Elizabeth Lee - Storm Warning

“Just shootin’ straight. Now, you stop worrying about which one of you is getting more grins from little EJ Mason and buckle your ass down and work? Then I might change my position. We clear?”

“Yes sir,” Hayden choked out.

“COME on, Belle. We aren’t on house arrest. Or wait…are you?” He smirked at the girl sitting with her feet in the pool. He wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight. Not for work anyways.

“Maybe I am. What’s the matter?” Cami lifted her chin in defiance. “Bored of me already?”

Kyle rolled his eyes and stepped over to her. Crouching down, he stared into her warm gaze. “Never.” He kissed her softly on the mouth while pulling her hand to his. “It’s the Fourth. I finally have a four-day weekend. And I want to show you something. Something special.” Brushing his lips across her knuckles, he gave her his best pleading puppy-dog face. “Please? If anyone deserves special, it’s you.”

“You and your lines. One day they’re going to stop working on me,” she informed him. Leaning a few inches out of reach of his mouth, she took a second to check out what he was wearing. Khaki shorts and a blue button-down. With his sleeves rolled up the way they were, she could see just enough of his forearms to make her want to feel his arms around her. It was a lot different from what she usually saw him in. She didn’t think it was possible for him to be any more appealing to her and yet…Kyle Mason in nice clothes was pretty hot.

“Is today that day?” he asked, jutting out his bottom lip.

Cami had to think for a second to remember what he was asking about. “No, probably not,” she answered, taking his hand as he helped her to stand up. “So where are you taking me?”

“It’s a surprise. You’ll like it. Promise.”

Her stomach twisted with worry. Where in the world did he want to go? The thought of possibly seeing any one of the dozens of people she’d bragged about going to St. Tropez to made her feel sick.

“Don’t make that face. It’s a date, Cami. It’s the Fourth of July. This is what couples do.” Kyle knocked his forehead gently against hers.

“I can think of something else couples do,” she said softly in her best seductress voice. Letting her hands drop to Kyle’s waist, she let her intense stare bore into his.

“You’re something else, you know that?” He grinned and shook his head. Before she could answer, he kissed her on the mouth. The kind of kiss she was beginning to think only he was capable of. The kind that tingled its way from her lips to her toes.

“You keep doing that and I’m going to show you something else,” she purred against his mouth.

“Come on, Belle. Your chariot awaits,” he said as he pulled her away from the pool and toward his black new-ish looking truck.

Reluctantly, and with a silent prayer that no one who thought she was thirty-five hundred miles away from Summit Bluffs saw her, Cami allowed him to lead her out of the safety of her backyard.

“WOW. Pinkberry. And we’re going through the drive-thru. You must really like me,” she deadpanned as Kyle drove slowly toward the giant order screen.

He turned and gave her his trademark grin. The one she dreamt about when he was away at camp. “I can’t help it that your lame-ass town doesn’t have a regular ice cream place. But this isn’t the date. This is pre-gaming.”

“Pre-gaming?”

Kyle nodded. “Yep. You know, warming up before the real thing.”

Cami tilted her head to the side. “Warming up with frozen yogurt?”

“Geez, Belle. Give a man a break, will you? If you’re disappointed at the end of the night, I’ll—”

“I doubt I could ever be disappointed. Not with you, anyways,” she admitted so he’d stop torturing himself trying to think of a way to make her happy. She’d pretty much spent her whole life being disappointed by people. Her parents let her down like they were trying to gold medal in it. Hayden was so self-involved that he never paid attention to a word she said unless she was naked—and even then he seemed like he was on a schedule and had to be somewhere else. Even Sophie was destined to walk away sooner or later. But Kyle Mason was different. He seemed to know what she needed before she even did. It actually was pretty nice to finally get out of the house.

“Good,” Kyle breathed out from beside her. “Because the last thing I ever want to do is disappoint you, Belle. It’d be off with my head if I did, right?”

She couldn’t help but giggle. “Something like that.”

“What flavor?” he asked, glancing at the glowing menu next to his window. “Looks like they have a whopping five to choose from. Baskin Robbins it ain’t.”

“Yeah. But this is much better for my figure.”

Kyle stopped to let his eyes roam from her face all the way down to her bare legs. Thank God for sundresses. She nearly melted from the heat in his appreciative gaze. “I’m a big fan of your figure. But I definitely wouldn’t have any complaints about there being a whole lot more of you.”

“Oh more lines,” she said, putting her hand to her forehead and pretending to swoon. “If you keep using them up on me, you’ll run out soon.”

He waggled his eyebrows at her. “Nope. Never. And you’d miss them if I did.”

Shaking her head at his crazy self, she leaned over to glance at her menu options and got a whiff of his cologne. Clean, sweet, and sharp all at once. She fought the urge to inhale as hard as she could. Don’t be a weirdo, Cami. “Um, coconut is fine.” Settling back to her side, she enjoyed his lingering scent as he ordered hers and a chocolate banana protein shake for himself.

She twirled a strand of her hair as he paid at the window. “Here you go, Belle,” he said, handing her a cup and a spoon. Just as she turned toward him to take it, she heard a voice that had her blood running colder than the frozen yogurt.

“Oh my god,” a girl’s voice squealed. “Like seriously? Um, you work at a yogurt shop and wear a stupid paper hat. Puh-leeze. I mean, let’s get real.” The over-exaggerated drama queen’s voice grated on Cami’s nerves as it made its way through the open windows.

“That was freaking hilarious. He totally thought you were serious. You are such a biotch, Raquel.”

The three girls walking out of the yogurt shop and in front of the truck broke into a fit of wild laughter.

“Oh shit,” Cami mumbled under her breath. She wanted to hide. To turn invisible instantly or something. If any one of them, Raquel or either of her two stupid minions—Trista and Jen, who were a year younger than them—turned even a quarter of the way to their right, they would see her. Right there in Summit Bluffs. Not in St. Tropez like she’d just been discussing with Raquel on the phone a few hours ago. A cold sweat broke over her skin and she couldn’t swallow.

“Friends of yours?” Kyle asked from beside her, but she could barely hear over the ringing getting louder in her ears.

This was bad. This was ruin-her-life, get-nicknamed-the-girl-who-goes-on-a-fake-vacay, have-to-admit-to-Raquel-that-she’d-lied bad. Raquel was the kind of girl who fed off the pain and misfortune of others. Like a succubus. And that was putting it politely.

The girls took their sweet time crossing the parking lot so Kyle couldn’t drive forward. A horn honked from behind them and Cami didn’t think, she just reacted. Letting the cup of yogurt fall from her hand, she ducked down to retrieve it before it even hit the floormat.

“Oops. Clumsy me. Um, no. Just a girl from school who drives me nuts. If she sees me, she’ll want to know where we’re going and then she’ll invite herself. You know the type.”

“Here, I got it, babe,” Kyle said, reaching down with a handful of napkins to clean up the tiny smidge of yogurt that had actually fallen on his interior. “It’s not a big deal. It needs a good detail anyways.”

“Okay, it’s just…I don’t want it to stain or anything.” She knew she sounded like a complete idiot, and the fact that she was still ducking down made matters worse. “Um, are they gone?”

Kyle cleared his throat. “Yeah, they’re getting into a red convertible.”

Shit. So they were in Raquel’s car. And if the top was down, which she had no doubt it would be, they’d be right there.

“Okay, um, sorry. I know this is lame. They’re just kind of…annoying. And I’ve managed to not have to deal with their immature crap this summer so I’m trying to lie low.” There. That sounded convincing. Didn’t it?

Much better than, My parents abandoned me and I didn’t want everyone to know that I was an unloved loser so I lied my ass off. Kyle was the kind of guy who didn’t care what anyone else thought. She loved that about him, but she also knew it meant he just wouldn’t get it.

“Literally, in this case,” Kyle muttered under his breath as he finally pulled out of the parking lot. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were ashamed to be seen with me. It’s no Mercedes, but this truck is practically brand new, you know. Worked my ass off to pay for it.” She was so distracted she almost missed the hurt in his voice. Almost.

Rising as slowly as she could manage with her half-ruined cup of yogurt melting in her hand, Cami glanced around and saw that Raquel’s car was out of sight.

Whew. Crisis averted. The tight ball of nerves in her stomach finally eased up. But her sigh of relief caught in her throat when she saw that Kyle was gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white.

“Hey,” she said, setting her yogurt in the cup holder between them. “I’m not ashamed of anything.” Except my parents. And my lies. And my stupid friends who would’ve acted like total bitches.