Page 72 of Never Have I Ever

“I’m your lucky charm.”

Her smile warms my soul. “You must be.” Lifting to kiss me, she says, “I’ll make you the chicken pesto.” It’s not the words that hit me straight in the heart. It’s the gesture.

I bend to kiss her this time, my eyes taking in my drop-dead gorgeous girl, and whisper, “You’re so in love with me.”

I’m whacked on the arm before I can jump out of the way and still cracking up when I spy some fucker eyeing her ass while she’s paying attention to me.

The fuck?

The first guy had me thinking I might have overreacted, but now this guy, and when I look a little farther down the aisle, another asshole is staring at her. She turns, her blond ponytail flying through the air just as he passes. He leans in and says, “Hi,” to her.

What the fuck is happening?

Do they really think a woman of her caliber would fuck around with them? I’m a fucking rock star. Am I not standing right the fuck here?

“I think I preferred you in Deer Lake, where there weren’t guys staring at you everywhere.”

“Oh yeah, I was just a hunchback there. Now I’ve morphed into . . .”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” she says, still walking.

I let the distance extend between us, ready to let that fucker back there know what I think of his fucking despicable behavior toward my girlfriend. The sleeve of my T-shirt is tugged, and I’m dragged along with her. “Come on. Don’t worry about it. It happens all the time. It’s annoying, but it is what it is.”

My brows are high as the fucking sky in reaction. “That doesn’t make it right.”

She shrugs. “What am I going to do? Fight the world?” Tapping a list on her phone, she adds, “We only need a few more things, and we can get out of here.”

I know she’s fully capable of handling any situation and has her whole life, but it still angers me that she has to put up with that shit. “Yeah, okay.” I push the cart behind her, following a little closer now. Call me territorial.

The cart slams into the back of her legs, and then she bounces on one leg. “Ow, Laird. That hurt.”

“Sorry, you stopped suddenly.”

She comes around next to me, bends down to rub the back of her ankle, and stands up again. “I’m assuming we can keep the leg?”

I’m whacked on the arm again, but it had no power behind it. She was laughing too hard. When she finally catches her breath, she whispers, “I stopped because that chick back there—”

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Language,” I tease, loving every minute of fair play in this jealousy game. I'm glad I’m not alone, but as memory serves, she didn’t love Lori even sniffing around me at Maggie’s. I feel her pain since I almost knocked out the guy in the deli.

She’s still cracking up. “She not only smiled at you, but she said hello. See? It happens all the time to you, too. Probably more since you’re in a band.” A quick roll of her eyes, and she adds, “Why do I have to fall for the bad boy?”

“I’m not even bad anymore. I’m a fucking wuss around you.” Pulling her into a playful headlock, I kiss her head. Then I need to see her eyes and connect my soul to hers again. I release her, rubbing her lower back, and tilt my head to the side. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Her smile this time is worth a thousand guys staring at her because it’s the one they’ll never have. Her love. She hugs me right there in aisle five, not giving a fuck who is staring, which seems to be everyone. “I think you’ve been spotted.”

“That’s the thing. It could be either of us, but more attention than I like off the stage. Anyway, I have a present for you when we get home.”

“Oh yeah? Is it meat related because I think we’re fully stocked.”

“Not fully.”

“Oh geez,” she says, taking the cart and walking away. At least I made her laugh. I’ll make it up to her in other ways when we get back. That’s a promise I intend to keep.

25

Poppy

---