Roots and Wings (City Limits #1)(40)

I’d fix his tooth, if he came in Monday, but there was no way I was going to let someone talk to her like that. She already took too much shit from people. It was like she never noticed. It was like she was so used to it that it didn’t even register to her as being rude.

That was all going to change.

Her heart was too big to let people treat her like that. Treat her like she was less than the wonderful, beautiful, kind woman she was.

I opened the door and helped her as she lifted up into the seat.

When she was in, she ran a hand across my cheek and said, “Thank you.”

It could have been for helping her in the SUV, which she didn’t really need. It could have been because she’d had a good night. It could have been for dinner or for the beers. But something inside of me knew, without her being specific, that it was about decking that guy.

“You’re worth it,” I answered.

She sighed and leaned back in the seat with a smile. I may not have earned our first kiss the way I would have liked, but earning that contented smile was just as good.

I closed her door and rounded the front of the vehicle, thinking about where we should go. My place seemed so forward, and I didn’t want her to think that was all I was about.

I was about that, Christ, I so was, but it wasn’t right yet. And I’d be damned if I didn’t want to wait until it was totally right. For her.

I’d leave where we went up to O’Fallon … Hannah.

“Which way we headed?”

Her knee bounced and she took her time thinking. “We could go anywhere,” she said, but her voice was quiet, unsure.

“Is that to the right or the left?” I teased, not wanting her to be so nervous.

She looked at me, and I could tell she was biting her tongue not to say something, as her hazel eyes grew wide and she gave me a fake smile. She didn’t know what to do or say and it was apparent, as if she’d never been on a date that had gotten a little heated.

I knew that was wrong, though, because we’d already confessed our losing our virginity stories by the fire at her cabin the other night.

“Hannah,” I began, but was interrupted.

“Thank you for calling me Hannah.” Then she leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek, repeating, “Thank you, Vaughn.” My name on her lips sounded so sweet.

“That’s your name.” At least it was the name people should call her. The more I heard everyone call her Mutt the more pissed it made me.

“I know, it’s just that nobody calls me that and no one has ever really cared to. I think they all know my real name, but it’s a nickname and sometimes those stick. I don’t think they mean it in poor taste. Well, except for Randy, but I doubt he’ll act like that again. I can’t believe you swung at him. I can’t get over it.”

And I’d do it again. It was in that moment I wondered if I’d scared her. She was so rough and tumble. So quick to joke and she swore as much as any man I’d ever met. But, I needed her to know I wasn’t a violent guy.

Hell, the last guy I punched was in junior high. I looked down at my fist on the wheel and saw that his tooth had caught a piece of my knuckle. Blood had smeared and dried, making it look worse than it was, but I was a bit of a mess.

As I studied my hand, I thought of a way to explain myself, without sounding like a classic *. You know? The kind that says they usually don’t hit people, all the while having just hit someone.

“I’m sorry I hit him in front of you. I’ve never done that before,” I admitted. “Never got into a bar fight.”

She laughed. “That wasn’t a bar fight. It was just a punch.”

I supposed she was right, but that was just semantics.

“Well, it wasn’t a very good first impression. Probably not that great for business either.”

“First impression? Fuck, Randy and Seth were being jerks. He’s fine and you said you’d fix his tooth. It was nothing.”

Nothing?

“I couldn’t allow him to talk to you like that.”

She beamed. “You know how you said you didn’t have any roots and that you thought this was a place you could grow some?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I think you just broke ground tonight.”

She was visibly more relaxed than a few seconds ago, and I hoped it wasn’t the kiss that had shaken her up instead of my temper. That wasn’t how I wanted people to think I was.

Fuck that. It wasn’t how I wanted her to think I was.

“Well, I like the way your mind works, but I don’t want you to assume I act like that normally.”

“Vaughn, seriously. That was nothing. I saw Snapper Jones pull a gun on a guy in there before over a game of cards. That one punch just said, hey, Wynne, I’m here. And I’m not taking your shit. How’s your hand?”

She pulled my right hand from the wheel to examine it under the dome light she’d clicked on.

“It’s fine, just looks messy.”

She looked up at me through her thick lashes and said, “Maybe we should go to your place?”

God, that sounded like a good idea. She looked so damn good sitting there in my passenger seat.

To hell with it.

“Are you sure?” Things wouldn’t get out of hand. I wouldn’t let them—if it was within my power, which I wasn’t so sure about. My fear was I wouldn’t have much control when push actually came to shove.