The Crush

He shook his head and laughed. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

“What’s me?”

“That person captured on store camera footage, opening up the ice cream containers, tasting what’s inside, and putting them back. They’re looking for you, you know.”

“Guilty,” I joked. “Actually, I think that’s super gross. I would never do that.”

I continued to pick through the containers, sniffing the various flavors like an idiot. “I’m sorry if I’m taking a long time,” I said. “This is always a big decision for me.”

After several more minutes, Jace reached over me. “I’m gonna put you out of your misery.” A waft of his scent dominated anything else I might have been pretending to smell. “There is no flavor better than cookie dough.” He tossed a container into the cart. “Done.”

“I beg to differ, but okay. If you feel that strongly, we’ll go with that.”

We went to the register, and the cashier’s eyes danced over Jace. That was a typical reaction. Younger girls and older women alike constantly checked him out. It was funny, because people very likely assumed I was his girlfriend. That certainly didn’t stop them from looking.

Before we left, I gave the cashier a sly grin that said, yeah, look what’s mine and not yours. Even if that was the furthest thing from the truth, it gave me a sense of pleasure.

We hopped back inside Jace’s truck, which once again smelled divine.

“Put your seatbelt on.”

I’d been too busy staring at his big hands as they wrapped around the steering wheel.

“Thanks for the reminder.”

“Why do I always have to remind you? It should be second nature.”

Because you distract me. “Sorry, bossy. I’ll try to remember next time.” I clicked the belt in place and settled in. “Oh, I forgot to tell you someone came by for you today.”

He headed out of the parking lot. “Who?”

“His name was James…Moore? He said he would text you, so I assume you spoke to him?”

He raised his tone. “James Moore?”

“Yeah. He didn’t seem too friendly, either.”

Jace banged on the steering wheel. “Fuck. He’s looking for money the company owes him for a paving job he did for us. He has no patience. He had no business coming to the house.”

“It was no big deal. I told him you weren’t home, and he left right away.”

“I don’t like the idea of him coming in contact with you. The same goes for a lot of the guys who do work for us. What were you doing opening the door anyway?”

Jace was probably right to be a little alarmed, but this felt like an overreaction. “It’s my house. Why wouldn’t I open the door? It’s not like I’m a child home alone after school.”

“No, but you’re an attractive woman who could set off the wrong kind of guy, someone who’s looking for revenge. You wouldn’t be able to fend him off. This has nothing to do with age. I don’t care how old you are. You should never open the door to talk to anyone if you’re alone.”

Attractive woman.

He called me an attractive woman, and I basically heard nothing after that. This was the first indication he’d ever given that he felt I was attractive.

“I’ll try to be more careful.”

“You need to, Farrah. There are a lot of bad people in this world. If someone comes to the door and you don’t recognize them, let them leave. There’s nothing important enough to risk your safety.” He let out an exasperated breath. “I don’t even know how the fuck he got our address. I don’t list it anywhere.”

Jace continued swearing under his breath.

“You made your point. I won’t answer the door when I’m alone unless it’s a Girl Scout selling cookies or something.”

“I would never forgive myself if something happened to you,” he mumbled.

I felt those words deep in my heart.

• • •

“What did we finally settle on?” I asked.

Nathan was using my phone to peruse the movie options for tonight. “It’s a toss-up between the Pete Davidson movie or that one with The Rock,” he said before tossing the phone on the counter. “By the way, Farrah, why in God’s name were you Googling ‘vibrating vagina’?”

My face froze. Shit. I must not have closed out of that window.

Jace’s eyes widened as he looked up from his laptop.

Any excuse I could have conjured up probably would have sounded weirder than the truth. So I decided to be honest. “I had a weird symptom this morning. It felt like I had a cell phone going off in my panties—like it was on vibrate. I think it was a muscle twitch. I was worried it was some kind of neurological issue. Apparently, I’m not the only person in the world who’s gotten it. This girl in India posted the same thing.”

Nathan bent his head back in laughter. “Did you guys agree to call each other sometime?”