“I don’t think so. I’m not sure. From what I’ve heard, she doesn’t have a boyfriend, but I haven’t seen her in probably seven or eight years.” He looked over at her. “She was cute when we were kids, but she’s gotten fucking hot. Maybe I should go talk to her and ask her out.” He left me before I had a chance to ask any more questions. Damn, there goes my chance. Chase seemed to have a way with the ladies; every time I saw him he had a different one on his arm. It bothered me he would use her that way.
I watched him walk over to her and my shoulders slumped when she greeted him with a hug. I chugged the rest of my beer and went to get a new one. A few girls smiled and said hi to me as I walked by them, but I wasn’t interested in any of them.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like girls and I certainly had my fair share of dates, but I was never interested in much more. I didn’t believe in love; my dad still pined for my mom even after she left us years ago and he was miserable. I made a vow I was never going to let a female do that to me.
I kept to myself for the most part, watching everyone around me. I made small talk with a few people and continued to watch Kara. I almost laughed out loud when I noticed the way she brushed off Chase. I loved that she was immune to his charms.
I thought about heading home but the guys would never let me hear the end of it. It had been a long week at the shop and I had to get up to work tomorrow. It was only Dad and I and we were fortunate enough that business was good. Dad bought the shop from a friend of his. I think he was hoping if we moved from our home town, he would finally forget about Mom. I doubted it, but I wasn’t going to let him do this alone and didn’t have anything keeping me in Athlestane anyway.
The sun was about to set and I had a good buzz going. I went over to the keg to get a beer and my heart started to pound when I saw her filling her cup. There was no one else around and this was my chance to introduce myself.
I came up behind her and opened my mouth to say something when she turned around suddenly. She ran into me, spilling some beer over the front of my shirt. She looked at me horrified, but all I could do was laugh. “No worries.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled and scurried back over to her friend before I could say something else. I smiled and poured myself some beer. She was over with the black-haired girl she arrived with, whispering and glancing over at me. She must have been telling her what had happened.
An hour later, the sun was down and the party was in full swing. Matt turned on some lights around the field and turned up the music. Luke Bryan’s song “That’s My Kind of Night” came on over the loud speaker and the girls all screamed and started dancing.
Before I knew it, Kara was dancing near me. She must have forgotten our earlier run in because she was singing the song at the top of her lungs and looking at me with a smile. I couldn’t look away, loving the way she moved her body; man she looked fucking sexy swinging those hips in time to the music. The song ended and the girls all moaned in disappointment.
“Play it again!” she cupped her hands around her mouth and called out to him.
Matt laughed and shook his head. “Ok, but only for you this one time, City Girl.”
She squealed and clapped her hands together, jumping up and down. Matt winked at her and soon the song was playing again. She began dancing by me again and before I knew it, she had grabbed my hand and pulled me out to dance with her.
I panicked immediately; I didn’t dance. At all. I didn’t even like to slow dance much. I only did it sometimes to cop a feel on a girl.
I couldn’t refuse this girl singing and holding me close. She let me go and starting grinding on me a little bit, pressing her body into me. I hoped she didn’t get close enough to feel the erection she had given me.
The song ended and she stopped dancing. Her cheeks got red when she realized what she had just done and she stood motionless in front of me.
“Thanks for the dance,” I smiled at her, hoping she wouldn’t be scared off like she was when she spilled her beer on me.
“You’re welcome. Sorry to grab you like that. I love that song and I have to dance when I hear it,” she said shyly.
“I see that,” I grinned. I noticed her cup was empty. “How about I get you a beer?”
She laughed and nodded. “This time I’ll try not to spill it on you.”
We walked over to the keg and had to wait in line to get our beer. Good, now I had a chance to talk to her some more.
“My name is John Thomas but everyone calls me JT,” I introduced myself.
“I’m Kara.”
I held my hand out and she took it. Her small hand felt so soft in mine. “Nice to meet you, Kara.”
“You too, JT,” she replied and I loved the way my name sounded on her lips. I wanted to hear her say it over and over again.
“Are you from around here?” I asked her, not wanting her to know I got the scoop on her earlier from Chase.
She shook her head. “No, I’m from Madison. My grandparents live here. They have since I was young. I used to come up here all the time, but then got busy with school and activities and was way too cool to hang out with my grandparents.” She rolled her eyes with a smile. “They own that small diner named Moe’s. I recently graduated from college and I don’t have a job yet so I was nominated to come help out because Grandpa had knee replacement surgery.” She leaned down and started to fill her cup before looking up at me with a smile and eyes as brown as rich, Belgian chocolate. “What about you? I’m pretty sure you’re not from around here either. I would have remembered you from all the time I spent here.”
A college girl, huh? There’s no way she would be interested in me. I looked down at my hands, still dirty from work today. In fact, they were never really clean, despite the fact I washed them at least twenty times a day. This city girl probably thought being with me was slumming. I ran into girls like that before. I was fun for a weekend or a couple of months, but never anything more serious. That was always more than ok with me.
She motioned for me to bring my cup closer and started to fill it. “My dad and I moved here a few months ago. He bought the auto shop near the beauty shop. I work there and help him run it.”
“So you’re good with your hands, huh?” She teased me.