“I have no problem with that,” he assured her. He took the binder from the car and tucked it under his arm.
They started walking toward Half Moon Key, chatting along the way.
“What was it like, going to high school in this small town?”
“It was okay. There were some growing pains like everywhere else, but really, this is a fun place to grow up. I was fortunate enough to be around here. I’m just weird enough to fit in this town.”
He laughed softly. “There is nothing weird about you.”
“You wouldn’t know,” she teased. “We’ve just met. Do you think I’m going to show you my crazy right off the bat like that?”
“Crazy, huh? What are you hiding, then?”
“A woman must have some mystery, don’t you know? I am not telling you. If you want to know, you’ll have to figure it out for yourself.”
His shoulder brushed against hers, and he looked down. She looked up at him with a smirk on her lovely lips.
Parker was suddenly overtaken with the desire to kiss her like she had never been kissed before. The urge was so strong that his feet stumbled under him, nearly sending him sprawling flat on his face.
“Easy, there,” she called out. Her hand went out to help steady him, and his heart nearly burst out of his chest.
Her touch was like an electric current spreading inside him. It made his blood hot, and though his panther didn’t start shouting at him that she was their mate, the animal was interested enough to sit back on his haunches and watch what was going on between them.
“Sorry,” she whispered, pulling her hand away.
“No, please. Don’t apologize. You just saved me from falling flat on my face in the street.”
She giggled. “You’re more graceful than that. You barely stumbled.” She looked back to where they had just been. “Did you trip over something? I don’t see anything there.”
I tripped over my heart.
But, of course, there was no way in hell he could say that to her. Not yet. It was entirely too early in their relationship for him to say that.
Not that they had a relationship.
They were just getting to know each other, and they hadn’t even been on their first official date yet. Sure, they had spent the day together, but that didn’t count.
He had just decided that he was going to pursue her … just as his feet decided to give up on knowing how to walk.
“There was nothing there. I think I might have tripped on my own feet,” he responded with a shrug.
“Oh, well. Glad I was there to catch you.” She beamed at him.
“Yeah, me too.”
“So you mentioned that Mason is new in town. That he hasn’t been dating Lila very long. What happens if we don’t like his food?”
“We will,” she assured him. “If I know Lila, and I do, she would never let him present something that sucked. Besides, you had his pancakes. You know he can make good food.”
“Maybe he only rocks at breakfast foods. What if we need to get another vendor? Would the Spaghetti Bowl folks do it?”
“You’re worrying for nothing! I’m telling you. You need to be a bit more trusting if you’re gonna be part of the town.”
He smiled at her. “I’ll trust you.”
Jade couldn’t know how heavy it was for him to admit this, but it was a big thing. Parker didn’t trust many people in his life.
There was Mel, and that was about it. There might be a few other people that he could borderline trust, but he wouldn’t be holding his breath to add more people to the list. Parker knew too much of the world, and having worked in security, he knew just how many bad eggs were out there.