Page 25 of Rebound With Me
Nina
In the light of day,I now know that Vince’s eyes are hazel and he is even more agonizingly beautiful than he was last night. He looked more like a professional today, in his handsome button-down shirt and slim tailored black pants, but there’s still some kind of an edge, maybe it was his sexy aviator sunglasses, maybe it’s just his energy. He’s acting pretty detached, and the combination of that with his current state of handyman shirtlessness is almost unbearable.
I’m glad I decided to just be cool about everything. He has already turned what could have been the worst summer ever into the best, and I don’t want to ruin what we had with angst and questions, like for instance: “Why did you run off all of a sudden last night?” “Do you have a kid?” “Why don’t you want my number?” “How many women does a guy have to have sex with to get to be that good at it?” “Did I satisfy your little revenge fantasy?” “Did any part of what you did to me actually have anything to do with me?”
But I don’t need to know these things at this point. Really. I don’t.
I’m just glad that he came back to fix the drywall. It says a lot about him. Although, I suppose the fact that he punched a wall also said a lot about him, I just couldn’t hear it over the sound of my beating heart and the rush of hormones.
When he comes out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on his abs, he has the strangest look on his face. I wait for him to ask me an important question, because it seems like that’s what he wants. But he doesn’t say anything. He picks up his shirt and puts it on, without buttoning it up.
“Have a seat,” I say, gesturing towards my sofa. I take a seat on it, leaning against the far side and give him plenty of room to sit away from me.
He does.
He sits on the edge of the cushion on the opposite side of the sofa, but he isn’t rigid, his knees are wide apart and he leans forward to rest his elbows on them. He’s so casual and comfortable in his body, it’s one of the sexiest things about him, I think.
That and his mouth and his hands and his butt and his hair and his voice and his eyes and the tattoos and muscles and the way he smells, okay literally everything. Everything. Just everything.
I sigh as I look out the window. “It’s such a beautiful day.”
“Yeah, it is.” He doesn’t make me feel dumb for saying such a simple thing, and I appreciate that. That is one of the many things that makes him a good salesman, I’m sure.
He’s staring at my coffee table.
Oh no.
He’s staring at my notebook. I can’t believe I left it open.
“Can I ask you something?” he says, still looking down at the notebook.
“Uh huh.”
“What exactly did you see in that principal guy? Russell, is it?”
Whew. A non-notebook-related question.
“Oh. Hah. Well, let’s see…”
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I’m just curious.”
You want to know what Sadie sees in him.“Well, it makes more sense in the context of our school.”
His eyes widen. “Oh. Right. He’s the principal at the school you teach at.”
“Yes.”
“So…Wait, do you know Sadie?”
“Nope. The boy she looks after is a little older than my kids.” I know this because Russell chose to tell me about the student, before telling me about this student’s nanny, and then revealing to me that he had fallen in love with her while engaging in a sexual relationship with her (his words!).
“Oh right. Sorry, go on.”
“No, it’s just…I mean, he’s a handsome man and he has this air of power…of sorts. He carries himself a certain way that sort of commands respect. And he’s the king around our school, so when he zeroed in on me as soon as I started there, it was…he can be very intense and persuasive when he wants something. And protective. I guess I needed that when I first moved here.”
He nods, tapping at his chin. “Hunh. Interesting.” I can see him trying to decide if he should keep asking me questions, and to my surprise, he does. “So your last name’s Parks? Nina Parks?”
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
