Page 33 of Ghosted By Texas

“Who are you?” Clara asked as she twirled her hair around her finger and batted her eyes at the man who was old enough to be her father. That little hussy almost peed her pants a few minutes ago, and she was flirting with my man. Oh hell no. I did not just think that. I wanted to smack myself. Austin wasn’t my anything.

“My name is Austin. I’m a friend of Becs,” he started to say until Clara interrupted him.

“Who is Becs?” She asked while looking around at the other girls in the class, as if a new student had appeared, and she somehow hadn’t noticed.

He turned wide eyes on me.

“Mr. Austin meant to say he is a friend of mine.”

“You’re not Becs. You’re Ms. Robinson.”

“And you are very astute, Clara.” She grinned as I told her that, but then seemed puzzled.

“What does astute mean?”

“Smart,” Austin and I answered at the same time. Clara beamed at him for complimenting her.

“Clara, you’re supposed to be painting your pot.”

She poked her lip out, flounced around, and stalked to her table like I’d personally told her that Santa and the Easter bunny were both as made up as the tooth fairy. Kids were the worst sometimes.

“When is class over?”

I glanced up at the clock. “Another fifteen minutes.”

“Great, I’ll wait outside for you, in the staff parking lot. As soon as you’re done here, we can go grab some lunch.” I started to protest, but Austin held his hand up. “I don’t want to hear any excuses about you having to go do something. Remember, the lady in the office informed me that you’re out of here after this class, and you just admitted that you forgot all about it, so that means you couldn’t possibly have any plans today.”

Dammit!

“Fine, I’ll see you in twenty minutes in the parking lot.”

~*~

Twenty minutes later, I made my way out to the employee parking lot to find Austin leaning against his truck while waiting for me. It wasn’t exactly a warm day to be hanging around outside.

“You know, you could have waited inside your truck with the heat running,” I said to him.

“Yeah, but that would have made it easier for you to slip by me unnoticed.”

“I’m twenty-seven years old, Austin. I think I’ve outgrown the hide and seek stage of life. Besides, you know where I live, so trying to ditch you here would be a moot point, wouldn’t it?”

“Probably. Why don’t you hop in, and I’ll take us somewhere for lunch, then bring you back for your car afterward.”

“Why are we going out to lunch?”

“We have unfinished business,” he said as he hopped in the driver’s side and waited on me to join him. There was no point in denying the man, since he’d spent nearly an hour waiting to take me to lunch anyway.

“Fine, but lunch and then we’re done.”

“Okay, for today.”

If my eyes could roll any harder, someone would probably get hurt. “I don’t understand why you’re trying so hard. It’s obvious that this won’t work out between us. It didn’t before, what makes you think it will this time?”

“We’ve both learned a few things since the last time. Plus, I’m determined to fix a mistake that should have never been able to spiral so far out of my control.”

“What mistake was that?”

“The one where I lost you,” he admitted without any hesitation.

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