Page 19 of Meet Me in the Penalty Box

She stared at me for a moment before her face cracked. Her eyes crinkled at the sides and her laughter danced across my eardrums. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and I found myself completely captivated by her. Holding my breath, I smiled and watched her as she shook her head at me.

“You’re something else, I’ll give you that.” She smiled back at me as her laughter dissipated.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her and I couldn’t stop the words as they rolled off my tongue.

“Go to dinner with me.”

Harper’s eyes widened. “What?”

Fuck.

My jaw clenched and I wanted to suck the words back in. It was too late. I couldn’t take them back now and I had to roll with it.

“I want to take you out to dinner. No strings attached. Just two friends having dinner.”

Harper angled her head to the side as she lifted an eyebrow. “Oh. Are we friends now?” Her tone was light and a ghost of a smile played on her lips.

I nodded. “The best of friends.”

“Well, in that case, I suppose it would be rude of me to say no.” She smiled at me as she shifted her weight on her feet. “Just dinner.”

“I just want to feed you. Nothing more.” I paused. “Not physically feed you, although I wouldn’t be opposed to it.”

She stared at me, her eyes dropping to my mouth before meeting my gaze again. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that and just let you buy me dinner.”

Laughter rumbled in my chest and I didn’t bother to let myself feel embarrassed. “Get in my car,” I told her as I stepped away and made my way to the driver’s side. “I know of a place nearby.”

“What about my car?”

I glanced over at her from where I was standing, noting the distance between us. “Would you feel better if we drove separately?”

Harper nodded. “Don’t want you to get any ideas,” she admitted with a wink.

“I would never,” I scoffed, attempting to feign innocence.

“Yeah, right.” She pulled open her door. “You lead the way and I’ll follow.”

I smiled to myself as I got into my car. I lied when I said I knew of a place nearby. I hadn’t thought that far in advance, but I wasn’t going to let her down now. Getting her to agree to go to dinner with me was half the battle.

And it was the half I had just won.

CHAPTERSEVEN

HARPER

Ieyed Nico skeptically as we walked to the front doors of the restaurant. When he said that he knew of a place nearby, I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. This place wasn’t nearly as close as I imagined. I thought he would take us somewhere within a five-minute drive but instead he had me driving closer to twenty minutes from the stadium, in the complete opposite direction of my apartment.

“What is this place?” I asked him as I looked up at the white sign above. All it said was Dare and it gave nothing away from the outside. It was a brick building with blacked out windows and simply had a black door in the front. “Is this even a restaurant?”

It suddenly dawned on me that I really didn’t know Nico Cirone. For all I knew, he could be a serial killer, leading me closer to my death.

“Of course it’s a restaurant,” he said over his shoulder, as he was now a few steps ahead of me. “What else would it possibly be?

He stopped and slowly pulled the door open, stepping to the side for me to walk past him. It was dark inside and I hesitated, pausing my steps as I looked up at him.

“Your secret murder house or something.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “My what?”

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