Just Want Somebody to Love (Bella Warren Book 1) (24 page)

He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure what you’re thinking, but by the look on your face, I like it.”

“You should,” she replied simply. Anything complicated or in detail would end in clothes coming off. Hers and his.

He groaned. “Are you sure you have to go back to work after we eat?”

“I do if you want me any time soon this evening.”

He let out a long breath and hung his head. “I guess thinking about it will make it that much better when I finally get you.”

Spontaneous combustion didn’t sound at all good compared to a quickie. Problem was, they had trouble doing quickies. Once they reached the privacy of her bedroom, she knew good and well they wouldn’t be back out until their stomachs demanded food. Which wouldn’t happen until around two or three AM.

She looked to her plate. She wasn’t so hungry anymore, but she if she ate now, she could be good to go until morning. She went to work on the rest of her cheeseburger, finishing at the same time he did. “Quicker I can get to work means the faster I can be done.”

“I like the sound of that.” He pulled a twenty from his wallet and left it on the table. “Now let’s see if I can get out of here without getting cornered by Bella Warren’s sexiest investigators.”

She pushed in her chair. “They’re just looking out for me.”

“They’re nice.” He laughed and she was glad to see it. The first time he’d gotten cornered, he’d looked all but frozen with fear, but had loosened up within a few moments. His hand bumped against hers, and he twisted hers in his grasp.

Don’t over analyze it. She wasn’t sure she could resist. They walked hand in hand. Like a couple. Best she could tell, they could be a couple if that’s where life wanted to take them. “In my experience, most old people are nice.”

“Your experience is limited.” He stepped ahead of her and let go of her hand long enough to push the door open. It was okay he’d released her, since his palm landed at her lower back and guided her out. “Most strangers, whether old or not, are mean.”

She paused on the way out the door. “I’ll never believe that.”

“You should.” His jaw was tight, eyes narrowed. “You have a good family name and you’re from money, so you don’t know what it’s like. The moment you’re poor, they want nothing to do with you. You’re unwanted riffraff and no doubt why the streets are full of litter and graffiti spray painted on the side of the school.”

“Is that your experience?”

He was quiet and lifted a shoulder, releasing some of the tension off his face. “It was a long time ago.”

“You remember it like it wasn’t.”

“Your childhood isn’t something you tend to forget.”

“But without it, you wouldn’t be the man—” She cleared her throat and managed to catch it before it came out.

“The man what?”

That I’m falling for
. She breathed out. “The man that you are.”

“True. But I’m saying, not everyone is great, like you think.”

“Maybe where you come from, people are dicks. We’re not like that here.”

“It’s like that everywhere. You just haven’t seen it.”

She stopped in the parking lot and shook her head. The idea that the majority of people in the world were dicks was the most depressing thing she’d ever heard. Sure, there were some crappy people out there, but most of them? No way. Wasn’t happening, he’d never get her to believe that. Talk about a complete lack of faith in humanity. If the world was filled with the kinds of people he painted, it’d be in a lot worse shape. “I told you before Kara’s parents could give yours a run for their money. You know why?”

“No.”

“Because her parents were shit. So shitty in fact, that it wasn’t safe for her to stay there. Kara was like a sister to me, not just because she’s my best friend, but because we were literally raised together like sisters. I had bunk beds in my room because Momma made sure Kara had a bed she could count on. For whatever reason where you’re from, you managed to be surrounded by a bunch of assholes. There may be a few people here who don’t like each other and that dislike is well known, but that’s it. Just some dislike. In Bella Warren, we have all walks of life and everybody is treated the same. The first time someone isn’t, there’s a number of people here who would straighten that out.”

He nodded and pulled in a deep breath. “Then you have no idea how rare and special that is. And the people here are lucky to be surrounded by it.”

She cleared her throat. She hadn’t meant to go riding off in the sunset on a soapbox, but Bella Warren was amazing. She needed him to love the town like she did if there was a hope of him coming back.

She turned away, knowing that was the crutch of her problem as much as she didn’t want to admit it. They could be whatever they wanted as a couple, but with a distance separating them while he remained reluctant to visit here, just how far could it go?

If he was serious about her visiting, they could do that. As long as she had a computer with an Internet connection, she could do a lot of her work. The farm would lose a helping hand, but that could be fixed. It would be easy for her to make frequent trips to see him, but she wasn’t so sure she could handle being the one to make all the trips.

He pulled open his car door, and she slid on the seat, feeling defeated for some reason, even though she was pretty sure he was starting to understand this place was different than where he’d grown up.

He drove to the farm. She tucked her foot under her rear and angled to face him better. It was easy and comfortable to be next to him. Kara and Wade did this sort of thing a lot. So did Tasha and her husband. They were married, so of course they should. Whitney hadn’t gotten to do this before.

How hard would it be for them to do this more? She smoothed her hand over the seat. “How serious were you when you asked if I’d come see you in Dallas?”

He glanced to her and back to the road so fast she couldn’t tell if she’d shocked him, scared him, or just made him the happiest man alive. “Very.”

She let out a breath and waved her hand in the air between them. “I’m getting confused on what this is.”

“This conversation is sounding familiar.”

“No.” God, no. That last conversation was an epic disaster. “Not the same. It’s just, what’s going on between us feels like it’s trying to be serious, and I don’t know what you want.” She let out a breath and shook her head. “I’ve never done this before, and it’s complicated by the fact you’re leaving soon.”

“That’s why I want you to come with me.” He parked at her house. “Because if you come with me, that eliminates this issue. We’ll have all the time we need to feel our way through this.” He reached across the console and rubbed her thigh. “This is new for me too, but I’m just going on how I feel. I like you and I want more. You coming home with me will let me keep seeing how I feel. And you, too.”

Wow. Did her mouth just get dry or what? “That sounds more permanent than a visit.”

He dropped her gaze, then returned it. His eyes searched hers. “Would that be so bad?”

Her heart kicked over in double time. “No,” she managed to get out. A nervous laugh bubbled up her throat. Yes? Maybe? Yikes. “But that’s.” She licked her lips. “You’re talking about me leaving my life and everything I know.”

He rubbed her thigh. “And finding some adventure. I know you love it here, but I also know you want something more. Maybe not every day, but deep in the dark, furthest away part of your mind, you play with the idea of leaving.”

“That’s just playing.” She rubbed her head and pushed hair back. “That’s not real.”

“Only if you don’t want it to be.” He cupped her cheek and turned her face to him. “Tell me you’re not the slightest bit tempted. That this is all crazy talk, you’ll never leave here and that this is all fun, and I’ll never mention it again. Tell me that.”

She searched his face. “I…” She needed words to form, but she couldn’t get them out. Hell, she even tried making his exact words form, but they just refused.

He pressed his lips to her. It wasn’t a sexy melting kiss that made her want to drag him upstairs. Rather, it was the kind of kiss that sank all the way to her bones and made her want to reach out and never let go. The kind of kiss where she wanted to pull her suitcases out of the closest and pack them to the rim. The most dangerous kind of kiss.

And the most aching, painful thing of all as he stopped and pulled away. She couldn’t look at him. His forehead rested on hers, but she left her eyes closed and remained in this fairy tale for a little longer. She didn’t want to open her eyes and see the farm behind him to remind her of the real life that she couldn’t leave.

Could she?

“Just think about it,” he whispered.

As if she could do anything else. If she could somehow not think about it, all her problems would be solved.

But it was all too easy to think about. And easy to picture.

She had no idea what kind of home he lived in. Didn’t know the color of the couch or what he had, but she could picture them together at his place.

Justin waited and watched as Whitney left his car and headed up the front steps of her house. He couldn’t really describe what he felt. He was close to getting what he wanted. A lot of energy and excitement stirred in his gut, but he couldn’t pin the source of those feelings.

As she disappeared inside, his throat tightened with nerves from his bundled gut. He eased his car back, and he knew a lot of what circled through him hinged on whether she’d move in with him for reasons that didn’t have anything to do with the deal with his brother.

He shook his head and headed to the bar. Since this started, he’d thought of Whitney as icing on the cake. Now he wondered if it was going to be his signed papers as the bonus. She turned out to be this unexpected rush he couldn’t quit thinking about. It was easy to picture her in his life. The thought of it was comforting.

Anytime he’d brought women home, he’d been anxious to see them leave before they rummaged through his things. Whitney had this carefree thing about her. She probably wouldn’t even snoop through his cabinets if he fell asleep. That had happened one too many awkward times to count and was the main reason he avoided taking women to his place. Granted, he hadn’t taken Whitney to his place to know for sure. Being she hadn’t badgered him with questions about who he was as a person and where he saw himself in five years like he was a damn business plan to sort out had to mean good things.

He rounded the last curve toward the bar and found himself waving at someone he didn’t know as he slowed and pulled in the lot. A beer delivery truck was parked around the corner. The rear end of the trailer was opened, and he peeked in at the nearly empty inside as he walked past to the backdoor.

Cases of beer were stacked around the room and he passed them, following voices around another corner. A delivery guy turned his loaded dolly around. Justin nodded his way. “Hi.”

The delivery guy returned the gesture and shuffled stuff off his cart. “Two more and I’m headed home.”

“Got big weekend plans?” Brandon studied the stack against the paper in his hand.

The delivery guy shook his head. “Just some R&R. The wife has some steaks for supper, and they’ll be on by the time I see that Little Rock skyline.”

Justin stepped to the side to stay out of the man’s way. “Not from around here?”

He worked the dolly free under the cases of beer. “Nah. I got the rural route, and this is my last stop.”

The delivery man left, and Brandon walked around the tall stacks, glancing between them and the shipping paper. He spared a look Justin’s way, and Brandon shook his head. “What’s your big grin about?”

So many ways to answer that question. The unexpected, charming old people at the diner? Plans for sex later? Or maybe just the fact that Whitney was close to making his dreams come true in ways he never could have imagined. A lightness filled him. That old time feeling of when he and Brandon had opened their first steakhouse. When they had someone buy into their franchise and their first chain opened. That kind of amazing, unreal high. “It’s been a good day.”

“Guessing lunch went well.”

“That and the part after lunch went even better.”

“I don’t want to hear about your sex life.” Brandon shook his head as the delivery guy came back and dropped another stack.

“I didn’t have sex.” He eased on a bar stool. “I asked Whitney to move in with me.”

Brandon stopped checking inventory. “What’d she say?”

Shock? Surprise? Happy? So many ways to interpret Brandon’s look, Justin wasn’t sure where to start. “She’s thinking about it.” Justin rearranged and hooked his heel on the stool. “Get your ink pen ready, brother. I told you weeks ago to consider it a done deal.”

“It’s not done yet.”

“Just about.” Justin leaned over and rested his elbows on his thighs. “I’ve even decided I should thank you.”

Brandon lifted a brow at him. “Can’t wait to hear this.”

He shrugged. “I like her.”

“That’s good if you’re planning to marry her.”

He grinned. “Yeah, I know. But I wasn’t expecting I’d like her this much, you know?”

Brandon shot him a look as the delivery guy came back through and dropped another stack. He patted the top. “There you go. I’m going to load up, and I’ll be right back.”

Brandon kept checking. “Almost done and I’ll get you a check.”

He nodded and disappeared around the corner again, and Justin let out a long breath. “Doesn’t seem like it’s been a few weeks. I guess that’s because she’s been on my mind for months. I guess that makes all the difference.”

“Amazing the difference it makes when you get to know a woman for more than a night.”

“You’re one to talk. You met a girl and married her in under a week, didn’t you?”

With that, Brandon started off, but Justin wasn’t done. His brother had busted his balls over getting married, and he couldn’t keep running every time the subject came up. He followed Brandon into the kitchen where he found his brother over a checkbook. “Instead of running from this, maybe you should talk about it and give me some advice.”