep looking at him. He’s too goddamn hot and I do not need to be tempted. Like I don’t have enough shit going on in my life, now I’m about to be kidnapped by a crazy athlete.
“Just take me home.”
“Okay. Let me run inside and let the other guys know you’re not coming.” He takes off across the parking lot in a slow jog, and I have to say, his ass is quite nice.
For some reason, I feel like crying. I don’t even know why. I just feel very… vulnerable. And he was so not clued into that.
