Jolene didn't wait for me to respond. Instead, she reached for the door handle. I gently close my fingers around her arm and said, "Hang on a second." Before she could ask why, I jumped out of the car and ran around the front. I opened her door and held out my hand. She might have been ready to go back to being a regular girl, but that didn't mean she didn't deserve a happy ending to her disastrous date. Even if all I could do was offer her that ever-so-important walk to the front door, at least it would be a positive end to a hellacious evening.
She seemed surprised by my actions, but she didn't argue and took my hand. Her fingers loosened as soon as she was standing, but I didn't release her, instead choosing to loop her arm through my bent one.
We walked in silence, but I swore I felt her body relax next to mine. When we came to a stop in front of her door, I softly said, "Keys," and put out my hand. I was surprised when she actually handed me her house keys. I unlocked the door but didn't open it. Returning the keys to her, I found myself reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear again. As before, it was entirely unnecessary, but I knew it was all I would get. "Good night, Joli," I whispered.
"Good night, Zander."
It took every ounce of willpower in my body to release her and turn away. I'd gotten to the bottom of the porch steps when I heard her call my name. I turned and saw her standing at the top of the steps, her expression soft. Despite her disheveled appearance from Ted's rough handling, she was absolutely stunning.
"It's a nice car, Zander, but you don't need it. Any girl sitting next to you is there because of you, not it. Good night." With that cryptic statement, she turned and hurried into the house, and I waited until I heard the door lock before I continued to my car.
I didn't even realize that I had a goofy grin on my face until I got into the car and happened to look in the rearview mirror. I barely recognized the man staring back at me. I glanced one more time at the cute little house and then got the car started. But damn if it wasn't hard to put the thing in drive and pull away from the curb.
And that was a problem.
A really big fucking problem.
Chapter 4
Jolene
"So it is the car," I heard a voice say from behind me. I already knew that voice far too well. It'd been haunting my dreams all night.
I slowly swung around.
There was no way he’d be as gorgeous in the daylight. No way.
Of course, he was even more gorgeous. I found myself leaning back against his car for support. It was that or lean into him.
"What?" I asked when I realized Zander was waiting for a response from me.
He didn't speak for a moment. Instead, his eyes seemed to slide up and down the length of my body. My stomach began to quiver and heat spread throughout the rest of me.
"The car," he said as he motioned to the muscle car behind me. "Chick magnet, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, right," I responded. I knew I was supposed to smile and come up with some kind of response that would get us chatting, but I was too nervous. It had taken everything in me to make my way down to Pete's Garage a second time in less than twenty-four hours. And now that I was there, I was starting to chicken out of my plan. So instead of coming up with some polite conversation, I just stood there and felt the heat crawl up my neck… the not-so-good kind of heat.
What in the world had I been thinking?
That was the problem. I hadn't really been thinking. I'd known that I wanted to see the man again, but now that I was standing in front of him, all I could hear in my head was the voice telling me that I wasn't allowed to do stuff like this. That I wasn't allowed to be with a guy like him, even if it was just for something as simple as a fun conversation. I wasn't allowed to feel the things I’d felt the night before when he’d taken my arm and put it through his so he could walk me to my door. I was the good girl who did what was expected of her. And even though I'd let down so many people in the process of trying to be the perfect daughter and wife and mother, that didn't mean I got to forget about my role.
Especially for a beautiful, mysterious, tattooed man who was clearly too big for a small town like Eden.