TRAVIS
Angel was trying to kill me.
When she came into the living room in that dress, I had to clench my fists to fight off the urge to run my hand up the smooth skin on her thigh. My fingers itched to run through her hair, which looked even longer now that it was straight. The shiny blonde strands almost reached her waist.
She had makeup on, but somehow it made her look more innocent, with her eyes looking bigger, her cheeks pink, her lips plump and shiny. It looked like she’d even swiped a bit of blush onto the tip of her perfect nose.
And that dress… That fucking dress. She looked like a modern-day pin-up girl.
She was every fantasy I’d ever had, come to life.
After fidgeting for a couple seconds, she took a seat on the couch and tucked her feet underneath her thighs. She sent me a shy smile and I regretted choosing to sit in the chair instead of on the couch, where I could’ve been next to her.
It was a good thing Colton chose that moment to come home because I had no idea what to say. She’d rendered me speechless.
“Hey, roomie,” he said to Angel when he saw her. He ruffled her hair as he walked by to the kitchen.
She made an exasperated sound as she tried to comb it back down with her fingers.
“Hi,” she grumbled, but I could tell she wasn’t mad because she was fighting a grin.
“You look beautiful,” he said to her.
“Thank you,” she beamed at him, and I felt a bolt of irrational jealousy.
I was suddenly pissed at myself for not telling her first. Actually, I didn’t say anything to her. I just leered at her like a jackass.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Angel as I followed Colton into his room and shut the door behind me.
He just crossed his arms over his chest, raised his eyebrows, and waited for me to say what he already knew was coming.
I sighed heavily and hung my head. “I’m so fucking screwed, man.”
“I know.” He smiled. He was actually enjoying this. For the first time ever, he was seeing me twisted up over a girl. A girl I barely knew, at that.
“It’s been less than two days, Colt. And I already like her. A lot,” I admitted.
I filled him in on all the details of how she ended up coming back with me, most of which he overheard in the shop. Then I told him the things I didn’t tell Hank—that she was a runaway. How we ended up falling asleep in the sleeper cab together, how we almost kissed in the truck, and how we did kiss here at the apartment.
“It’s about time you found someone who can drive you crazy. And it’s no wonder. She’s hot. Seems really nice, too.”
The look on my face must have clued him in on the uncharacteristic jealousy I was experiencing and he held his hands up. “Damn, dude. I’m not gonna hit on your girl. Besides, I’m already taken. You know I’m a one-woman kinda guy.”
I shook my head at how ridiculous I was being. “I know. Sorry.”
“I see the way she looks at you,” he said, ignoring my irrational moment. “It’s pretty obvious she feels it, too. Why don’t you just go for it?”
“Go for what?” I asked.
If he was suggesting I just try to bang her before she left, there was a chance I might deck him. Angel deserved better. The thought of anyone trying to take advantage of her situation made my blood boil.
But I should’ve known better. Colton knew me better than that and he proved as much when he spoke next. “If you want to be with her, really be with her, then do it. Get to know her. Take her on dates and stuff.”
“She’s only here for three weeks,” I pointed out.
“So? That’s enough time for you to figure out if there’s something real there.”
“And if there is? Then what? I’ll be here and she’ll be two thousand miles away.”
Colton shrugged. “Figure that out when the time comes. If you want it bad enough, you can make it work. This could be the best thing that ever happened to you,” he spouted optimistically. “And if isn’t, then hey, she’ll be two thousand miles away.” He grinned.
He had a point.
“You know, you’re a smart guy sometimes,” I told him before I turned to the door. “And sorry for almost punching you in the face.”
“You didn’t almost punch me in the face,” he said, confused.
“But I thought about it.” I grinned.
Colton chuckled. “Wouldn’t be the first time it happened.”
True. I could count on one finger how many times we’d come to blows, and it was the same story I’d told Angel about the first time Colton and I met.
The talk helped to shed some light on my predicament. He was right. Angel and I had three weeks together, and I decided I wanted to make the most of it.
*
Angel and I left for The Brick House before Colton, and I told him we’d snag a table before it got too busy.
As I opened the passenger door to my 1972 Chevy to let Angel in, she shot me a look. I laughed because I could tell what she was thinking and she didn’t even have to say it.
“I know, I know. You can get in by yourself. I just really want to impress you right now.” I winked and she laughed.
Once I got into my side, I turned the key in the ignition, loving the familiar rumbling purr of the engine.
“Well, I love your truck. Is it vintage?” She rubbed the tan leather seats with her hands. “I really don’t know anything about trucks but it looks old.”
I grinned. “Yeah, you could say it’s old. I restored it myself the first year I was working at the shop. Someone sold it to Hank as a junker for three hundred dollars. I’ll never forget when Hank handed me the keys and told me it was an early graduation present. You can imagine my surprise when I tried to start it up and nothing happened.” I chuckled at the memory. “The engine had to be rebuilt and the transmission was shot. I had a lot of fun fixing it up, though. It’s a gas-guzzler, but I don’t drive it much.” I lovingly rubbed the dashboard.
Even though it had a few rust spots, I’d left the outside of the truck alone. It was painted an aqua blue, and there was no way the exact same color could be replicated. Besides, I liked the imperfections.
“You’ve got a really good thing here, you know that? Colton and Hank… I don’t know if I’ve ever had friends like that.” She paused and glanced my way. “If I’m being completely honest, I’m a little jealous.”
“You don’t have to be.” I frowned. I didn’t want her to feel like an outsider while she was here. “Colton and Hank are like a couple of ticks. They’ll accept you as their own and you’ll see what I mean. Once they latch on, it’s hard to get rid of them,” I joked. “Just wait ‘til you meet my mom.”
“Your mom?” she asked, her tone incredulous.
“Yeah, tomorrow night,” I said. “I have dinner with her every Saturday.”
“Travis, you don’t have to let me tag along to everything you do. I know you have a life here and I don’t want to impose.”
“Believe me, she’ll love you,” I assured her.
In all honesty, my mom would probably be planning our wedding before the evening was over. I’d never introduced a girl to her before. To say she was going to be excited was an understatement.
Pulling up to The Brick House, I could see the Friday night crowd was already in full swing. I parked my truck and told Angel to stay in her seat so I could open her door.
As I helped her out of the truck, I laced my fingers with hers.
“You really don’t have to do that, you know. Not only can I get into a truck by myself, I can get out, too.” She smiled cheekily.
“I know,” I told her. “But I want to do things right tonight.”
“Is this a date?” she asked candidly, her head cocked to the side.
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
“Oh.” Her face showed she was a little shocked by my answer. The smile on her lips also told me she was happy about it.
“Is that okay with y
ou?” I asked as I squeezed her hand and led her toward the building.
“Yes,” she said without hesitation, and I laughed.
The Brick House looked exactly as the name said. From the outside, it looked like a normal rectangular ranch-style home with a natural brick exterior. It had a metal roof and the shutters were painted a bright bubblegum pink.
The inside, however, was set up like a sports bar. As soon as I opened the door, sounds of voices, raucous laughter, and music carried out.
The open space was basically one giant room. A long bar jutted out on the left side, and on the far right end of the large dining area there was a dance floor which was empty at the moment. In between, there were dozens of tables scattered over the floor. Most of them were filled with people, but I saw an open booth in the back close to the dance floor.
On the way to our table, I guided Angel with my hand on the small of her back and politely said hello every time someone greeted me. As always, there were a lot of familiar faces here tonight.
“Wow, you know everyone,” Angel said.
I shrugged. “Small town.”
Our waitress, Tammy, came over with our menus. Colton used to have the biggest thing for her in back in the day, but she was crazy in love with her high school sweetheart. She ended up marrying him a couple years ago.
Just like me, Tammy was a small town lifer. Born here. Raised here. Would probably die here.
“Hey, Travis. Good to see ya. Who’s this?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at Angel.
“This is Angel. Angel, this is Tammy. We went to high school together.” I was able to put my arm around her shoulders because I had her take the seat next to me in the booth.
“This might be the first time I’ve ever seen Travis here with a date,” she said to Angel. “I could tell you some stories about this guy.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I cut in with a smile.
“So lame,” Tammy sighed, and Angel laughed.
“You may as well leave a third menu. Colt should be here any minute.”
“Sure thing.” She nodded and took our drink orders—beer on tap for me and an ice water for Angel.
Angel perused the menu, but I didn’t need to because I already knew what I was getting.
“What’s good here?” she asked while looking at the sandwich section.
“I always get the loaded nachos.”
She hummed. “That actually sounds really good.”
“We can just share if you want. It’s huge.”
“Okay,” she smiled and set her menu aside.
“You know, you really do look beautiful,” I told her as I ran my hand through her hair. “I should’ve told you back at my place, but Colton kinda beat me to it.”
“You didn’t really have to say anything.” Her lips curled up at the corners. “Remember how I looked at you when you came out of the shower?” she asked and I was surprised she was calling herself out like that. “Well, that’s what you looked like. I think I might have even seen some drool.”
“What can I say? You’re worth drooling over,” I said honestly, and she blushed.
Colton slid into the booth across from us. “Alright, what did I miss?”
“We already ordered. Tammy’s our waitress tonight.” I smirked at him.
He put a hand over his chest like he was wounded. Even though he’d moved on from that long-ago crush, I still liked to remind him of the rejection from time to time.
“She wanted to tell me stories about Travis, but he wouldn’t let her.” Angel mock pouted.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that. I’ve got plenty to tell,” Colton offered, and I shot him a glare.
Thankfully, our food and drinks showed up, interrupting any embarrassing tales from my childhood.
When Angel took her first bite of the nachos, she closed her eyes and moaned. I felt another little stab of jealousy because I hadn’t made her make that sound.
I shook my head because I was being ridiculous. Was I seriously jealous of tortilla chips?
Watching Angel eat was its own form of entertainment. She wasn’t shy about how much she ate—which I loved—and more often than not, food ended up somewhere on her face because she was messy as hell. She also talked with her mouth full.
It was endearing. It was adorable. And it made me want to kiss the fuck out of her.
After Colton ordered, he talked about what went down at the shop the past couple days—mostly oil changes and tire rotations, which was the norm.
As he spoke, I had my arm lazily slung around Angel and I liked being able to graze my thumb over the smooth skin of her shoulder. I didn’t miss the way her breathing hitched every time I touched a sensitive spot by her neck.
Throughout dinner, Colton and I asked Angel questions about Maine and what it was like, because neither of us had ever been there.
“The lighthouses are gorgeous. A lot of people go there for sight-seeing in the fall because the colors are just amazing. It always smells like the ocean…” She trailed off and looked a little homesick.
“Bet you’ve never seen so many cornfields before,” I joked, trying to keep the mood light. “That’s about all the sights you’re gonna get around here.”
Her faraway look cleared and she laughed lightly. “You’re right about that. You basically live in the middle of a giant cornfield.”
As we finished our food, the atmosphere in The Brick House slowly changed from a family-friendly restaurant to a night club. The lights dimmed and the music got louder, making it more difficult to have conversations.
The DJ started getting set up a little after 9 p.m. and for the first time ever, I actually thought dancing didn’t seem like such a bad idea. If anything, it was a reason to have Angel close to me, to have my hands on her.
One of the reasons the Friday night DJ was so popular was because he played a little bit of everything, from oldies to country to current pop music.
It was tradition for him to kick off the night with a line dance. When ‘Electric Slide’ pumped through the speakers, Colton let out a loud hoot before excusing himself to the dance floor.
“Watch this,” I said to Angel and I pointed at Colton.
Angel and I started cracking up as he attempted to follow along with the moves. He was two steps behind everyone else and almost tripped over his own feet a couple times. At one point, he just started doing some random jig that resembled River Dancing.
“Is he always this bad?” Angel laughed as she gestured towards his jerky movements, which made him look like me might be having a seizure.
“Only for line dances. Doesn’t keep him from doing it, though.”
“Well, good for him. But you won’t see me out there,” she replied.
I was never one to back down from a challenge. Angel didn’t realize she’d just made it my mission to get her to dance with me.
When ‘Earth Angel’ came on, I laughed out loud because it was too perfect. It was also incredibly cheesy. I slid out of the booth and held my hand out to Angel.
“Come on,” I said.
“I thought you didn’t dance,” she said as she reluctantly stood up.
“I don’t usually, but we’re dancing to this.”
She rolled her eyes and followed me to the dance floor.
I took both of her hands and brought them up around my neck, then let my hands trail down to her waist.
As the song went on, we gravitated toward each other while we swayed to the music.
By the end, there wasn’t any room left between our bodies and I touched my forehead to hers. Her fingernails lightly scratched the short hair on the back of my head and it made my skin tingle.
I wanted to pull her further against me but it wasn’t possible. Our bodies were already plastered together. Any closer, and we’d be giving these people one hell of a show.
It felt like Angel and I were in our own bubble on the dance floor. It was so easy to tune out the rest of the world. All the people, all the noi
se. Everything else fell away as I held her in my arms.
Billy Currington’s ‘Must Be Doing Something Right’ came on next, and I sent a silent thanks to the DJ for playing another slow song. I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.
Our faces were so close together that I could feel each puff of her breath against my lips. Just as I was about to close the distance, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
Colton stood beside me, and he had an apologetic look on his face.
“I’m sorry, dude. Check your texts,” he said cryptically, before walking away.
Without letting go of Angel—who looked just as confused as I felt—I took my phone out of my pocket
Colton: Alert. Alert. Tara and Kendra are on their way here.
Colton: I repeat. Kendra Mc-Pukes-A-Lot is coming
Colton: Check your ducking phone
Colton: Fuck
Fucking great. Just as I slipped my phone back into my pocket, I felt a hand on my other shoulder.
It wasn’t Colton this time.
“Hey, Travis,” Kendra purred as she rubbed my arm. “I was hoping I would see you here.”
I felt Angel stiffen in my arms. Her hands fell away from my neck and she tried to step back, but I held onto her.
“Hi, Kendra,” I greeted her. I decided I might as well get the awkward introduction out of the way. “This is Angel. Angel, this is Kendra, Tara’s best friend.”
Hurt flashed through Kendra’s eyes and I felt bad. My intention wasn’t to hurt her, but she needed to know there wasn’t going to be a romantic relationship between us.
My momentary guilt didn’t last long though, because her glare turned hard and I could see the hurt turn to anger. I’d seen Kendra have a pretty nasty attitude in the past, but it had never been directed at me before.
“I see you’re dancing tonight,” she observed as her eyes briefly flitted to Angel. “You gonna save one for me?”
I sighed, and suddenly wished I’d been more straightforward with her earlier in the week instead of avoiding her. I knew that was going to come back to bite me in the ass.
Trucker (The Good Guys #1) Page 7
