“Open?”
She nodded, clearing her throat. “I’m not sure what you’re proposing exactly, but you have a lot of girl . . . friends. I can’t do a relationship where we’re seeing each other but will still see others on the side.”
What she was saying—thinking he might be proposing—hit him suddenly. “Hell no! I don’t want that either.” He leaned his forehead against hers, taking her face in his hands. “Have you not seen my reaction to you with someone else already? I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’d definitely have a problem with an open relationship. And, of course, that would go both ways.” He kissed her softly. “I meant I might suck at the formalities: remembering anniversaries, being romantic and saying the right things when I’m supposed to—that kind of stuff. But if I’m doing this with you, then it’s only you.”
Finally, the hesitant expression gave way to a smile. “Okay,” she said softly.
The smile was once again plastered on his face. He’d never felt so relieved in his life. He kissed her again a little longer this time then brought his leg over the bench to straddle it. He then pulled her leg over too then over his thigh and pulled her closer to him. To his surprise, she lifted her other leg over his other thigh also and brought her arms around his neck. She was now straddling him, and he was only glad her behind was still on the bench or she might feel just how turned on this made him.
“So how does this work?” he asked, leaning against her forehead. “Do we like wear matching outfits and give each other nicknames?” She laughed so heartily and sweetly he had to laugh too. “Well, I don’t know.” He feigned feeling slighted by her laughing at him. “I’ve never done this.”
“I’ve never done it either,” she said, still laughing.
“Really? That surprises me. Never? Not even come close like seeing someone or something?”
She wasn’t laughing anymore and even looked away for the first time since they tangled up the way they were now. He rubbed her back. “All right, this is good,” he said, feeling his muscles getting a little tense already. “I may’ve never been in a relationship before, but I’ve been around people who have and have a couple of close friends who are in them. This is a huge thing for them and will be for me too, okay? Honesty. Complete honesty.”
He lifted her chin because she was looking down again, avoiding his eyes. When he had her full attention, he spoke again. “The closest I’ve ever had to a relationship was with a girl I thought I was falling for, but she moved away, and even then we kept it up via texts and phone calls. Turned out she wasn’t nearly as serious as I was, because she started seeing someone else.” He’d take this honesty thing a little further to make a point about how serious he was. “It was the same girl you saw me with at the fight, the one that sat with me in the front row. But we’re just friends now, and she was just out here visiting.” Charlee lifted an eyebrow and he kissed it. “I sent her packing that night to go look for you, remember?” That reminder seemed to ease her a bit. “Now.” He pulled her even closer to him so her legs were practically around his waist. “Your turn.”
Staring at her, he tried to understand why she seemed so uncomfortable suddenly when she’d been laughing so happily just moments ago. What difference did it make if she had been in a relationship in the past? As long as it was just that—in the past.
She was sitting so close to him with her arms and legs around him that he could feel how tense this conversation was making her. Whatever it was, he was getting it out of her now because he didn’t like how whatever it was had changed the mood so abruptly. This could be someone she wasn’t over yet, and he braced himself, his muscles going even tauter as that thought sunk in.
Chapter 23
It was so unfair, and Charlee cursed Danny that even after all this time thoughts of him could almost ruin what should be one of the best days of her life. She hated that Hector’s playfulness was gone and he was now staring at her with that same intensity she’d seen in him before. It wasn’t that she had anything to hide from him. It was just so humiliating. Not even Drew brought it up much because she knew that Charlee had been so mortified by the whole thing that she hated talking about it.
She took a deep breath, trying to come up with a short and sweet version of the truth. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, nor have I ever been in a relationship where I was seeing someone. But like you, I thought I’d started seeing someone last year. That’s what he made it feel like anyway, and it turned out I wasn’t even close.” She smiled, leaning in and kissing him in the hopes that they’d drop it.
“That’s it?” He asked, not looking the least bit satisfied.
Trying to appear as happy as she’d been moments before the thought of Danny had come barreling into her wonderful day, she nodded. “In a nutshell.”
To her surprise, the corner of his lip went up, but he lifted a brow, taking the lightheartedness out of what might’ve been a playful smile. “Do you realize you blink really fast when you’re lying?”
She pulled back, but with his arms around her waist, she didn’t get very far. “I’m not lying.” She was very aware that her eyes blinked like crazy when she lied. Drew had pointed that out years ago. She was just surprised Hector had picked up on it so quickly.
The half-smile was gone, and he stared at her hard now. “You’re doing it again. Why are you lying, Charlee?”
“How do you know—” she caught herself and rephrased that. “Why do you think I’m lying?”
“Because the only time I’ve ever seen you do that was the night I asked you to pretend what happened between us never did. You said you already had and that,” his jaw clenched for a second, “that you’d had an exhausting weekend, and I know now that it was all a lie. So why are you lying now? Just give it to me straight. I can take it. You’ve had boyfriends before, so what?”
“I haven’t.” He was so focused on her eyes now it completely unnerved her.
“Okay, that’s the truth,” he said smugly. She tried pulling away from him now, annoyed that he really thought he had her pegged so quickly, but he held her tight. Staring at her more concerned now, he asked, “What’s wrong with you? What’s upsetting you this much?”
“I’d had a crush on him for years, okay? Then suddenly last year, he pretended to really be into me. I fell for it completely. Even Drew, who claims to have a sixth sense about these things, thought he genuinely liked me, and it turned out he did it all for some kind of stupid football team dare.” She couldn’t even look at Hector anymore. “It’s incredibly embarrassing to talk about, so can we not anymore, please?”
That hardened look was back, but she knew it wasn’t because of or directed at her. He was thinking about what she’d just told him. He pulled her closer, and she leaned her face against his chest. It felt so perfect to be held by him like this that she never wanted to let go, and she took a deep satisfied breath.
“What an asshole,” was the only thing Hector said and the only thing either of them said for a long while. When he spoke again, his tone had changed. There was a strangeness in his voice. “I won’t ask you anything more about what he did, but I do need to know something.”
She lifted her head away from his chest and looked at him. He searched her eyes immediately. “You said you had a crush on him for years. This happened a year ago?” She nodded. “And it still upsets you this much? You are over him, right?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. Gawd, he must think her the most pathetic thing on the planet. “I was over him the moment I found out the truth.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she was over him now and had been for quite a while. “It’s just the thought of telling anyone about it,” she lowered her voice, “especially you, is so . . . embarrassing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed, Charlee.” He rubbed her back. “Only idiots actually give into stupid peer pressure like that. I remember hearing about that kind of dumb shit in school all the time. It was always the assholes who went along with it. And what was so d
aring about pretending to like a sweet, pretty girl like you anyway? What a schmuck.”
What she’d told him was mortifying enough. She didn’t have to tell him everything. It was just ironic that of all words he could’ve chosen he chose schmuck in this instance. She concentrated on not going into a blinking spasm and shrugged. “So you know now. Can we talk about something else?”
He leaned in, kissing her softly, and then slowly his tongue became more ravenous. She held both hands to his face, kissing him back equally insatiably until she tingled everywhere, but he cut it short, breathing heavily as he pulled away. Rubbing the tops of her thighs, he smiled that breathtaking smile. “You wanna go see something? It’s close by here. I didn’t realize how close you lived to it.”
She nodded, staring at him all dreamily, and she didn’t even care. There was no hiding how she felt about him now, and she didn’t have to anymore.
He leaned in against her forehead again. “Or we can stay here if you’d prefer.” His fingers grazed the bare small of her back now. In this position, Drew’s ridiculously short hoodie had ridden halfway up her back, exposing her entire lower back. The touch of his fingers sent a tingling sensation up her spine, making her shiver against him. “I am not about to ask you to get off me.”
“Oh.” She sat up, realizing she had to move off him in order for him to stand. Okay, maybe she would have to try a little harder to not get so mesmerized by him. It was a little embarrassing.
She scooted back and pulled her legs off his big thighs. Feeling her face warm a little, she wondered what he’d think of her fantasies in which she’d sat on him that very same way many times minus their clothes. The heat moved down from her face to her neck and warmed every part of her body as the reality began to set in. If this were really happening, if she weren’t really going to wake up from this soon and find out all this was just another fantasy of hers, the possibility of her fantasies happening now was very real.
They got in his truck and set out to the mystery place Hector said he’d rather just show her than tell her about.
His truck was an old classic one, something he said his brother had passed down to him. As soon as she got in, he made sure the seatbelt in the middle seat was accessible to her, and Charlee chewed her bottom lip, loving the fact that he wanted her sitting right next to him.
“He’s got a badass Gran Torino now,” Hector said as he continued to explain about the old cars he and his brother drove. “He’s always been into classics, and,” he shrugged, “so have I.”
Charlee smiled, pondering whether or not she should mention she already knew that. She wondered if he’d think her creepy for knowing so much about him, his brother, and his friends already. For the time being, she decided she’d just let him talk and keep that tidbit to herself.
“If you’re not familiar with Gran Torinos,” he continued, “it’s the car they used in Starsky and Hutch. Maybe you saw the movie with Ben Stiller. That’s a lot more current than the TV show. Anyway, now Abel’s looking into getting a fifty-eight Chevy Impala.” She loved watching how excited he got when he spoke about his brother, like the night of his fight when he talked about Abel going for the title. “We’re gonna restore it together.”
“So it’s just you and your brother, no other siblings?” She already knew the answer to this as well, but it seemed like something she should ask.
“Yep, just me, him, and my mom.” He turned to her with a questioning expression. “I’ve never done this, but I get the feeling this isn’t typical.”
“What is?”
“You and me. I don’t know a whole lot about you yet. All I know is that you do something to my heart I don’t quite understand, and ever since I kissed you . . .” He paused and seemed to think about that for a moment. “No, I’m thinking now it started way before that. I haven’t been able to think about much else but you. And even though I don’t know much about you, here we are—officially together. Normally, there’s a courting process to get to know each other before things become official, right?”
She hadn’t even looked at it that way. Now she really debated on whether she should just admit she knew so much about him, like how, according to the Roni’s blog, even though he was the youngest of the four partners who owned 5th Street, he handled the books. Roni called him a mathematics genius—another thing he and Charlee had in common. Math had always been her strongest subject. But then most chess enthusiasts were good at math, so that wasn’t too surprising.
Another big thing she knew about him was that it was his idea to start the Children’s Burn Foundation in honor of Jack, the late 5th Street founder who’d passed the gym down to him and his friends. Hector had been a victim himself and suffered some minor burns in the fire there at 5th Street. Being a minor himself at the time, he’d been in the children’s burn ward of the hospital and saw firsthand what those kids have to go through, so that’s when he came up with the idea.
Feeling guilty now that he didn’t know much about her and yet she’d already fallen in love with everything she’d read about him, she decided to fess up. “Actually, I know a little more about you than you think.”
They came to a stop light, and he turned to look at her confused. “You do?”
She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t think her too weird. “I came across something called ‘The 5th Street Journey’ online.” Immediately she saw the discernment come over him, and thankfully he didn’t seem bothered by it at all. “It’s really interesting,” she added as he slipped his big hand in hers. “But there is a lot about you, and, well, I couldn’t help reading most of it.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. It amazed her how comfortable she felt with him now that she knew she didn’t have to fear the inevitable heartache. He initiated this. She would’ve never even considered suggesting it. There was no way what he was saying could be insincere like with Danny. He wouldn’t have done all this for nothing. In fact, he’d been thoroughly disgusted when she told him about Danny.
“So it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do then,” he said, turning onto a street with huge homes on it. “Let’s start off with the most important.” He glanced at her lifting his brow. “You’re out here, but your home is on the other side of the country. You’re not planning on moving back there anytime soon, are you?”
“No,” Charlee said, looking out the window at the massive homes they were passing. “But I was actually contemplating it a few weeks ago.”
Hector turned to look at her but didn’t say anything for a moment. “Really? A few weeks ago?”
She nodded, a little embarrassed to admit it, but Hector had such an easy going demeanor—when he was in a good mood as he was now—telling him the truth felt like the most natural thing to do. “The day after that keg party, I had myself a little pity party. I thought I needed to get away for a few days, maybe weeks, but I happened to mention it to Drew, and she begged me not to.”
They were stopped at a stop sign, and there were no other cars around, but Hector didn’t move. Instead, he stared at her before finally letting out a strange, “Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing,” he turned his attention back on the road and started through the intersection. “Good to know what it takes to get your mind off moving back.” He smiled playfully, glancing back at her. “If I have to beg, I will—totally worth it.”
This time she squeezed his hand. Pushing her pessimistic this-is-too-good-to-be-true thoughts away, she allowed herself to accept that this was really happening.
Hector drove into the driveway of one of the huge homes in the next block, but instead of backing out and turning around, which is what she thought he might do, he drove all the way up until the truck was parked on the side of the house.
“Whose house is this?” Charlee asked curiously as she admired the kind of house she’d only ever seen on television or magazines.
“My mom’s soon and where I’ll be moving to as soon as the sale is final,” Hector
said, opening the door. “Abel bought it for her. We’re just waiting for escrow to close. C’mon out. I’ll show you around.”
Charlee got out and walked around the truck, meeting Hector by the walkway that went from the driveway to the front door. He reached his hand out, and she took it, gasping when he pulled her to him then wrapped his arms around her waist. She brought her own arms up around his shoulders, fully expecting to be kissed again, but he didn’t. Instead he buried his face in her neck, and she let her head fall to the side, giving him better access. He squeezed her tight, taking a deep breath followed by a sated groan then made her gasp again and laugh when he lifted her off the ground. “God, I’m gonna get used to this so fast.”
His lips were suddenly on her neck, raining soft, gentle kisses across it, making her entire body quiver until he pulled away to look at her. Those expressive eyes that penetrated deeply into hers nearly choked her now. He eased her down slowly, never breaking the eye contact. “What are you thinking of right now?” he asked in one of the most gentle tones she’d heard from him.
“What?” her mind was in such a daze she could barely put any thoughts together.
“That,” he said, his brows coming together in what appeared to be bewilderment or intensely piqued curiosity, “I saw that same glimmer in your eyes way back on the night of the tournament. I didn’t know what to make of it, and it’s haunted me ever since. It’s what’s crawled into my mind, and since then, I haven’t been able think straight. What is it? What are you thinking?”
Charlee shook her head, not sure if she should tell him exactly what she was thinking. He might think her crazy—too soon. She could very well chase him off and make him change his mind about this whole thing. There was no way she could’ve been feeling the same way back on the night of the tournament. She barely knew anything about him then, except that he’d already made one of the most unforgettable first impressions on her, he was incredible to look at, and she actually had something in common with him. Maybe she had been thinking the same thing she was thinking now.
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