Rock Chick Regret (Rock Chick #7)(41)

Hector kept looking at me.

What now? What did nice girls do after dinner with their date’s mother and select close friends?

I wracked my brain. Finally, ever the good hostess, it came to me.

“Do you want a drink?” I offered.

“How much time do we have before your friends get back?” he asked in return.

I, personally, thought this was a weird question but I didn’t tell Hector that.

Instead I shrugged. “I don’t know, since I moved here, they’ve never gone out without me.”

Then I realized Ralphie and Buddy never had gone out and left me home alone. Not for over a month. I was probably putting a major crimp in their social life.

And I didn’t even notice.

Now what kind of genuine friend wouldn’t even notice she was putting a crimp in her friends’ social life?

Oh my, it was high time to call the real estate agent lady and get out of their hair. If I didn’t, they might not like me anymore. And I couldn’t lose them this soon.

Hector broke into my thoughts about real estate and Buddy and Ralphie’s social life and said, “Then, no, I don’t want a drink.”

His answer confused me. I didn’t understand why the timing of Ralphie and Buddy’s return had anything to do with anything but I didn’t have a chance to ask.

Hector’s hands came to my h*ps and slowly he pulled me close. His arms slid around me loosely and his chin tipped down so he could look at me.

“We have to talk.”

Oh my.

With all that happened, I forgot about our talk.

All right, that was okay. I could do this. I could do anything. I survived dinner at his mother’s house, didn’t I?

“Okay,” I said, mentally girding for our talk.

He didn’t speak, instead his head bent and he touched my lips with his. My heart stuttered and I instantly ungirded.

All right, maybe I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t even stay mentally girded for a whole second!

“You just kissed me,” I accused him.

His mouth moved like he was fighting a grin (again).

“Yeah,” he answered.

“Kissing isn’t talking,” I informed him helpfully, like he didn’t already know this fact.

More fighting the grin. “No,” he agreed.

He pulled me closer so my body was lightly pressed to his.

“Well, are we going to talk?” I asked.

He was watching me closely and for some reason there was no grin fighting anymore.

Then he answered, “Yeah.”

I waited.

He pulled me closer so my body was not so lightly pressed to his. In fact, I was so close I had to lift my hands and put them on his chest, right below his shoulders.

“Do you want me to start?” I asked, again trying to be helpful as I thought nice people would want to be.

“You have something to say?” he asked.

I thought about it.

I suppose I had a million things to say. I hadn’t practiced any of them yet because I was too busy practicing what I was going to say to Lee. Talking to Lee took precedence but I sure as certain wished I’d practiced something to say to Hector.

“Give a f**kin’ mint to know what’s goin’ on in that head of yours,” Hector muttered, breaking into my thoughts.

I ignored him and said, “Right now, I don’t have anything to say. I reserve the right to say something later though.”

At this, Hector started laughing. It was silent but I could feel his body moving with it. This confused me even more.

“What’s funny?” I asked.

“You,” he answered.

Me? I was funny? I’d never been funny.

Ever.

I tried to think of the last time I was funny.

No, there was no last time.

I was just not funny.

“What’s funny about me?” I asked with curiosity.

He shook his head and brought me even closer so my body was deep in his, his arms were around me tight and my hands had to slide up to his shoulders.

“It’d take too long to explain and we got more important shit to talk about.”

“Oh,” I said, disappointed because I still kind of wanted to know what was funny about me. “Okay.”

All of a sudden, he switched the subject. “What made you go out the back last night?”

I shrugged again. “Some bartender came up to me, handed me a note. It said it was from my Mom, she’d been looking for me, finally found me and she was out back and I should meet her. I figure Harvey paid someone to give it to me.”

Instantly and inexplicably, the air in the room changed. A current ran through it, strong and dangerous and Hector’s arms tightened further.

My body tensed.

“Are you f**king shitting me?” he asked, enunciating every word clearly from between his teeth.

“No,” I whispered because the change in him was kind of scaring me.

All of a sudden, he let go. I felt the loss of his heat like a blow and watched him walk away, tearing his hand through his hair. He stopped at the window, yanked the curtain back and looked at the street.

I stared at him, unsure what to do. One second he seemed to be kind of mellow but amused. The next he seemed anything but mellow and amused and his body language was saying to stay well away. Because of that, my head was telling me to run away.