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While she did that, Kobe and I worked on what our next steps were, which inevitably ended with him going home to work on everything from his office, where all his stuff was. And packing up the essentials and coming back once he had a lead and the circus was done traveling to its new home for the next two weeks. Which would take us roughly about four days to get there.
“I’m going to take this information to the sheriff of Accident,” he tapped his lip. “I think starting with why you left will help. He used to be FBI, so he’ll help any way he can.” He winked at me then. “And he misses his neighbor.”
I scoffed. “There’s no way he misses me.”
Kobe looked at me skeptically for a few seconds before saying, “You do realize, right, that the sheriff is the one who purposefully watches over your house? He’s also the one that keeps your lawn mowed and in HOA regulations.”
“I’m the one that sends out those HOA fines.” I rolled my eyes. That did make me happy that he’d noticed I was missing. And cared. “But yeah, I think bringing him in will be a good thing.”
Kobe’s eyes scanned the area again for the fourth time in as many minutes, and I fell even deeper.
Was it possible to love someone that you only really saw online?
“I’m going to reach out to a few other people in your old area, too,” he continued after his once-over was clear. “Do you think that you’d want to have a relationship with me?”
I blinked, surprised by his complete one-eighty in the conversation.
“Um,” I paused as I looked at him. “Are you asking me if I’d be interested in dating you? Having something more with you than what we have going on through the interwebs?”
His lip quirked up at the corner, and I felt my heartbeat pick up.
“I’d have been interested in having a relationship with you the day you started stalking me,” I blinked at him rapidly, fluttering my eyes at him. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He reached over and pulled me into his side. Where I was sitting and he was standing, I ended up bouncing my head off of his hard hip bone.
He barked out a laugh, then said, “I’ll come back with more information.”
That sounded an awful lot like goodbye.
I didn’t like being the one that was said goodbye to.
Usually I was the one doing the goodbye-ing.
“I found some!” JP came up then, not just one, but eight books in her hand. “I couldn’t choose. So you’ll have to choose for me.”
I watched the way Kobe seemed to melt for my girl, and I knew that he wouldn’t be choosing anything. She’d be going home with every single book she wanted.
• • •
After we got home from the store, we walked around Mooresville’s fairgrounds.
I didn’t think anything was amiss, which showed my obvious naivety.
“Why do you keep looking around the fairgrounds like something’s about to jump out and bite you?” I asked curiously.
He grinned, flashing that smile down at me, causing my lungs to seize and my breath to hitch.
He’d smiled more today than he had in a very long while. It was confusing. And awesome. And I hated where the end of this night was about to leave us.
“I’m not necessarily looking at all of the stuff,” he admitted. “I’m looking at all of the people.”
“Oh,” I paused. “Are you seeing anything?”
It was weird. With him around, it felt like all of my worries were just nonexistent. I trusted him that completely.
“No,” he answered. “But knowing you have a hit out on you, and you can’t even make out where this chick is online, is giving me major eww vibes.” He paused. “If I saw that photo of you in the newspaper, who’s to say that she won’t, too?”
That’d been on the back of my mind since he’d arrived, too. If Kobe had seen it, would she?
