Veer (Clayton Falls #2)(24)
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy

“Is there something you need?” She pulled up her goggles, her hands pressed against the side of the pool.

“You swim?” I asked stupidly, walking over.

She smiled just a little. “Yeah, I swim.” She was wearing a one-piece suit, but it hugged her closely, and watching her wet only brought other thoughts to my head.

“I came by to drop off your car.”

That got her attention. She pulled herself out, and I at least managed to grab her towel for her.

I watched her dry off. I’m sure I looked like a complete creep. Once you’ve been with a girl, it’s impossible not to picture her naked in moments like those. When you still want her, it only gets worse.

“How’d you get my car?” She pulled an elastic band from her hair, letting it all fall down her back. I’d never seen her hair wet before. I liked it. “The guy at the garage said he wouldn’t finish until Monday.”

“Someone who works there owed me a favor.”

She frowned. “So you did it out of some weird form of guilt or something? I told you I don’t care about what happened. It was a dumb mistake, and it’s over.”

I reached out for her, ignoring the rational part of my brain telling me she probably didn’t want me touching her. “The only mistake was me letting you leave like that. I was an idiot, Becca.”

She took a step away from me, shrugging off the hand I placed on her arm. “We’ve been over this, and I thought we’d decided to let it go. I’ll be out of your hair before you know it.”

“Out of my hair? Are you even listening to me? I want you, Becca. What can I do to change your mind?”

She got a funny grin all of a sudden, and I had no idea what I was in for. “It might not change my mind, but I do have something you can do for me.”

“What?”

“Wait here.” She crossed over to the pool house and disappeared inside. I hoped she’d be coming back. The door opened a minute later. She had a beach cover up on and a piece of paper in her hand. “I figure you can take care of this for me.”

I took the paper, ready to agree to anything. It was a parking ticket.

“You want me to take care of a ticket for you?”

“Look at the date and location.”

I read it and couldn’t help laughing. “This was the night you spent at my place.”

“Yeah. I figured putting out for an officer should pay it off.” She waited a beat before smiling. She’d had me worried for a second. At least she still had a sense of humor.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Good. May I have my keys?”

“Oh yeah, sure.” I pulled her black braided keychain from my pocket. She held her right hand out to take them, but instead I took her left hand in mine, and pulled open her fist, placing the key inside before wrapping my hand around hers.

“Thanks.” Her eyes widened.

“You’re welcome.” I leaned forward to kiss her, relieved when she didn’t pull away immediately. I didn’t want to push my luck, but I’d been craving her constantly the past week. I put an arm around her, pulling her against me, needing to feel her body against mine. She broke the kiss, pushing her hands against my chest to distance us.

“You should go.” She crossed her arms.

“Do you really want me to?”

She looked torn for a second, and I let myself get hopeful. “Yes.”

“No, you don’t. But that’s beside the point. I need a ride.”

“Are you serious?”

I smiled, watching the look of panic cross her face. She was nervous being in a car with me. I wondered if she was more worried about me or her reaction to me.

“Fine. I want to get changed first.” She didn’t wait for an answer. She just went inside.

I flopped down into a chair by the pool to wait. She’d kissed me back, and I knew she felt it too. She was still interested. I just had to get her to trust me again. I turned as I heard the back door to the main house open. Mary Mathews, Ben’s mother, came out and pulled out a chair to sit next to me. “Visiting Becca?”

“Yeah. I dropped her car off.”

“That was nice of you.”

“Just trying to help.”

“She’s a beautiful girl, isn’t she?” Mary said with a small smile.

“That she is.”

“Not that this is information you’d be interested in, but she was asking me about where to get sushi around here.”

The door to the pool house opened. I glanced at Mary quickly before getting up. “Thanks for the intel.”

She winked. “Just mentioning it.”

“Hey, hon,” she called to Becca before disappearing back into the house.

Becca walked over to me, dressed in a light blue strapless sundress. Blue was definitely her color.

“You ready?”

“Sure.”

We walked around to the front of the house where I’d parked her car. I waited for her to get in and reach over to unlock the passenger door. I barely fit. She pulled out and headed toward the square.

“Have you had lunch?”

“No, why?” She sounded hesitant.

“Oh, no reason really. I was just totally craving the eel rolls at my favorite sushi place in Wilmington and was going to head over. Any interest in joining me?”

“You like sushi?” She eyed me skeptically.

“What, I have a southern accent, so I can’t eat sushi?”

She turned red. “No, sorry. It’s just that Molly would never touch it, and I just assumed…”

“Yeah, and we all know how beneficial assumptions are.”

We were getting close to the garage, and I watched her mull it over. “Okay, but you’re driving.”

“I was going to insist. There’s no way I’m spending more time in this thing.”

“This thing? Do you really want to go there?”

I grinned. “Nope. Just drop me off, and I’ll follow you back home so you can leave your car there.”

“All right. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

She pulled to a stop right by my car, and I hopped out. My legs protested from the cramped space. “See ya in a second.”

“Thank you, Mary Mathews,” I said as I followed that little yellow bug back through town.

Chapter Seventeen

Becca

Had I seriously just agreed to have lunch with Gavin? His comment about craving sushi threw me off, and then he’d called me out for being rude.