Page 6 of Christmas Agreement
“Then what are you afraid of?” Rugar pulled into one of the angled parking space in front of the restaurant and shut off the Jeep, turning in his seat to look at me. “Seriously. You seem fearless.”
“I’m not,” I assured him. “I’m afraid of all kinds of stuff. Spiders. Snakes. Large dogs. Ending up a virgin old maid who dies alone in a shack in the woods and gets eaten by her cats.”
My hand pressed over my mouth.
Oh fudge!
Why did I just blurt that out?
Why the hell did I say that to him?
Rugar’s eyes gleamed, and for some reason, he looked like the cat who’d gotten the biggest mouse.
“Well,” he said, chuckling softly. “We’ll have to see what we can do about that, huh, Katie-Kat? For now, let’s go eat. I’m literally starving for something sweet and creamy.”
“Rugar James!” Did he really say that? Oh. My. God!
“What? What did I say?” he asked, as if daring me to speak my embarrassment. Fire blazed into my face, a rivalling inferno in my belly. Breakfast? No, thank you. Just kill me now.
Four
Rugar
Ending up a virgin old maid who dies alone in a shack in the woods and gets eaten by her cats.
Virgin kept repeating over and over in my head.
Despite the death threat to the guys on campus, somehow, I hadn’t guessed Katie’s status. I couldn’t say it upset me. I wanted her, experience or not, but nowmine mine mine repeated in my head. I couldn’t help that, at all. I wanted Katie. The only question was how to convince her to take a chance with me—a chance of more than a couple fake dates.
“Just two,” I told the hostess, linking my fingers through Katie’s. She startled and looked down at our hands, but didn’t pull away. A tingle seemed to steal up my arm, awareness a living thing within me. Fuck, I wanted to hold her hand wherever we went, whenever we were together.
“Katie,” I started.
She shot me a warning glance. “If you don’t forget the last five minutes…”
Not a chance in hell of that. I just pressed my lips together and let her believe I’d drop the matter forever. Again…not a chance in hell.
Because it was fairly early-ish for a Saturday, we were seated right away. We followed the hostess through the restaurant. I held Katie’s chair for her while the server placed the menus in front of each place setting.
The table was right near the front windows, but there wasn’t much to see. Lake Main Street was just waking up, and Pine Glen, whereAnna’swas located, would take even longer for traffic to pick up, even though it was one of Majestic Falls’ primary streets.
“Looks like Clarence wants pancakes, too,” Katie said suddenly, just as we’d opened our menus.
“What?”
“Look.” She nodded behind me, and I turned just in time to see a huge rack of moose antlers disappearing around the corner of the building. As I leaned sideways for a better look, I could see the animal’s massive body as it walked away.
“Wow, he’s huge,” she breathed. “I’ve lived here all my life, but I’ve never actually seen him before today. Not that I remember. My dad says we saw moose when I was younger, but I’m sure that wasn’t Clarence.”
“I haven’t seen him either.” Not even when I looked for him. That wasn’t a topic I planned to discuss.
The waitress was back to take our orders and pour coffees before we could further discuss the wildlife. As planned, I requested French toast and added eggs and bacon while Katie got the chipotle bowl that featured lots of veggies, sausage and eggs. Not surprising. I knew she was adventurous andalso preferred veggies over most other kinds of foods. Truly, it surprised me that she wasn’t vegetarian.
That was just one of the million little things I knew about her. Hell, I’d been secretly majoring in Katie for years.
“So about this sorority party?” I started after the waitress left us. “When is it? The hockey team’s thing is on the seventeenth. You know…because a Wednesday night is so convenient.”
Katie chuckled. “Ours is on Tuesday. Equally convenient.”
