Page 14 of Worthy of Sunsets and Second Chances

Holy shit, get it together, girl!

“You want to have dinner with me?” I stupidly parrot instead of just saying an enthusiastic yes.

“I asked, didn’t I,” he says with a tiny smile.

“Yeah, but don’t you have, like, better things to do? Friends to hang out with? A . . . date to go on? Shit. We’ve never done anything other than talk when Hannah is around.” I ramble nervously, hugging the books that he handed back to my chest.

“Well, I know that when you’re in Fox Grove if you aren’t at the library, you are usually somewhere with my sister. And since Hannah’s gone all summer this time, I thought it would be fun for us to hang out. But if you don’t want to, it’s fine. I get it,” Eli says, rubbing the back of his neck, which has his bicep flexing, making me want to pant. He even looks . . . disappointed?

“Wow, no. That’s really sweet of you. Thank you. I, um, yeah. Yes. I would like that.” More rambling from me, I dip my eyes to the floor, not even able to look at his handsome face and striking navy-blue eyes.

I feel his rough fingertips grasp my chin, making me gasp. No amount of oxygen on the planet could be sufficient for my lungs right now. We could be in the freaking rainforest with the purest sources of air, and I would still feel like passing out just from his simple touch flaming my skin—the first time he’s ever really touched me. Not a handshake, or accidentally bumping into one another. This is intentional.

“Don’t hide from me,” he commands. “I’m not scary, it’s just me.”

“Yeah, okay, Hulk,” I quip, which makes him bark out a deep, throaty laugh.

He is like Hulk. His six-foot-four frame ripples with muscles, dwarfing my five-foot-two self. I have spent endless hours wondering what it would be like to have his body commanding mine . . . not that I would know how it would feel to have any body do that. I have never let anyone get that close to me.

“Let me clean up my mess out back and then we can go? It will be like twenty minutes. I was thinking we could get burgers or something at the Den?” Eli suggests.

“Sounds good,” I say, my excitement fizzling.

The Fox’s Den, of course. This is just the small-town family restaurant. It’s where everyone goes for everything. Burgers with friends, ice cream after little league baseball games, breakfast if you want the best sausage gravy you have ever tasted. This is not a date. This is us hanging out as friends because his sister, my one real friend in Fox Grove, is gone for the summer. It’s a pity hang. The tiny flicker of hope that it could be something more is immediately blown out, and I go back to my task of organizing the books.

12

Eli

TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD

Fuck.

When did my little sister’s friend become my obsession?

I walked into the library this summer to work on the new bookshelves, and there she was—Kendra Powell. Tiny, wild blonde hair with streaks of pink woven throughout. That was new, but it suited her perfectly. Her bright pools of sliver-blue starry eyes sucked me in the second they locked on me. The apples of her cheeks turned pink, matching her hair and were so fucking pretty. Thick straps of her blue sundress framed her shoulders, and the rest of the dress hugged her frame in a delicate, feminine way that could bring men to their knees. This man certainly wanted to be on his knees for her. And that was the issue—where the fuck did that come from? I always liked when Kendra was in Fox Grove for the summers and hanging around with her energy, sunshine personality, quips, and sassy spark making me smile. Having her in town was something to look forward to each year. She was good for my sister. But this? This was something totally different.

One week. I did my best to ignore her, or at least these new feelings for her swirling around.

Okay, I didn’t ignore her. I tried to steal glances at her whenever I could. I’m like a drone with a sensor that is locked onto one target—Kendra.

A library patron came in looking for a book to help with a college paper. He was around our age and obviously flirting with her. Didn’t like that. Nope. Did I think about whacking him in the head with a board I was carrying past him? Maybe. Did I actually follow through? No, I’m not a monster. But I did flex my arm muscles behind him as I walked by, and since I was much taller, did Kendra have a perfect view? Absolutely I did that.

And that is when I saw the way she looked at me.

Then I started to see the way she kept looking at me.

Just like I was trying to steal glances at her, she was playing the same game. It made me wonder just how long she’d been doing that, and how had I been so oblivious to it before this summer?

Dinner at the Den was just the beginning. I wanted to spend any and all free time I had with Kendra. Normally I fucked and fled. I had done neither with Kendra. We hadn’t even kissed. She thinks I have her placed in the friend zone, despite my flirting with her, but my thoughts are anything but. I need to make her see that things are different with her. I don’t know why, and it scares the shit out of me. I can’t clip the string that keeps tugging me closer and closer to this little effervescent pixie.

“What are we doing tonight?” Kendra asks as she watches me pack up my tools. Her cinnamon-colored sundress is blowing in the soft breeze around her knees, whipping up just enough to give me a glimpse of her tanned thigh, making my mouth water with lust.

Licking my lips and dragging my eyes away from her perfect legs, I say, “It’s a surprise.”

“Finally taking me to your murder shed?” She giggles.

I roll my eyes. “No, weirdo. It’s much more romantic than that.”