Hector (38 page)

She looked almost alarmed now as what he was saying seemed to
sink in but said nothing. He waited for her to respond, because he wasn’t sure
if he’d said enough or worse said too much. Apparently, he’d stunned her into
silence, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

“I don’t know what to say,” she finally said.

“Say yes!” He laughed nervously.

She began to nod, relieving for an instant the knot that formed
in his stomach halfway through his declaration, and then she stopped. “I need
to know what I’m agreeing to exactly first. You say you’ll probably suck at it.
I don’t want you to mistake me needing more to mean more often. At the risk of
sounding greedy, I have to be completely honest. I’ve never done the
relationship thing either, but I
know
now I can’t do the open kind.”

“Open?”

She nodded, clearing her throat. “I’m not sure what you’re
proposing exactly, but you have a lot of girl . . . friends. I can’t do a
relationship where we’re seeing each other but will still see others on the
side.”

What she was saying—thinking he might be
proposing—
hit him suddenly.
“Hell no!
I
don’t want that either.” He leaned his forehead against hers, taking her face
in his hands. “Have you not seen my reaction to you with someone else already?
I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’d definitely have a problem with an
open
relationship. And, of course, that
would go both ways.” He kissed her softly. “I meant I might suck at the
formalities: remembering anniversaries, being romantic and saying the right
things when I’m supposed to—that kind of stuff. But if I’m doing this with you,
then it’s
only
you.”

Finally, the hesitant expression gave way to a smile. “Okay,” she
said softly.

The smile was once again plastered on his face. He’d never felt
so relieved in his life. He kissed her again a little longer this time then
brought his leg over the bench to straddle it. He then pulled her leg over too
then over his thigh and pulled her closer to him. To his surprise, she lifted
her other leg over his other thigh also and brought her arms around his neck.
She
was now straddling
him,
and he was only glad her behind was
still on the bench or she might feel just how turned on this made him.

“So how does this work?” he asked, leaning against her forehead.
“Do we like wear matching outfits and give each other nicknames?” She laughed
so heartily and sweetly he had to laugh too. “Well, I don’t know.” He feigned
feeling slighted by her laughing at him. “I’ve never done this.”

“I’ve never done it either,” she said, still laughing.

“Really?
That surprises me.
Never?
Not even come close like seeing someone or something?”

She wasn’t laughing anymore and even looked away for the first
time since they tangled up the way they were now. He rubbed her back. “All
right, this is good,” he said, feeling his muscles getting a little tense
already. “I may’ve never been in a relationship before, but I’ve been around
people who have and have a couple of close friends who are in them. This is a
huge thing for them and will be for me too, okay?
Honesty.
Complete
honesty.”

He lifted her chin because she was looking down again, avoiding
his eyes. When he had her full attention, he spoke again. “The closest I’ve
ever had to a relationship was with a girl I thought I was falling for, but she
moved away, and even then we kept it up via texts and phone calls. Turned out
she wasn’t nearly as serious as I was, because she started seeing someone else.”
He’d take this honesty thing a little further to make a point about how serious
he was. “It was the same girl you saw me with at the fight, the one that sat
with me in the front row. But we’re just friends now, and she was just out here
visiting.” Charlee lifted an eyebrow and he kissed it. “I sent her packing that
night to go look for you, remember?” That reminder seemed to ease her a bit.
“Now.”
He pulled her even closer to him so her legs were
practically around his waist.
“Your turn.”

Staring at her, he tried to understand why she seemed so
uncomfortable suddenly when she’d been laughing so happily just moments ago.
What difference did it make if she had been in a relationship in the past?
As long as it was just that—in the past.

She was sitting so close to him with her arms and legs around him
that he could feel how tense this conversation was making her. Whatever it was,
he was getting it out of her now because he didn’t like how whatever it was had
changed the mood so abruptly. This could be someone she wasn’t over yet, and he
braced himself, his muscles going even tauter as that thought sunk in.

Chapter 23

It was so unfair, and Charlee cursed Danny that even
after all this time thoughts of him could almost ruin what should be one of the
best days of her life. She hated that Hector’s playfulness was gone and he was
now staring at her with that same intensity she’d seen in him before. It wasn’t
that she had anything to hide from him. It was just so humiliating. Not even
Drew brought it up much because she knew that Charlee had been so mortified by
the whole thing that she hated talking about it.

She took a deep breath, trying to come up with a short and sweet
version of the truth. “I’ve never had a boyfriend, nor have I ever been in a
relationship where I was seeing someone. But like you, I thought I’d started
seeing someone last year. That’s what he made it feel like anyway, and it
turned out I wasn’t even close.” She smiled, leaning in and kissing him in the hopes
that they’d drop it.

“That’s it?” He asked, not looking the least bit satisfied.

Trying to appear as happy as she’d been moments before the
thought of Danny had come barreling into her wonderful day, she nodded.
“In a nutshell.”

To her surprise, the corner of his lip went up, but he lifted a
brow, taking the lightheartedness out of what might’ve been a playful smile. “Do
you realize you blink really fast when you’re lying?”

She pulled back, but with his arms around her waist, she didn’t
get very far. “I’m not lying.” She was very aware that her eyes blinked like
crazy when she lied. Drew had pointed that out years ago. She was just
surprised Hector had picked up on it so quickly.

The half-smile was gone, and he stared at her hard now. “You’re
doing it again.
Why are you lying, Charlee?”

“How do you know—” she caught herself and rephrased that. “Why do
you think I’m lying?”

“Because the only time I’ve ever seen you do that was the night I
asked you to pretend what happened between us never
did
.
You said you already had and that,” his jaw clenched for a second, “that you’d
had an exhausting weekend, and I know now that it was all a lie. So why are you
lying now? Just give it to me straight. I can take it. You’ve had boyfriends
before, so what?”

“I haven’t.” He was so focused on her eyes now it completely
unnerved her.

“Okay, that’s the truth,” he said smugly. She tried pulling away
from him now, annoyed that he really thought he had her pegged so quickly, but
he held her tight. Staring at her more concerned now, he asked, “What’s wrong
with you? What’s upsetting you this much?”

“I’d had a crush on him for years, okay? Then suddenly last year,
he pretended to really be into me. I fell for it completely. Even Drew, who
claims to have a sixth sense about these things, thought he genuinely liked me,
and it turned out he did it all for some kind of stupid football team dare.”
She couldn’t even look at Hector anymore. “It’s incredibly embarrassing to talk
about, so can we not anymore, please?”

That hardened look was back, but she knew it wasn’t because of or
directed at her. He was thinking about what she’d just told him. He pulled her
closer, and she leaned her face against his chest. It felt so perfect to be
held by him like this that she never wanted to let go, and she took a deep satisfied
breath.

“What an asshole,” was the only thing Hector said and the only
thing either of them said for a long while. When he spoke again, his tone had
changed. There was
a strangeness
in his voice. “I
won’t ask you anything more about what he did, but I do need to know
something.”

She lifted her head away from his chest and looked at him. He
searched her eyes immediately. “You said you had a crush on him for
years
. This happened a year ago?” She
nodded. “And it still upsets you this much? You
are
over him, right?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.
Gawd
,
he must think her the most pathetic thing on the planet. “I was
over him the moment I found out the truth.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she
was over him
now
and had been for
quite a while. “It’s just the thought of telling anyone about it,” she lowered
her voice, “especially you, is so . . . embarrassing.”

“Don’t be embarrassed, Charlee.” He rubbed her back. “Only idiots
actually give into stupid peer pressure like that. I remember hearing about
that kind of dumb shit in school all the time. It was always the assholes who
went along with it. And what was so daring about pretending to like a sweet,
pretty girl like you anyway? What a schmuck.”

What she’d told him was mortifying enough. She didn’t have to
tell him
everything
. It was just
ironic that of all words he could’ve chosen he chose schmuck in this instance.
She concentrated on not going into a blinking spasm and shrugged. “So you know
now. Can we talk about something else?”

He leaned in, kissing her softly, and then slowly his tongue
became more ravenous. She held both hands to his face, kissing him back equally
insatiably until she tingled
everywhere,
but he cut it short, breathing heavily as he pulled away. Rubbing the tops of
her thighs, he smiled that breathtaking smile. “You wanna go see something? It’s
close by here. I didn’t realize how close you lived to it.”

She nodded, staring at him all dreamily, and she didn’t even
care. There was no hiding how she felt about him now, and she didn’t have to
anymore.

He leaned in against her forehead again. “Or we can stay here if
you’d prefer.” His fingers grazed the bare small of her back now. In this
position, Drew’s ridiculously short hoodie had ridden halfway up her back,
exposing her entire lower back. The touch of his fingers sent a tingling
sensation up her spine, making her shiver against him. “I am
not
about to ask you to get off me.”

“Oh.” She sat up, realizing she had to move off him in order for
him to stand. Okay, maybe she would have to try a little harder to not get so
mesmerized by him. It
was
a little
embarrassing.

She scooted back and pulled her legs off his big thighs. Feeling
her face warm a little, she wondered what he’d think of her fantasies in which she’d
sat on him that very same way many times minus their clothes. The heat moved
down from her face to her neck and warmed every part of her body as the reality
began to set in. If this were really happening, if she weren’t really going to
wake up from this soon and find out all this was just another fantasy of hers,
the possibility of her fantasies happening now was very real.

They got in his truck and set out to the mystery place Hector
said he’d rather just show her than tell her about.

His truck was an old classic one, something he said his brother had
passed down to him. As soon as she got in, he made sure the seatbelt in the
middle seat was accessible to her, and Charlee chewed her bottom lip, loving
the fact that he wanted her sitting right next to him.

“He’s got a badass Gran Torino now,” Hector said as he continued to
explain about the old cars he and his brother drove. “He’s always been into
classics, and,” he shrugged, “so have
I.
”

Charlee smiled, pondering whether or not she should mention she
already knew that. She wondered if he’d think her creepy for knowing so much
about him, his brother, and his friends already. For the time being, she
decided she’d just let him talk and keep that tidbit to herself.

“If you’re not familiar with Gran
Torinos
,”
he continued, “it’s the car they used in
Starsky
and
Hutch. Maybe you saw the movie with Ben Stiller. That’s a lot more current than
the TV show. Anyway, now Abel’s looking into getting a fifty-eight Chevy
Impala.” She loved watching how excited he got when he spoke about his brother,
like the night of his fight when he talked about Abel going for the title.
“We’re gonna restore it together.”

“So it’s just you and your brother, no other siblings?” She
already knew the answer to this as well, but it seemed like something she
should ask.

“Yep, just me, him, and my mom.”
He
turned to her with a questioning expression. “I’ve never done this, but I get
the feeling this isn’t typical.”

“What is?”

“You and me.
I don’t know a whole lot
about you yet. All I know is that you do something to my heart I don’t quite understand,
and ever since I kissed you . . .” He paused and seemed to think about that for
a moment. “No, I’m thinking now it started way before that. I haven’t been able
to think about much else but you. And even though I don’t know much about you,
here we are—officially together. Normally, there’s a courting process to get to
know each other before things become official, right?”

She hadn’t even looked at it that way. Now she
really
debated on whether she should
just admit she knew so much about him, like how, according to the
Roni’s
blog, even though he was the youngest of the four
partners who owned 5
^th
Street, he handled the books. Roni called him
a mathematics genius—another thing he and Charlee had in common. Math had
always been her strongest subject. But then most chess enthusiasts were good at
math, so that wasn’t too surprising.