Page 44 of More To Us

Chapter Nine

Austin

When I get to Kira's apartment, she's waiting by the door, wearing a faded denim mini skirt and a white button-up shirt with a tank top underneath. She has white sneakers on, so still has that sporty look I love, but the short skirt has upped her hotness level to the point that I'm feeling that twitch in my shorts again.

As I park, she sees my truck and runs over to it.

"Hey." She smiles as she gets in.

"You need to let me come upstairs to get you," I say as I back out of the parking space. "I feel like a loser picking you up in the parking lot."

"Don't worry about it. I don't mind. Besides, my roommate is up there with her boyfriend, and believe me, you don't want to see that."

"They don't go in her room to do that?"

"Sometimes, but not always."

"My brothers are the same way with their girlfriends. I'm always telling them to get a room." I turn onto the street. "Did you pick a movie?"

"I thought you were picking it."

"I don't care what we see. Whatever you want is fine with me."

"I don't even know what's playing. We'll have to see when they get there."

We come to a red light and I stop and look over at her. "You look really nice."

"Thanks." She looks down at her skirt.

"Actually, you look better than nice. You look hot." I reach over and take the hand she had resting in her lap. I know she said this isn't a date but maybe it could turn into one.

She turns toward me a little, keeping hold of my hand. "So what'd you do today?"

She's changing the subject. Maybe it makes her uncomfortable when I tell her how she looks. Or maybe she's reminding me this isn't a date. But date or not, she looks hot and I thought she should know.

"I worked on an old house that the city is turning into a museum. Our company started doing these historic renovations last year and now we keep getting asked to do more. I'm going to be restoring the wood floors back to their original condition."

"Do you like doing that type of work?"

"I do, but I also like music, so I'm kind of torn as to what I want to do with my life."

"So you could really support yourself being in a band?" She bites her lip. "Sorry, that sounded bad. I didn't mean you weren't a good enough musician. I just assumed the music industry is a tough business. It's gotta be hard to make a living."

"It is. That's why I haven't given up construction. Plus, like I said, I like construction, and if I had to do it for the rest of my life, I wouldn't complain. But if I could do music instead, I would. My dad would be pissed, but you can't always please your parents, you know?"

"Yeah." She bites her lip again and looks out the side window.

I give her hand a squeeze. "Hey, what's wrong? Have another fight with your mom?"

"No." She turns back to me. "I talked to her this morning. Everything's fine."

I'm not convinced. She tensed up when I made that comment about pleasing your parents. She either doesn't get along with hers or she's fighting with them about something.

We arrive at the movie theater and stare up at the board to see what's playing.

"I haven't heard of half of these," she says.

"You don't go to the movies much, do you?" I'm standing behind her, my hands on her shoulders.

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