Brody (7 page)

I stopped in front of her, noticing a girl had made it over to her side. She was the same one who discouraged her style of dancing in the first place and stepped ahead of the girl in the tutu.

“That was so cool. Where did you learn that?” she asked.

I didn’t look at her, only the girl at her side with so much hope in her eyes. “Dance school,” I said, shouldering my bag. “In ballet class.”

The girl in the tutu’s eyes flashed brightly. I gave her a wink, then excused myself from the pair. From behind me, I heard the girl who bullied ask where the little girl got her tutu, and I could only smile as I walked away. I wanted to head back to the bus stop, but the bus from before had gone. I could always go to the bench and wait for the next one. I guess I was going to have to. It was getting late, would be dark soon, and I needed to get off the street before that happened. Being in the dark only gave permission for the darkness to come out on the streets. Maybe I could ask someone about any local shelters in town, then see what happened in the morning.

I checked my watch. I still had a while yet until my alarm went off. I wondered if the shelter would let me use their phone when it came time. Dropping my wrist, I knew someone who probably would have let me use his phone had I asked. I hoped he was okay and didn’t worry about me. I was going to be fine. I could take care of myself. I just wanted him to be fine, too.

“You told me you’d let me know when Valentine came out.”

His voice actually caused a shallow breath to escape my lips and I never… I never thought I’d hear it again, but I did. He found me. He found me again.

I turned and his proximity I didn’t prepare for. He was right there. Only an arm’s reach out, he was a touch not so far away and managed to get even closer when he stepped forward, his large body enveloping the space around me. It kissed the air with his woodsy, citrusy-sweet scent. In fact, he got so close to me most people might have stepped back.

I didn’t want to step back.

He tilted his head, a stand of blond moving over his eyes, and a ghost of a smile highlighting his pink lips. “Valentine?” he asked, his voice light, joking like he always was.

Smiling myself, I slipped off my wig. “It’s just Alexa. Sorry. I can’t control her sometimes.”

His gaze moved over my face, my eyes, my lips. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

I couldn’t stay looking at him. Under Brody’s eyes, it was easy to lose myself to shyness.

A low cough hit the air when he cleared his throat. I looked up and he had stepped back like he remembered himself. He slid a hand into his pocket. “You like to dance?”

I wished that was the word good enough to describe it. Rubbing my arm, I shrugged casually. “Yeah. Yes. I like to dance.”

“Just ballet or…?”

“No, not just that. All kinds really. I like all kinds.”

He nodded. “You went to school? I couldn’t help hearing what you said to those girls.”

Chewing my lip, I acknowledged that, too. “I used to. It seems like forever now.”

In that moment, I had never felt such mixed emotions before. I wanted him to keep asking me things and to
keep
pushing me. It would give me an excuse to finally let someone in, to finally let
him
in, but at the same time, I wanted him to back away from his questions entirely. I really was a mess. Seeing his hand clench at his side, I denied him the ability to do either. He had something there, something he squeezed that made his knuckles white, and though I didn’t mean to pry, I couldn’t help it when I reached out.

I touched him.

His beautiful eyes followed mine to his hand as I moved my fingers delicately over his warm knuckles, then to his fingers that were so much bigger than mine. His mouth parted and he turned his hand over when I guided it to do so. His fist remained clenched, but slowly, he let me open it. I got to see his palm then, and there in the center was the mood ring he gave me. I’d never seen it this way before, though. It was a yellowish-orange.

“You, um,” he said, swallowing. “You left—”

“I dropped it,” I finished for him, chewing my lip again. “I dropped it.”

He looked at me for a long moment, studying me. Eventually, he nodded again, and I was happy to see that full smile of his return.

“You dropped it,” he confirmed, holding me hostage to that wonderful gaze. He slid his hand out of his pocket and reached down, surprising me when he was the one to engage a touch between us by grabbing my hand. I thought he’d put the ring in my palm but he didn’t. He put it on me, sliding it on naturally, as if this was supposed to be. It was as if this was always supposed to be.

All too soon, he let my hand go and both hands went into his pockets this time. “Look, Alexa. If you were leaving for whatever reason, going out on your own, that’s okay. You can do that you know? Anytime.”

Though, I knew that were true, I didn’t want to admit that to him. I didn’t want him to know I left because things felt too deep. I didn’t want him to know I
felt
and it… it scared me. I was embarrassed.

Sparing both his feelings and mine, I remained silent.

“As long as you know that,” he said, nodding. He gazed around and I wondered where we’d go from here. He found me again, but was that good for either of us? He had places to go and I did, too. Being together again would only make that worse once the trip concluded. That’s why I left in the first place.

He faced me. “You said you like to dance, right?”

That’s not what I thought he’d say next. I almost thought his next words could possibly be parting ones. I had run after all. He had to have known that. I pushed my bag up on my arm. “Yeah.”

He chewed in the inside of his cheek a moment, rubbing behind his neck. He seemed nervous, and really, I’d never seen him so cute. Brody was so huge, wide, and powerful, so it was different seeing him looking vulnerable.

Dropping his hand, he let out a breath. “Would it be weird if I took you out some place?”

I blanched the words came out so quickly. Despite that, he continued.

“There’s this place I think you’d like a few hours away,” he said, though a bit breathy. “This place after we reach Texas. They got dancing and stuff. I don’t know. You probably don’t have time and it’s probably even weird that I asked, but I just thought you’d get a kick out of it. Nothing funny. I just think it would be fun. I don’t know, is that weird?”

He got a laugh out of me at his sudden awkwardness. He’s the only one who’d been able to get me laughing so much in a while. “No,” I told him, and his eyes flashed, but then the smile came back. It came back after I told him it wouldn’t be weird at all.

Chapter Nine

Alexa

Brody was right. The place he was talking about wasn’t far away at all. An old barn-looking establishment, the building was bustling with people. They both came and left in clusters and my heart charged at the sound of amped up music, lights flashing from the inside out. This looked to be a bar at first glance, but they definitely had a dance scene and I surprised myself by how excited I had suddenly gotten. Brody told me he wanted to take me dancing, and really, I had been amped just because it was him and he asked. I didn’t know what this meant for us.

But I also didn’t want to fight whatever it was either.

Brody ended up parking the rig by several others in the far dirt lot. This spot must have been pretty common for fellow truckers. He pulled the parking break and we sat, the bodies filtering in and out of the building before us.

“This is it,” he said, smiling a little before facing me. We’d shared few words up until this point and part of me figured that had been due to really not knowing what to say. As far as myself, I had no idea what to make of him asking me here or it if meant anything for me to wonder about at all.

I placed my hands in my lap. “Yeah, it’s real cool.”

“Yeah?” His eyes showed genuine interest before facing ahead. He tipped his chin in the general direction. “You wanna go in?”

I did, but an awareness of a problem I had suddenly flashed itself before me as I eyed cut off shorts and cute tops. I gazed down at my revealing blouse and leather skirt. What if he wouldn’t want to be seen with me? I didn’t necessarily look like the type of company he’d keep.

“What’s wrong?”

I touched my shirt. “I don’t know about my clothes. I want to dance, but I…”

I didn’t want to say it, but I looked like a whore. Before that had been planned, but that wasn’t okay now. I didn’t want him to have to be seen with me like this.

His gaze appraised me, and coming back up to my face, his eyes softened. I think he got it that I felt uncomfortable. He put his arm around the back of my chair. “I’ll see what I got,” he said.

I watched him go to the back and out of one of his cubbyholes he retrieved a plaid shirt, a button down with long sleeves. He held it up. “It’s not much but…”

By this time, I had come over and the gift more than warmed my heart. I slid it out of his hands. “Thank you. This will be perfect.” He was quite bigger than me, but I could more than make do.

This seemed to please him. He left the rig so I could change. I tucked away my purse tightly inside, not wanting it to get in the way of dancing, but did take all the money out and carried it with me. I came out and had fashioned Brody’s shirt into a form fitting top I tied at my waist. The sleeves I ended up strategically bunching and I had to say, it looked all right. Brody’s lashes flashed when he turned and it seemed I might have been correct on that.

“You make it look way better than I do,” he said, but as soon as he did, his gaze traveled away. I noticed he was being rather cautious. Perhaps, because he was confused like I was about what this evening meant.

He gestured toward the building and I flanked him, telling him thank you for the compliment as the rocks crunched under our shoes. He didn’t have to ease into saying something nice to me. I more than liked it and I think acknowledging that made him feel better about what he said. He smiled, easing up, and got us both into the line of the bar. The place was more than packed, and in all honesty, I wondered if there’d be room for us to make our way in. A buzz hummed over the crowd and I knew they were just as antsy as I was to get inside. That rebel beat was charging the air the closer we made our way to the front, and the excitement inside me grew. It had been so long since I could just dance and have fun. I was more than ready.

“I think you really will like this place,” Brody told me, his hands in his pockets as he took another step forward. With his height, he made an excellent driving force through the cluster of folks outside the door. They seemed to part for him.

I played with my fingers. “Is there a deejay or a sound system—”

The words left as an altercation broke out directly ahead of us between two guys who’d clearly been pre-gaming on the drinks before coming here. A large one shoved the other and that’s when Brody stepped in, raising his hand. “Guys, cool it,” he said, but they didn’t listen. Soon the shoves turned into hits and the already buzzing crowd rumbled in response. They clustered in on them for a piece of the action and I was shoved from behind.

Brody turned, his eyes wide. “Alex!”

Someone grabbed me, but that someone didn’t strike any fear in me.

Brody’s arms came down on both sides of my body, bracing my shoulders before backing me against the wall of the barn. Once my back touched, his arms surrounded me, his hands flat on the wall while own his back took the brunt of the hits from the random fists flying around us. I should have been terrified, but I wasn’t. It was hard to be when I felt so protected.

Facing away, Brody cringed at a hit to his side and I both hated and loved that he was using his body to keep mine safe. Eventually, some of the bouncers came out and got the crowd under control. They dragged the guys who started the fight away and that’s finally when Brody’s large shoulders loosened. Muscles in his arms twitched and he turned, his gaze taking inventory as they scanned me down. He could have lowered his arms then as I was okay, but he didn’t.

My heart charged and a lump the size of the state formed in my throat when his gaze redirected. It settled right on my mouth. A sheen covered his bottom lip when he stroked his tongue just slightly over it, his chest moving up and down under his thin t-shirt.

Kiss me. Please kiss me
, I thought because I wanted him to. I wanted him to so badly.

Stepping back, he didn’t, though. His arms lowered and he breathed deep, pushing his fingers over lengthy blond strands.

“You okay?” he asked, and I nodded, trying not to be disappointed.

Blue eyes left and I followed his back into the crowd that now seemed under control enough to filter inside. He glanced my way and gestured, his hand out. I thought he’d take mine, but he didn’t. Like he thought better of it, he pushed his hands into his pockets.

Holding my arm awkwardly, I let him lead me inside. We remained silent, making it into a dark foyer among the cluster of people who sought access to the bar like us. Once there, I believed our next stop was to go inside, but that Brody… he continued to surprise me.

His hand came down my arm, but this time, it wasn’t any way a touch of protection. He touched me. He touched me
to
touch me, his fingers feeling their way down to my wrist. He backed me up out of the crowd again and when my back touched a wall, my heart thumped clear through my skin to beat against it. I couldn’t see him. Not clearly anyway in the dark foyer, but I could feel him. His hands started on my shoulders, but eventually, they came to rest on my cheeks. His chest pressed against mine, I could feel his own huge heart jabbing, pressuring toward my own, and I could feel his mouth. I could feel his lips, finally.

A sound hummed from them and his taste followed suit. He bit my bottom lip, so gentle before taking his own taste, his tongue softly doing things to mine. When he stopped and backed away, I felt so warm. I couldn’t stop the liquidly heated feeling and his forehead touched mine. I could make out a smile on his lips.