That Crazy Kind of Love

“I’m pretty sure it’s your fuel pump fuse that’s gone to shit. Maybe your boyfriend can fix it? It’s easy enough if he knows what he’s doing.” I was obviously assuming she had someone.

She looked over at me. “No boyfriend to fix anything, and I have no idea what a fuel pump is.” She laughed uncomfortably.

The fact that she didn’t have a boyfriend shouldn’t have pleased me as much as it did. “It’s an easy enough fix, but not something I can do in the parking lot. I do work at Mickey’s in town. I can see about getting you a tow there?”

She started biting at her bottom lip, her straight white teeth gently pulling at the pink flesh. She glanced at me as if my words pulled her from her thoughts. “Thanks. But I can have my dad work it out. He knows Mickey so I might get lucky and not have to pay for that tow.” She laughed softly and I liked how the sound made me feel.

I was getting fucking hard. What in the fuck was my problem?

I cleared my throat and turned away from her, closing my eyes and thinking about doing laundry, fixing cars, hell, stirring a pot of fucking soup. I thought about anything and everything that could help get my sudden arousal in check. When I felt my erection start to get under control, I exhaled and turned back around.

“Thanks anyways. You saved me some trouble trying to figure out what was wrong then having to pay somebody to tell me what to fix.” She looked back at her car again and started biting on that lush lower lip once more.

I clenched my jaw as I felt that arousal start to spike again. “Do you have a ride home? Someone you can call?” I don’t know why I asked that. It wasn’t any of my business. But knowing she needed help had this part of me rising up, wanting to take the lead. When she looked back at me, she gave me the sweetest fucking smile. The things I felt in this moment were unusual, but they also felt pretty damn good.

She pulled out her phone and looked at the screen then glanced up and around the parking lot. It had pretty much cleared out by now. When she looked back at me, I knew what she was going to say.

“My dad gets off in about an hour. I’ll wait.”

She actually thought I’d let her stay here by herself? Even if it was school property, I wasn’t an asshole. Besides, I didn’t want to leave her just yet.

“I can take you home if you’re okay with that?”

She gave me this warm smile. “Really? I’m not putting you out too much?”

God, no.

Although I didn’t say that.

“No. Besides, I’m not just going to leave you here alone, even if it is just for an hour.”

Her smile broadened and she nodded slowly. “Who would have known?” The way she said it was more to herself.

“Who would have known what?”

She nodded and flashed me a pretty smile. “Yeah, that the silent loner new kid is actually a gentleman.”

I didn’t know about all that, but I’d let her think I was something I wasn’t if it meant she kept looking at me like that.

“If you’re sure it’s not a problem,” she prompted, and I shook my head. “I’m only about a ten-minute ride from the school.”

I tipped my head toward my car. “Hop on in.”

She grabbed her bag out of her car, locked it up, and then hopped in the passenger seat of the Firebird. I started the engine, the deep rumble loud, the vibrations from the engine shaking the car. I looked over at her, expecting her to maybe seem a little bit disgusted. A lot of people who attended Silver Creek had sticks up their assess, were posh as fuck and not my scene at all.

The car was outdated, loud, and obnoxious, and it was a massive step down from her little Civic. But the expression she had on her face was… excitement. She glanced over at me with a big grin.

“This thing is a beast,” she said, her voice enthusiastic as she looked around. “It’s awesome. Do you ever race people in it?”

I was a little bit taken aback, shocked that she was actually interested in the Pontiac. Back in the day, it had been one hell of a ride. But those days were long gone. “Nah,” I said and put the car in gear before pulling out of the parking spot and heading out of the lot. “I don’t think the Firebird will be winning any races anytime soon.”

She started laughing softly, and I felt my muscles tighten at the sound. I liked it. I liked it a hell of a lot. I curled my hands around the steering wheel tightly as I pulled onto the main street, following her directions to get to her house. There were intervals of silence between us, but it wasn’t awkward. I was surprised at how much I liked her company, even if we were just sitting in silence for some of it.