Page 6 of To Win a Rebel

She wanted to touch her lips, but she managed to stop herself from doing that. She no longer had any idea what was going to happen tonight. Most of last night and throughout the whole day, she’d been distracted by wondering what would happen.

Molly had been on several dates, but none of them were memorable. She had a guy who constantly had his mother texting him, and throughout the meal had even asked to speak to her. Much to her embarrassment, she was still good friends with the guy’s mother. In fact, he’d married another woman a few years ago, and her friend had been mortified, and had even said she wished she hadn’t called so much during his date with her. That had been interesting.

Then there was the guy who’d constantly been flexing throughout dinner. At first, she found it charming as he was attempting to become a bodybuilder, so it was part of his personality. He was one with his muscles, or something like that. Yeah, that didn’t work out. In fact, at the end of the night, he kissed his biceps before he even attempted to kiss her. That didn’t end well for either of them.

There were so many bad dates.

She even had one date where the man’s wife arrived. Yep, Molly had been out of there right away. There was no way in hell she was going to help a guy cheat on his wife. It went against everything she stood for.

This was no room to think about all those dates, because the truth was, when it came to Nate, he made her nervous. She didn’t quite know exactly what kind of guy he was. He was a mystery to her, and one she wasn’t sure she wanted to crack. He confused her, and she knew she spent a great deal of time blushing. She only hoped in learning makeup skills, she was able to hide it.

What he, or no one else knew, was she’d had the biggest crush on Nate Sinclair for as long as she could remember. It was insane.

There were one or two dates when Nate had arrived with his buddy Randy, and she’d been so distracted, it was the only reason she’d been able to get to the dessert.

Even now, she was so distracted by old memories, she suddenly realized there was no car or bike.

“We’re walking?” she asked.

“Yep, don’t worry, it’s not far.”

She had no problem with walking. It was one of the many reasons she didn’t own a car or bike. She loved to clear her head, and walking was the best way to do that.

Every now and then, she couldn’t help stealing glances at him, wondering if he’d put any special product on his lips that had made her tingle, because her lips were still very much tingling. She wanted to reach up and touch them, but she held herself back.

“It’s a lovely night,” he said.

“Yeah, it is. Nice and warm too, which is surprising.” She usually liked to wear a cardigan, but over the next couple of days, they were supposed to have a heat wave.

“So, tell me a little about yourself, Molly,” Nate said.

“Uh, you know all about me.”

“Nah, I don’t. I was thinking about you most of today, actually, and you know it got me thinking that you don’t talk about what you do. There are times you’re not seen for days at a time around town.”

“It’s, uh, not that important, to be honest. I work for a company online, nothing new there, and it’s all boring. So, tell me, what are you working on currently?”

“You’re evading the question,” he said.

“I’m not evading anything, I’m simply curious about what you do.”

“You want to hear about cars?”

“Or bikes. I know you’re constantly doing upgrades to your current cycle, and aren’t you, like, working on a big project or something?” She had to think of something—anything—so it would take his thoughts off of what she was doing.

There was no way she was going to be able to get through tonight if he knew she wrote erotic books. This was her biggest secret. Everyone in town was so wrapped up in their own lives and the current hot gossip, that she didn’t even register with them. When questions started to flow, she had become an expert in dodging them. Very few people knew.

Her parents being long gone, there was the mother of her one-time date who’d kept calling. She knew, and in fact she claimed to be her biggest fan, much to Molly’s surprise. For some reason, she had thought the older woman would hate her for writing such smut, but nope. She loved it, and read each book that was released.

She glanced over at Nate, and hoped he took the bait.

He smirked and then entered the park. “You know, Molly. You’re not fooling me,” he said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I would loveto learn about engines and grease, and all the tools you need to work through. Like wrenches and pliers, and weird-looking things.”

She had no idea what she was talking about. Didn’t have the first clue what went into fixing a car. All the mechanics in her books didn’t do a lot of talking, unless it was what she heard in passing. Oil change, bust belt, or something like that.

She really should read a book or find an internet source, but she would then find herself constantly thinking about Nate Sinclair, and procrastinating was never a good thing.

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