Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) (11 page)

At the knock, I sat up
straight, hastily wiping my face with my hands not wanting to be
caught this way by anyone, then turning to look out the window, saw
Zeke, hand on top of my car, bending down looking worriedly at me
and I completely lost it, just came undone, as the tears started up
again. I don’t know how it happened, but the next thing I knew, I’d
somehow gotten out of Jezebel and thrown myself into his
arms
.

“Hey. Hey,
what’s wrong, Scarlett?” he asked, holding me tightly against him
as he smoothed his hand down the hair that lay against my back.

I couldn’t
talk for a while as the sobs overtook me but Zeke just held me,
continuing to run his hand down my back, talking softly to me,
saying what, I have no earthly idea, but I could hear the rumble of
his voice in my ear that was pressed against his chest which I
found comforting.

When my sobs
started diminishing, though, I began listening to what he was
saying, and, God, he was so sweet.

“It’s gonna be
okay, baby. I promise. I’m here. I’ll help you. You’ll be fine,” he
murmured.

And I think
that’s the moment I fell in love with Zeke Powers.

~*~*~*~

You know that
moment of weakness when you do something you know you shouldn’t but
you do it anyway and you really don’t give a crap what your
consequences will be because that’s what you want to be doing at
that very moment? Like telling yourself you’ll watch just one more
episode of your favorite show on Netflix even though it’s after
midnight and you have to be up at five?

Yeah. I was
totally experiencing that right now but on a much grander
scale.

I was falling
for Zeke. I knew I shouldn’t. I knew I needed to stay focused on
helping my family get out of debt and move forward so we didn’t
have to pinch pennies anymore, but I didn’t care. Zeke was good. He
was kind. And if that was bad for me, then so be it.

I pulled back
and wiping my face, looked up at him. “Sorry.”

He frowned and
canted his head to the side looking at me. “For?”

I took a deep
breath and let it out. “For being such a baby.”

“I don’t think
you’re a baby, Scarlett. Matter of fact, I think you’re pretty
tough, and since I know that, I know something must be really
wrong.” God. So sweet. “So what is it?”

I took in
another deep breath and started telling him all my woes, of course,
not holding back and blurting everything as per usual when I talked
to him.

I told him
about my mom, about having to drop out and get two jobs,
everything, finishing up with Jezebel’s betrayal.

He nodded in
understanding. “Let’s get in my truck before you catch a cold.” He
opened the door for me, helping me in. See? Sweet. When he got in
his side, he started the truck then looked back at me waiting for
me to tell him more.

So I did. “I
haven’t seen my mom in almost ten years. She hasn’t ever called. We
don’t know where she is. She just… doesn’t care.” I started crying
softly and Zeke opened his console and got out a small tissue box
handing it to me. “Thanks,” I muttered, pulling one out to wipe my
eyes. I sat staring out the window. “How can a mom do that?”

“I don’t know,
Scarlett.” When I didn’t say anything else, he asked, “Besides your
car, what triggered all this tonight?”

“You’ve been
gone.” I closed my eyes and hung my head having thought I’d been
doing so well in not saying anything about his absence affecting
me.

But he didn’t
act cocky or smug when he answered. “Been training for the combine
the past three weeks. I left last Monday and just got back last
night.”

Shit. Here I
was blathering on and wallowing in my stupid troubles when he’d
just gotten back from the biggest thing in his life that would
decide his future. “Oh, my gosh! How was it? How’d you do? Are you
drafted yet?”

He chuckled.
“It was great. I think my hard work may have paid off. Hopefully.
Lotta great receivers out there, but maybe I caught someone’s eye.
My agent said he heard a lot of talk about me, but the draft won’t
be until the end of April, so we’ll see.”

“That’s great,
Zeke. I’m really happy for you. Glad it went well.” Wow. I was
sitting in a truck with a future NFL star. Very cool. And here I
was all blotchy-faced from crying probably looking like hell.

He smiled at
me. “How about we do this? We’ll leave your car here and I’ll get
the parts in the morning to fix it.”

“No!” I
practically screeched. I wasn’t used to anyone helping me and being
even more indebted to him made my stomach crawl since I’d had
enough of that shit the past almost ten years, hence my
outburst.

“By that sin
fell the angels,” I heard him mutter and I frowned at him not
understanding. “Pride, Scarlett. Different kinds of proud. Don’t
let the wrong one get in the way.”

“I can’t let
you do that, Zeke. You’ve done so much for me already.”

He chuckled.
“What? Shared a book with you?”

“Well, yeah,
besides other things,” I answered. Dang. I was actually impressed
with myself for not blurting that he’d ended my abstinence then
winced because in just thinking about it, it might make me actually
say it. Ack.

He sighed.
“Then what do you think we should do?” His brows came down as he
looked at me.

I bit my lip
as I thought about it. I didn’t have the money to get Jezebel fixed
but I couldn’t just let her sit there until Dad got back. I’d
probably be ticketed. Maybe Dex knew someone who could tow her to
the house and Jay could give me rides to work and school. But the
more I thought of doing that the more I hated it. Ugh. I didn’t
want to put anyone out and the easiest fix sounded like Zeke’s
plan, so I decided to see what all it’d entail.

“I don’t know.
I can’t pay you right now for it.”

“It’s no big
deal. Dad has all kinds of parts laying around the shop. It sounds
like your carburetor’s bad and that’s nothing. He probably has ten
of ‘em just sitting there.”

“Oh.”

“I can get the
part, get Gable or Ryke to come with me in the morning and we’ll
fix it up good as new.”

I wanted to
reach a hand out and touch him to make sure he was real. How could
anyone be this nice? But his idea sounded like the least messy one,
so I reluctantly agreed.

“Okay, but
I’ll pay you as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry
about it.” He thought for a second. “But I do know a way you
could
pay me back.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me which made
my eyes get big and my face flush. He barked out a laugh and shook
his head then looked at me. “That was you who called me tonight,
wasn’t it?”

Shit. I’d
forgotten about that. And that made me remember the woman who’d
called out his name in a most annoying way. “Uh, yeah.”

“What’d you
want?” Those glittery gold eyes were on me making me
uncomfortable.

I wanted you,
Zeke. I was going to ask you for a drink then ask if we could bang
again.

Yeah. No.

“I, uh, was
gonna ask if you needed the book back.”

“Hm.”

Okay, I
couldn’t lie. But I wasn’t going to tell him everything. “Actually,
I was going to ask you out for a drink.” There. That hadn’t been
too bad.

“Yeah?” he
gave me his half grin looking so freaking hot that it hurt my
eyes.

“Yeah.”

“So why’d you
hang up?”

I sighed. “I
didn’t think you remembered me.” I bit my lip again as I looked
down at my lap. “And you sounded, um, busy with someone.” Gotta
love honesty, it being the best policy and all.

“Scarlett,” he
whispered. “Look at me.”

I sat staring
at my hands in my lap, twisting my fingers nervously, knowing that
if I looked at him, that’d be it. I’d be lost to him. He’d own me.
And I couldn’t quite come up with a good reason why that’d be so
bad.

“Scarlett.”

I closed my
eyes and took a deep breath, blowing it out then turned to see his
beautiful golden eyes looking so warmly at me.

“I was at
Sully’s. He’s a defensive end on the team. He called because he was
having a party, so I thought I’d stop by. When you called, I didn’t
know the number but thought it might be you. And since it was
around seven and that’s when you leave the Dean’s office, I took a
chance that you’d be here.” He must’ve seen the doubt in my eyes
because he continued. “The woman you heard was Sara. We were seeing
each other a couple months ago but I broke it off.” Ah, rock video
chick. Zeke continued. “See, I saw this gorgeous woman working in a
little breakfast place I stopped by on a whim one morning. Watched
her taking care of her customers, always making sure they had
everything they needed. Saw she was sweet, genuine and that’s when
I knew I had to have her.”

I sucked in a
breath as I stared in shock at him.

“Her
heart-shaped ass didn’t hurt either.” He smirked at me as I felt my
face got hot.

“Zeke,” I
whispered.

“I wanna try
this with you, Scarlett. See where it goes. What do you think?” His
eyes stayed on mine as my mind raced.

I mean, did I
really need to think about this? A hot, sexy, very nice guy wanted
me. And he said he hadn’t cheated and never would. He wasn’t
interested in more than one woman. He just wanted… me.

I looked at
him then gave him a small nod, letting him know I did want to try
this, whatever
this
was and got his grin.

“I’ve been
such a bitch to you. That’s really not me. I mean, I
can
be
a bitch, but you didn’t deserve any of it. I’m sorry,” I stated,
licking my lips as I watched his mouth turn up in a smile. “God,
you’re beautiful.” Back to blurting again. Yay.

His eyes were
warm on mine now. “That right there?” he said quietly. “Love that.”
At my confused look he explained. “I know you’re not
that
big of a bitch.” I huffed out a surprised laugh and he chuckled.
“Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but the things you say
show me that even though you think you’re scarred from all that’s
happened to you, you’re sweet. Selfless. No, baby, you’re the
beautiful one.”

Oh God. If he
didn’t stop, I’d start crying again.

But I didn’t
get a chance because his hand went to the back of my neck and he
drew me to him. “I like that about you, Scarlett. Like it a fuckova
lot.” And then he gave me the most tender, sweet, heart-melting
kiss and when he pulled back, he chuckled because my eyes were
still closed and I think my mouth was still puckered wanting more.
“Let me get your keys and your purse and I’ll take you home.”

I opened my
eyes, embarrassed but nodded as I watched him get out then into
Jezebel. I heard him try to start her again and was sad because she
just didn’t have it left in her. When he got out, he looked at me
and gave a little shoulder shrug and I frowned because my girl was
in a bad way, but then had to giggle as I watched Mr. Badass Soon
To Be Pro Football Player carrying my purse.

“Well, as Dad
would say, I think she really has given up the ghost. I’ll keep the
keys. Here you go,” he said, handing me my purse when he got
in.

“You’re
welcome to borrow it any time. It really brings out your eyes,” I
replied, taking it from him.

He looked at
me in question and I raised my purse a bit which made him give me a
get real
look making me giggle some more.

“Smartass,” he
muttered, as we put our seatbelts on then he put his truck in gear
and headed to my house.

~*~*~*~

He parked in
front of my house where he had the night he’d followed me home.

“Thank you for
rescuing me tonight,” I said quietly.

“You saying
I’m your hero?” he asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

Honestly? He
really was but instead of telling him so, I rolled my eyes.

“Knight in
shining armor?” He grinned. Before I could respond, he leaned in,
resting his forearm on the console, his other hand coming up to
playfully tug on a piece of my hair. “Let me be your hero,
Scarlett.” His hand went to the back of my head and he pulled me in
for a hot kiss.

He was my
hero. I was just going to have to find a way to be his hero right
back.

We made out
for a while, my hand instantaneously going up to wrap my fingers in
his soft hair, and, good lord, if we could manage to go about our
daily lives without it interfering, kissing him could really become
my new favorite pastime.

When I pulled
back, breathing heavily of course, I turned and looked at my house
then turned back to him with a wince and a muttered, “Oh, no,”
putting my face in my hand.

“What?” he
asked looking over my shoulder.

The side of my
head went to the headrest as I closed my eyes in embarrassment.
“Look closely at the window on the right with the blind pulled down
just a bit. That’s my brother. The window on the left with the
blinds pulled apart about eight inches? Grammy.” I heard him
chuckle. “I’d better go in.”

“I’ll walk you
to the door then we can really give them a show.”

“What? No!” I
answered, jerking back, mortified then noticed he was laughing at
me. “Oh.”

“Cute.” He
shook his head and was smiling as he got out his side coming around
to open my door then took my hand helping me down. As we walked to
the porch, I doubt he noticed but I sure did when I saw two quick
flicks of the shades and I knew Grammy and Lane had moved away
quickly then would act as if they hadn’t been watching us once I
got inside. “You free tomorrow night?” he inquired when we got
there, wrapping his arms around my waist and clasping his hands
behind me just above my butt. I was a bit reticent about his
familiarity, but, jeez, we
had
slept together, so I would’ve
looked dumb had I stepped away. Besides, it felt good being this
close to him.