Page 54 of Knight
“Yep.” I rang her up and she handed me cash. “I have about another hour. I was going to try and get an hour of studying in before my afternoon class.”
“Me too. I’ll be over in the corner when you’re done.” She said with a bright smile as she took her coffee cup from my hand.
“Sounds good.”
This wasn’t out of the ordinary. We often met before or after my shift to study, whether it was for the class we had together or other ones. I found it nice to have someone there even if we weren’t really talking to each other. She was good about getting down to business and not distracting me.
“So, really, what is up with you today?” Dale asked a little while later. The place was still quiet, a fact that sometimes I hated, but only when I was working.
“No clue what you’re talking about,” I said, not able to look at him, as I snatched up a rag and wiped down the machines.
“Bullshit,” he said in a fake cough into his hand. I looked at him pointedly then gave him a dramatic roll of my eyes. “Most of the day you have had that glazed over, out of it look in your eyes. And half that time you’ve had this stupid, happy smile plastered on your face. It’s a boy, isn’t it? Or…a girl?”
I let out a loud laugh that caused a few eyes to turn in my direction. I mumbled an apology as I ducked behind the machines to hide my embarrassment.
“Boy. It’s a boy.” I sighed like a silly teenage girl. “But I don’t think I want to talk about it.”
Because I didn’t even know what to say about it.
“Cool,” he said with a shrug. “But by the way you’ve been today, seems like you’ve got some stuff to work out.”
Yep, did I ever.
The day was taking too long. The minutes ticked by at a turtle’s pace. Before I’d darted out the door this morning, on the verge of being late, mind you, Knight pulled me in for a slow, lazy kiss and asked if I wanted to watch a movie with him tonight? Just him. Meaning only the two of us. He said we could even talk and by the way his eyes had danced back and forth between mine, I could tell that was what he wanted more than the silence of watching a movie. I may not have been ready to talk, but the idea of spending time with him alone made the butterflies swarm in my belly.
So, no, I didn’t want to finish the little time that I had left on my shift. I didn’t want to sit down and read over line after line of information I knew I wasn’t going to absorb. And I didn’t want to go to class and listen to the professor drone on and on. But that was life and I knew I’d have to suffer through it to get to the good stuff. My reward for it all, I would have said.
And as I thought about him the bell on the front door chimed and I looked over to find Knight walking through the door, a smile playing on his lips as he looked at me. I couldn’t hide my joy if I wanted to. My face split with the widest smile that my lips would allow. But as Mouse and Ky walked in behind him, I did my best to tone it down.
That was one thing we hadn’t talked about but I had an idea on. The brothers. I was sure Knight wanted to keep this quiet until he talked to my dad. Whatever this was. He wouldn’t want to take the chance that word would somehow get back to my dad before he was able to sit down with him.
So, I tried really hard to hide my excitement.
And lucky for me, Mouse and Ky diverted and walked over to Tara, who I noticed was talking to Dale. Her head tilted back as she laughed at something he was saying. I shrugged, thinking that it was good for her. I kept my eyes pinned on the scene long enough to see the brothers moving in and give a friendly hello to Tara. I watched as Dale’s body stiffened slightly, but then Mouse extended his hand and Dale relaxed as he shook it.
I moved past the cold cases that held the pastries and rounded the side to meet Knight.
“Hi,” Knight whispered, ducking the slightest bit like his massive body would somehow be hidden behind the much shorter case. The thing didn’t even come up to my shoulder, so there was no way we were hidden even the littlest bit.
“Hi,” I whispered in a daze as his clean scent filled my nose. “What are you doing here?” I asked with a quick shake of my head.
“I, um.” Was he being sheepish? No way. Oh, God, it was so cute. “I wanted some coffee?” His voice went up a tinge like it was more of a question than a statement.
“Yeah, okay.” I gave him a small eye roll. “You could just say that you were thinking of me and maybe even missed me.” I raised a brow to cover the fact that I felt a little insecure on the inside at the moment.
“I needed to see you,” he said bluntly, his blue eyes boring into mine. Swoon much? Yes, I did. “I want to kiss you.”
My breath hitched and I blinked at him almost lost at the one-eighty he’d done in the matter of a night. This was like the old Knight,myKnight. The one that didn’t hold back anything. The one that told me every single thing he was thinking, no matter how silly it seemed.
“Can’t stay long. Just wanted to see you,” he said with a smile and then he was backing away from me.
With a jerk of his head, Mouse and Ky walked up to the front to meet him, both of them stopping long enough to pull me in for a quick side hug. Then they were gone, almost like they hadn’t even been there to begin with.
“I didn’t know you, um…” Dale said from behind me catching me off guard. Because my mind was still a million miles away, staring at the door while I wondered if the whole exchange had even happened.
“Know the Steel Paragons?” I finished for him. I knew whatever was going to come next was either going to be very good or very bad. I hated to see him spout out some stereotypical bullshit, but it wouldn’t have been the first time I’d heard it.
“Yeah.” He gave a nod but I couldn’t read his expression.
