When I'm With You (Little Hollow Series, #2)(6)

Does he really think I’d take the money back? How humiliating. He opens up my hand and closes it over the money. “This isn’t negotiable, it’s your money and I wanted to buy you dinner. I’ve never let a woman pay for a meal before, and I’m not about to start now.”

He gives me a quick smile and I look back down at my hand. “Why would you want to buy me dinner?” I must admit, I’m shocked.

“Why wouldn’t I? You saved me from sitting on my own last night.”

“Of course.” I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear that’s blowing about in the breeze from the fan in the corner of the room.

“And contrary to what you want people to think about you, I see the real you. You’re actually pretty funny and you’ve got a good heart. You just like to protect it with this fa?ade.”

He raises a brow at me as if he’s daring me to contradict him, but I don’t. I sit here staring at him after he’s analyzed me, he doesn’t know me but he seems to see right through me. I don’t know what to make of it. I consider challenging him and reverting back to hard faced Keeley, but I’m tired of putting on a brave face. All I want is to be accepted in this town.

Why is he so Goddamn nice? He’s clear cut, nice to the core. What you see is what you get with him, he’s a far cry from who I would normally date but what is that I can see in his eyes? My normal type is more rough around the edges and isn’t really someone you can bring home to meet the parents. The polar opposite to Lewis. So, why am I feeling this attraction to him?

“Thought so. Why do you do it all the time?” He adds.

“Do what?” I answer clueless.

“Put a brick wall up with people. If you opened up a little, everyone would realize they were wrong to judge you.”

I look up into his kind eyes, starting to feel really uncomfortable about the way this conversation is going. I don’t even know him. “I don’t care what people think about me.” He has a knowing look on his face. “I really don’t.”

“Mhmm.” I squirm under his intense gaze. “So how old are you, Keeley?”

I smirk. “Didn’t your mom not teach you that it’s rude to ask a ladies age?”

He chuckles and I’m worried he’s going to start asking intrusive questions, so I answer him. “I’m twenty-four, twenty-five in three months.” Not knowing what to say next, I play with my fingers. I guess it would be polite to ask him back. “You?” Nailed it.

“Twenty-five,” he says, getting up and walking out of the room.

Where did he go? I don’t have to wait too long until he’s back in the room holding two beers. “Beer?”

I hold my hand out for one and thank him. “You own this garage?” I wave my arm about.

He nods but his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes, I’m about to ask him what’s bothering him when he changes the subject. “Last night you said you’d been hairdressing all your adult life. How’d you get into that?”

“College was never in my future, I hated school and I’d always loved playing with people’s hair so I started working in a salon. I wish I had a more exciting story than that, but I don’t. I liked hair so I made a career out of it.” There’s so much more to it than that, but I would never tell him where I came from, not that I’m ashamed, I just don’t want anyone to know. “How about you? How’d you get into fixing cars?”

He looks away from me, playing with the label on the beer bottle. “That’s not exciting either, I worked here on weekends when I was in high school. I’m assuming Sammy told you what happened with my mom so I’ll skip over that, but up until that point, fixing cars was only supposed to be my way to save money for college. College was very much in my future, I even had a full football scholarship.” He swallows down some of his beer.

“It’s really admirable that you gave that up to look after your mom,” I say. I’ve never been emotionally connected to anyone apart from Sam, but it just feels like the right thing to say.

He mumbles something to himself about money and gives me a weak smile before moving the conversation onto a lighter subject. He soon has me laughing and I drop my guard slightly with him, I don’t know why, but he’s so easy to be around. He’s a breath of fresh air. I look down at my watch, shit! Sam’s gonna think I’ve ran off on her. “I should be heading back, it’s been a long day.”

I place my empty bottle on the small, wooden table beside me and stand up. He follows me out the office and I stop to look at the Harley one more time on the way out. Damn, I miss being on the back of a bike.

“Maybe I can take you out on it sometime?” He says.

I jump, not realizing I must’ve said that out loud. I look up into his dark gray eyes, they’re not clear like they were just five minutes ago. Now they look like they’re brewing up a storm. He looks down at my lips and I take a step back.

“Yeah, no, maybe?” I stammer.

Did that just come out as a question? Shut up you babbling idiot.

He takes another step toward me and I stick up my hand in his face. “Err, I need to go now. Sorry again about last night. Bye.”

I wave and one side of his mouth lifts.

“Bye Keeley.” I hear as I practically run out of the door.