CHAPTER FIVE
Claire
IT WAS THE next day and I was beating myself up over how stupid I had acted in front of Derek. I had made him think that I was interested in Knight when all I wanted was another look from him. Then, I went and ruined it by telling him all the things about him that I found sexy, including his hair, which I had fantasized about pulling while he was fucking me. I shook my head at my stupidity as I pulled more weeds from the flower garden around the house. I was almost done and decided that this year I was going to put down mulch. I didn’t normally do it because I didn’t want to spend the extra money, but I wanted a nice garden this year and I was determined to have it.
I finished the garden and then got in the old pickup truck that we used around the farm, and headed into town. When I reached the garden center, I found the cheapest mulch that I could and put in my order. While I was waiting for them to get my order together, I wandered around and looked at the different flowers that were sitting out. It had been so long since I had planted anything new and I had an old flowerbed that hadn’t been used in years under the trees in the back yard.
Twenty minutes later, I had Hostas, Heuchera, Brunnera, and Japanese Painted Ferns picked out for the start of a new garden. I was pretty pleased with my selection and was about to ask an employee to help me get everything up front when I heard his deep voice. I looked up and there he was, talking with a salesman about hosing or something. He was deep in thought, so I ducked down behind some of the plants and watched from my spot on the floor. I sighed, taking in his handsome features and wondered why the hell my big mouth had blown it between us.
He picked up something off the shelf and was just turning to leave when someone tripped over me, knocking the plants down that I was hiding behind and sending us both sprawling into some lawn ornaments. I scrambled to sit up and get away, but the old man that had tripped over me started yelling at me.
“Why the hell were you sitting down there? I could have killed myself.” He spit when he talked and I took a closer look, seeing that the man didn’t have any teeth.
I looked over quickly at Derek, hoping that he had already walked away, but he was looking right at me and smirking. Dammit. I had hoped to get out of here without him seeing me.
“I’m really sorry, sir. Let me help you get your stuff.” I weeded through the plants, picking them up and moving them to the side and grabbing the cane the man had been using. I spotted a pair of dentures on the ground and grimaced. Disgusting.
“Here are your teeth, sir.” I picked them up and held them out to the man, but he didn’t take them.
“What in the cotton pickin’ hell am I supposed to do with that? They’re covered in dirt!”
I wiped them on my shirt and only then realized how dirty my clothes were. I hadn’t changed before I came here and then I had landed in a pile of plants. My hands were filthy and so were my clothes. The man’s dentures now had streaks of dirt on them.
“I’m so sorry, sir. I can take them in the bathroom and wash them off-”
He snatched them from my hands and pushed them back in his mouth. “You’d probably dunk them in the toilet. I’ll take my chances with the dirt.”
He stomped off, leaving me mortified and hoping that Derek wasn’t still standing there, but he was. I started putting all the plants back, ignoring the sexy man across the aisle from me. No matter how hard I tried to ignore him, I could feel his stare boring into me, which only made me fumble more.
“Are you always this accident prone?”
“I’m not accident prone. You just show up at the wrong time.”
He walked over to me and helped me pick up the last of the plants on the ground and then held out his hand for me to take. I couldn’t help but notice how his hand wrapped around mine and enclosed it completely. When this man touched me, I felt zaps spread through my body. It was a shame that I had screwed it all up.
“Thanks for the help. I mean, technically you only picked up one or two plants. I did most of it by myself. If you really had wanted to help, you would have come over right away, which suggests that you only did it to appear to help me when you really just wanted to gloat.”
“Do you ever stop rambling?”
“Not really. I can’t help it. I don’t have very good social skills and I usually end up saying the wrong thing. Then, I get nervous and I just can’t seem to stop, and I make an ass out of myself. I’m pretty sure you’ve already seen that a few times from me. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’m just going to grab my stuff and go.”
I turned around, not wanting to say anything else to make this worse.
“Wait,” he said, halting me with his hand wrapped around my wrist. “I don’t give a shit about your social skills. I find it cute when you ramble. Most of the time. I find out a lot about you when you go on one of your tirades,” he said with a grin. I blushed deeply and shook my head, not sure if he was mocking me or if he was serious.
“Well, I don’t mean to do that. It just comes out sometimes.”
He nodded and smiled at me again. “Do you need some help with that stuff?” He pointed to the flowers that I had set aside.
“No, thank you. I’m just going to pay and then load up my mulch.”
“Doesn’t an employee do that?”
“They do, but I think they’re really busy today. It’s easier if I just do it myself.”
“I’ll help you.”
“That’s really not necessary. I do this all the time.”
He loaded up the plants into his cart and grabbed my hand, pulling me along behind him. “I want to help. Stop busting my balls over this and just accept it.”
I paid for the flowers and then drove around to where the mulch was sitting out back. As I thought, they hadn’t had time to pull it yet for me and said they were fine with me loading it myself. When I stepped out of the truck, Derek was waiting for me and I was suddenly aware of how stinky I was since I had been working out in the heat all day. I ran a hand over my head and felt the frizz setting in. I quickly pulled my hair out of my ponytail holder and slicked my hair back as best I could, throwing it into a messy bun. There was nothing I could do about all the dirt I was covered in, so I went to the mulch pile and started loading, trying to pretend like I wasn’t totally self-conscious about my appearance.
“How about I follow you home and help you unload all this?”
“Oh, um..” Quick, come up with an excuse so he can’t follow you home. There’s no way I want him to come home with me when I look like this. Just say anything. “Tampons!” I shouted out. Crap. I blushed bright red, but decided to go with it. Men were usually squeamish about that stuff. “I have to stop at the store for tampons. You know, that time of the month and all. If I don’t get to the store, we could be facing the flood,” I laughed nervously. God I was so bad at this. There was no way he would ever be interested in me after this. I should have let him just follow me home.
“Cool. I’ll go with you. What kind do you use? Tampax? Playtex?” He grinned at me and in that moment I knew he was fucking with me. He didn’t believe me for a minute that I needed tampons, but he wasn’t going to let me get away with it. Might as well play along.
“Okay. Uh, sure.”
I walked to my truck and got in, wondering if I could just hit the gas and head home. But then he would win. It looked like I was going to buy tampons, even though my period had just ended. I pulled up to the store and got out, wondering if I even had enough money with me to buy what I needed. I checked my purse quickly and saw that I only had two dollars left. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“You know, I just saw that I don’t have any money left. I’ll just come back later in the day for what I need.”
“Nonsense. I can buy whatever you need.” He grabbed my arm and started pulling me along. I tried to dig in my feet, but he was too strong and before I knew it, we were in the feminine products aisle staring down every different kind of tampon I could ever need.
&nbs
p; “So, what’s your poison?”
“Uh, I just need a small box,” I said, reaching for the ten pack that would fit in my purse.
“I don’t believe you. You told me you were preparing for the flood. Here.” He grabbed box after box of tampons off the shelf and loaded up the cart. There was enough for at least two years. Then he started grabbing different packages of pads and tossing those in also. There was a little old lady walking past us with a package of Depends and she eyed me skeptically. I gave a small wave and she hurried past us.
“I think that’s enough, Derek.”
“Right. Well, we should also grab some Midol for you. That’s what you use for cramps, right?”
“Uh..”
He took off down the aisle before I could say anything and was grabbing a box of Midol, along with a few other pain relievers.
“What are you getting all that for?”
“Just in case. I would hate for you to be in pain because one of these doesn’t work. Better safe than sorry.”
We left that aisle and I thought we would check out, but he went to the candy aisle. “What are we doing here?”
“Chocolate. I know women get cravings when they get their period. We’ll load you up so that you have everything you need. Better grab some ice cream too. Maybe some chips.”
Pretty soon, the cart was full of chocolate, ice cream, chips, and every feminine product that the store carried. There was no way I was going to let him go through with this. I decided to come clean and save him the embarrassment.
“Look, I don’t really have my period. I just didn’t want you to come home with me because I’m stinky and dirty because I’ve been working outside all morning. Let’s just put this all back. You’ve made your point.”
He looked at me for a minute before a sly grin spread across his face. “No, I don’t think I’m going to let you get off that easily.” He pulled me along with him to the checkout line and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll check out and then we’ll get you home. You’ll be feeling better in no time.”
The check out lady practically swooned right on the spot. I glared at her and she instantly pulled back and tried to ignore us. Derek started unloading the cart and I watched as the girl’s eyes widened at the conveyor belt full of tampons and pads. She started swiping them across the scanner, but kept glancing at me like I was deformed.
“Bad month?” she asked.
“Monsoon season,” Derek said with an apologetic smile.
The girl nodded, but wouldn’t look at me the rest of the time. After Derek paid hundreds of dollars for all the crap he bought, the lady looked at him with a sad smile. “You are such a wonderful man. Take care of her.”
“I will and thank you.”
I almost threw up right there on the spot. He was playing a joke on me and the cashier acted as if he was the most wonderful man in the world. When we got to my truck, he loaded the bags into my truck and smirked at me.
“So, are you going to let me go home with you and help you out or are we going to run another errand.”
“Fine. You can help me.”
“I thought you’d see things my way.”
“You always get what you want, don’t you?”
“Always,” he grinned and then walked over to his truck. Stupid sexy man.
✯✯✯✯✯
The car in front of me was swerving all over the road, so I hung back, not wanting to get in an accident. My phone rang, but I didn’t answer. My truck was older, so I didn’t have that fancy hookup with my phone and my speakers in the truck. It rang several more times, but I still didn’t answer. Derek came speeding up behind me and passed me, then turned right down a side road, waving me over as he turned. I followed and pulled over to the side, not sure what he wanted. He got out and came to the driver’s side of my truck.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
“Because I don’t have any kind of hookup thingy.”
“Hookup thingy?”
“You know, how people can answer their phones through their speakers?”
He laughed, “Well, then I’m glad you didn’t answer. I’m pretty sure the person in that car in front of you is drunk or texting. I didn’t want you to get in an accident.”
“I was hanging back.”
“I know. I’d just feel better if-”
A loud crash had us both whipping our heads around to see a mangled heap in the middle of the road ahead of where we had been driving. It must have been the car. Derek ran to his truck and did a U-turn, taking off toward the wreck. I quickly followed, not sure if I could help, but for some reason, I didn’t want Derek to be alone. When I pulled up behind him, Derek was already out of his truck and running to the accident. The car had collided head on with a pick up truck, which was on fire and turned on its side. Derek somehow got through the flames and minutes later, pulled the man from the wreckage. How the hell had he done that? His clothes didn’t catch fire. Were all the men at Reed Security blessed with superpowers? Were they some kind of superhero coalition? First, Knight was shot and the bullet bounced right off him. Then Derek ran into a burning truck and came out completely unscathed. It just didn’t make any sense. Had I walked into some alternate universe?
When the man was out and a safe distance from the truck, Derek yelled for me to call 9-1-1. I pulled out my little flip phone and called emergency services while Derek checked on the person in the other car. The police, ambulance, and firetruck pulled up not too long after and took over the scene, thanking Derek for his quick thinking. They called him a hero, which he was. A hero. I wondered if the firemen suspected anything. Nobody could have gone into that fire and come out unscathed. He wasn’t even fazed by what had happened.
When Derek walked back toward me, I looked him over and saw that sure enough, he didn’t have a mark on him. Even his clothes didn’t appear to be any dirtier. I thought back to what I could remember of the man that had saved me from being hit by the car. He had sunglasses on, so I couldn’t tell if his eyes were the same, but in general, he had the same shaped face.
“Derek, when the car almost hit me outside the grocery store, where were you?”
He looked at me funny. “I was the one that pushed you out of the way. Don’t you remember?”
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head slightly. “I don’t remember a lot from that day.”
“I came out of the grocery store to talk to you and you were walking right into traffic. I called out to you, but you didn’t hear me.”
I knew he was lying. I had looked around before that car came at me. I remembered trying to figure out which way was the safest to go and no one was close by. Obviously, Derek didn’t want me to know that it wasn’t just Knight that needed his identity kept a secret.
✯✯✯✯✯
We unloaded my truck and I was ready for Derek to hit the road. I’d had enough embarrassing moments today and now I was ready to go lick my wounds in peace. There was only so much a girl could take in one day. I didn’t have the first clue how to talk to a guy like Derek and it didn’t help that every time he looked at me, I felt like he was undressing me with his eyes. Which was fair because I was doing the same to him.
“I have some time. I can help you get this all laid out.”
“No. That’s fine. I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll save this for another day.”
“Come on. With the two of us doing this, it’ll be done in no time.”
I was sure that he could do it faster on his own. I bet if I walked in the house for five minutes, the mulch would be all spread out and he would say that he was just super fast at yard work. He was obviously faster than a speeding bullet. That was the only way to explain how he had not only saved me, but got into a burning vehicle and out before the fire could burn him.
No, this was silly. There wasn’t such a thing as superheroes. I was letting my imagination run away with me. There had to be a logical explanation for everything that had happene
d. Knight could have..I don’t know..had something under his shirt that protected him from the bullet, like dog tags or something. Except, there was no hole in his shirt. And then Derek, maybe the fire wasn’t as bad as I thought. Even though the flames were shooting from the truck. There had to be something I was missing. There was no such thing as superheroes. I just had to spend more time with Derek and I would see that he was a perfectly normal man.
“Fine.”
He picked up two bags of mulch and started spreading them out between the flowers around the house. I joined him and we were worked in silence for a few minutes.
“So, you work at the library in town. Is that fun?”
“It’s pretty great. I love to read, so I get to do a lot of that when the library is slow.”
“What kind of books do you read?”
“Uh..Romance, mysteries, thrillers.”
“Romance,” he said with a grin. “Kinky stuff?”
“I read all kinds of romance,” I said noncommittally. “Although, paranormal really isn’t my thing, but I love historical romance and contemporary romance, but my favorite is…Pride and Prejudice.”
“Would that happen to be because she’s poor and falls in love with a wealthy man?”
“Maybe a little, but mostly because it’s honest. Mr. Darcy and Ms. Bennett have a very frank conversation and really get to understand each other before they decide to get married. They fall more in love with each other because they understand each other so well. Their preconceived ideas were wrong and they were both big enough to admit that.”
“That doesn’t usually happen in real life.”
“Which is why it’s my favorite romance novel. If people could only learn to get past their initial opinions of others and really get to know them, imagine how many people wouldn’t feel misunderstood.”
“Is that how you feel?” He was staring at me intently and I felt like he could read all the bullshit that I tried to hide behind. I pushed my glasses up on my face and got back to work.
Irish: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 5) Page 6
