Playing For Keeps (5 page)

Keirra smiled. “Does Randy know you love him?”

Kristen grinned, and Keirra was a little jealous at her sister’s obvious joy. “I tell him everyday.”

Keirra frowned. “So you think I should give Eric a chance?”

Kristen nodded. “From what I know about Eric he’s a great guy. He has come over to the house and hung out a few times with us. I like him.”

Keirra was still skeptical, and her next statement proved it. “You know my history with men.”

Kristen laughed. “Yes, I do, but everyone has had a bad relationship or two. The point is to invent a new mistake not repeat the old ones. You know what you have done wrong in the past, so learn from it.”

Keirra rolled her eyes. “All of my relationships have been disasters, Kristen. I have chosen men like Eric in the past, and it hasn’t worked out.”

Kristen shook her head. “I disagree. Eric is nothing like any of the men you have dated in the past.

If you let down your guard and get to know him, you will see that. Try to be a little nicer, a little more approachable. Don’t assume he is like the men you have encountered in the past.”

Keirra laughed when she thought of a few of her past boyfriends. “Do you remember Daniel?”

Kristen choked on her waffle fry before looking up at Keirra with a horrified expression. Daniel had been a guy who had been interested in Keirra, or at least they thought so. The creep had taken a pass at all three of them under the false pretense he couldn’t tell the three of them apart. Turned out Daniel had been a man whose sole purpose in life was to get laid by as many women possible.

“He is a perfect example of what Daniel isn’t. Heck, Eric can already tell us apart.”

Keirra smiled. “So you noticed that, too?”

Kristen took another bite of her burger before speaking. “You would have to be insane not to.

There are people here who have known us for a long time and still can’t tell us apart.”

“True.”

“So what do you have against getting involved with Eric?”

Keirra smiled. “It isn’t the date I would mind. It’s Eric. He is too intense. Too overbearing, irritating, confident and—”

“Sexy as sin,” Kristen supplied with a smile.

Keirra rolled her eyes. Another prospective date with Eric bothered her. She didn’t know if she could hold on to her self-control around him. What troubled her even more was Eric wasn’t going to give up on her. Her sister was right. She did deserve happiness and a good man. She just wasn’t sure the man was Eric. She focused on her burger and tried to formulate a plan to deal with Eric.

She hadn’t so far, and it was frustrating.

Kristen dredged her French fry through the ketchup with an innocent look on her face, Keirra didn’t buy for one instant. “So you do realize you still haven’t given me one good reason why you shouldn’t go out with Eric?”

Keirra shook her head at her sister before looking away. “And I don’t know why you won’t leave this alone.”

“Because I think you are walking away from the man who is perfect for you, and you don’t realize it.”

Keirra looked at her sister with wide eyes. Was she supposed to believe Eric was the man for her? If he was it would serve her right, but for as much of her life as she had spent trying to avoid men in uniforms, for her to end up with one would be too much. Could fate be so cruel? She refused to fall for Eric if she could help it. It would be an absolute dating disaster, and at this point in her life, she had already had enough to last her a lifetime.

“You know you can’t avoid the inevitable forever, don’t you?”

Keirra scowled at her sister’s dramatics. “I’m not avoiding anything.”

How could she avoid something that didn’t exist?

Kristen shook her head, picking up another waffle fry. “The sad thing is you believe that for some strange and demented reason.”

Keirra nodded and smiled knowing she would soon be getting to the end of her sister’s high level of patience, which meant she could go home and lock herself in her room. Unless she could get out here at a reasonable time she would have to go home and deal with Kayla. Her oldest sister was out with Lucas, but she was hoping to beat her back to the house.

She sighed. Both of her sisters were driving her nuts about Eric. She was almost to the point that if she heard the man’s name again she was going to scream.

Kristen took a bite of her burger and chewed slowly. When she finished she tilted her head to the side with an inquisitive expression. “Why don’t you just admit you want Eric and you would love to go out with him?”

Keirra rolled her eyes again, but when they fell on the man who had just walked through the door she averted her gaze and began to contemplate ways to get out of Sam’s without being seen.

Somehow, she knew it was going to be difficult.

She wasn’t ready to see him yet. Yes, she had thought about him ever since he left her home last night, but seeing him here, so soon, so unexpectedly, was too much.

“Are you going to answer me?”

Keirra jumped before looking at her sister and shaking her head. “No, but I am going to try to get our bill so we can leave.”

Kristen gave her a puzzled look. “What’s wrong with you?”

Before Keirra could answer, she laid eyes on Eric, and the corners of her mouth curved upward.

“Ah, there is the man of the hour.”

Before she could stop her, Kristen called out to Eric. When he turned in their direction, Keirra wanted to crawl under the table.

“I hate you,” she whispered before Eric was in hearing distance. Kristen just laughed and asked Eric to join them. He chose to slide in the booth beside her, and she closed her eyes in displeasure.

Kristen and Eric seemed to be intent on ignoring her.

“What brings you here tonight?”

Eric gave Kristen his heart-stopping grin. “I just got off work and decided to run here to grab a bite to eat before heading home.”

She smiled in relief. “Well don’t let us keep you. You look like you’re in a rush.”

Lord, she hoped he was, because if he sat there much longer she might not be responsible for her actions.

Kristen looked over at Eric and chuckled. “You have to excuse my sister. She is a little upset at being attracted to you.”

“I’m not attracted to him,” Keirra growled angrily, trying not to think about the bone-melting kiss, or the embarrassing statement her sister just made.

Kristen continued on as if Keirra hadn’t spoken. “I told her I think dating you would be a good thing, but for some reason she doesn’t believe me. I know you don’t know a lot of people in town.

Maybe you can talk Keirra into being a good neighbor and giving you a tour around town.”

Kristen began to search through her purse until she found her wallet. She put enough money on the table to cover her meal and a nice tip before giving her sister an innocent smile. “It is getting late, and I just remembered I have an errand I need to run before I head home.”

Keirra’s mouth dropped open. “In case you forgot I rode with you.”

Kristen grinned. “I am sure Eric won’t mind being a nice neighbor and giving you a ride home.”

Kristen turned and almost sprinted toward the door. It took Keirra a minute to respond to her sister’s irrational behavior. She couldn’t wait to get home if she made it home anytime soon. The look in Eric’s gaze told her he might not let her out of his sight for a while.

If Kristen thought she was off the hook, she had another thing coming. She was going to get an earful. Closing her eyes she sighed and turned her attention to the man who had been nothing but a pain in her side.

“What the hell has gotten into her?”

His eyebrows rose at her question. “I have been wondering the same thing about you.”

She looked at Eric in surprise. “Don’t start with me. It is obvious that I have enough mentally deranged people in my life. I don’t need to add you to the group.”

Eric chuckled as he slid out of the booth and moved around to sit across from her. Her eyes widened, and she wondered if he heard anything she just said, or what she had been saying since she met him. “I guess not, but I would like to know why you are so against us going out?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I say we just forget the whole thing.”

His smile widened. “I can’t say I have ever been one to give up without a fight.”

She frowned and watched him snag a fry off of her plate. “I think this is one fight you should give up.”

He finished chewing and laughed. “You might be right. You make dating you sound like torture.”

She would have told him it was torture but the waitress walked up and took his order. When he requested for it to be made to go, she looked at him with surprise. She had heard him say he was stopping by to pick up some food, but she hadn’t believed him. She was certain he had made up the excuse just to find a reason to join her. But he hadn’t. He wouldn’t have even known she was in here anyway. She wasn’t in her car.

She felt insulted, and she didn’t know why. Maybe she was starting to suffer from the same delusion running in her family because she did want him to stay and join her. She didn’t know how much until she found out he wasn’t. Eating dinner with him last night had been more fun than she thought it would be. She wanted that again and soon. But she was afraid to ask for it in a way. Afraid of what it would represent if she did.

“You aren’t going to stay and eat?”

He shook his head. “I told you I was just stopping by to grab something to eat. I need to get home because there are a few things I need to do before I go to bed. I had a taste for enchiladas, and though my mom would kill me for saying it, Sam’s makes very good enchiladas.”

Keirra stared at him. Why had she thought he had come here for her? More importantly, why did it bother her that he hadn’t? As soon as she asked herself the question she knew the answer. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to admit it, and she hoped she would never have to.

She paused a moment trying to contemplate all of the possible outcomes. When she could think of more outcomes that were positive than negative she knew that she would be a fool not to give him a chance.
She wanted to get to know him better. Spend time with him. She looked across the table at Eric, but he was staring out the window. Reaching across the table she touched his hand. He didn’t bother to hide his surprise when he looked over at her.

“Is something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No. If you don’t have any pressing plans, I would really like it if you would stay and have dinner with me.”

He stared at her for what seemed like forever. When he raised his hands to capture the attention of the waitress she pulled her hand back unsure of what to expect. When the waitress came up to the table, Eric spoke to her without breaking eye contact with Keirra.

“Could you change my order from take-out to dine-in? It looks like I will be staying after all.”

“Tell me about your family.”

Eric swallowed the bite of food he had just eaten. He had been surprised by Keirra’s impromptu invite to stay and join her for dinner. In all truthfulness, he was surprised that she wanted to spend time with him again so quickly. But he wasn’t complaining.

“Well, my mom and dad have been happily married for forty years. They met in my mother’s homeland of Puerto Rico while Dad was in the military.” Eric’s lips curved upward. “Two years later, they married, and my dad brought her here to the States.”

Eric took another bite of food, chewed, and swallowed it before he told her about his sisters, their husbands, and their children. Kristen laughed at a few of his stories. After that, they ate in silence until he noticed Keirra was staring at him intently. She was obviously thinking, and he wanted to know what about.

“What is it?”

She smiled. “Do you think that we are drawn to each other because we have so much in common?”

He leaned back in the booth. “Like what?”

“Mainly, we are stubborn and used to getting our way because we are both spoiled.”

Eric grinned, flashing her with his perfectly straight teeth. He was willing to admit his faults if she was willing to admit hers.

“I think that it helps, but don’t discount your intelligence and beauty.”

Keirra rolled her eyes before smiling. “You have a tongue like butter.”

The look in Eric’s eyes darkened. “Trust me it isn’t made of butter, and I will be more than willing to show you later.”

He saw her shiver in reaction to his words, but she wouldn’t let her gaze waver, and the corner’s of his mouth tilted upward. He liked that she didn’t shy away from his attraction to her, the intensity of it. He had a lot of energy, and he needed a woman that could keep up with him. In his opinion, Keirra was that woman.

She shifted in her seat before replying. “Have you been to Puerto Rico?”

He nodded. “Yes I have, several times as matter of fact. My mother still has a lot of family there.”

“What is it like there?”

Eric’s mouth curled upward at Keirra’s question. “It is too beautiful for me to describe with words.

Maybe we will get the chance to get there one of these days.”

He read the surprise in her eyes. “My statement shouldn’t surprise you, Keirra, because understand something, when I am with a woman who I am serious about, she knows it. I am serious about you.”

Keirra’s eyes widened. “Have you cared about a lot of women?”

Eric nodded. “I have cared about all of them.”

Uncertainty flickered in her eyes, and he hid his amusement. Eric took another bite of his food before chewing. He wanted to let her think about her statement. Somehow he hadn’t managed to convince her that he was a one-woman man, but he would.

After he swallowed, he spoke again. He wanted to put her fears at ease. “I have cared about every woman I have dated, enough to be selective about who I actually choose as well as to treat each and every one of them with the respect every woman deserves, but that is where the comparison between you and them ends.” Eric smiled. “You make me wait to give you things that I would give no other woman.”

She remained silent, but her eyes, her expression, told him she was thinking. He wanted to know what was on her mind. “What are you thinking about?”