Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Tori
After finishing up a lunch shift at Fireweed Winery, I was walking out to my car in the back lot when I heard, “Tori?”
Even though I told myself I wasn’t positive that voice belonged to Kincaid, my nervous system sure thought it was him. A frisson of electricity danced over my skin as I turned and saw him approaching, his boots crunching on the gravel.
I stopped, my pulse taking off at a mad gallop. “Hi!” I squeaked.
Seriously? You can speak like a normal human. He’s just a man. Who cares if he kissed you?
But when he stopped in front of me, and his eyes, warm and cognac-hued, locked with mine, I felt all tingly inside and my belly shimmied.
“How’s it going?” he asked easily, his tone calm and level.
“Fine.” Still squeaky. Fuck my life. I couldn’t even talk like a regular person. I rallied and attempted a normal conversation. “Just finishing up work. What are you doing here?”
Still squeaky. It wasn’t quite as bad as if I had inhaled helium from a balloon, but I felt silly. I could feel the heat burning up my cheeks.
“Picking up takeout.” He paused, glancing over his shoulder at the sound of a vehicle backing up. “I have a question,” he added when he turned back.
“Ask away!” I exclaimed, a little too forcefully, but hey, finally not squeaky. For the win.
“We have a fundraiser for the fire station, and uh, I need a date.”
“You need a date?” I parroted back to him because my conversational skills were awesome.
“Yeah, that’s what I just said.”
“Oh, um, okay. Are you looking for recommendations on who you should bring?” I asked next, as if that made any sense at all.
His eyes crinkled a little at the corners, his lips twitching slightly. “Well, I was wondering if you would go with me.”
“Me?” My hand flew to my chest, rather dramatically, as if we were in a soap opera.
“Yes, you, Tori,” he said, that hint of a smile unfurling across his face.
My belly went from a swoop to a full-on gymnastics routine. My hormones? They were doing cheerleading stunts. “Oh.” Holy wow, one word.
“What do you think?” he prompted, oblivious to my internal state.
Oh, my God, this was so embarrassing. I could not behave like a normal human being. “People don’t usually ask me out on dates,” I finally said.
“Well,” he replied with a grin, “I’m asking you out on a date.”
“Oh,” I repeated. “Are you sure you want me to go with you?”
Kincaid tipped his head to the side, studying me quietly.
I felt completely unsettled under his attention.
There was a rustle of wind in the trees nearby.
The lights from the back of the winery illuminated a few loose leaves drifting to the ground.
I didn’t know how to handle his calm regard and the inquisitiveness in his gaze.
It felt as if he could see right into my heart.
Somehow, he reached inside and held it carefully for me.
“I’m sure about that, Tori,” he finally said, his tone low and clear.
“Okay,” I said. Again, my voice was too forceful, but not squeaky.
“Does that mean yes?” he clarified, his eyes warm.
I nodded vigorously. “That means yes.”
“Do you need to know when it is?” he prompted.
“Oh, there’s always that,” I said, suddenly sheepish. “When?”
“It’s actually this weekend, on Saturday.
” He paused, just a flicker of hesitation in him.
The first one I’d seen. “I hadn’t been planning on bringing anyone, and then they asked if any of us without dates would be part of an auction, and I’d rather not do that.
But more than that…” He shrugged. “After we kissed, well, I’d like to take you out. ”
I swallowed through the anxiety spinning in my chest. “Okay, um, okay.” For fuck’s sake, I needed to pull it together. “Is it a fancy event? Casual? What is it, and where is it?”
“Apparently, they rented the event room here. Seeing as this is Alaska, I think casual is probably fine. They didn’t really give us a dress code.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll figure something out.”
“Okay,” he repeated with a bemused smile.
I started to back away, my bag slung over my shoulder, but Kincaid reached out, catching my hand in his. His touch was like a jolt of lightning sizzling up my arm, spinning through me, and lighting every nerve ending on fire.
“What is it?” I asked.
He gave the slightest pressure to my hand, as if giving me space to pull away. I didn’t want to. Instead, I stepped closer, because that’s what almost everything in me—everything except the tightly-wound distrust coiled in my chest—wanted.
“Just this,” he said softly, before dipping his head and brushing his lips over mine.
His touch was soft, but electric. I actually sighed when he pulled back, a sharp sense of loss filling the space between us.
I wanted more. I wanted to plaster myself against him. To climb him like a tree. To get utterly lost in another kiss like the one from the other night. The heat in his eyes felt like a promise.
He thumbed over his shoulder. “We have an audience.”
I glanced over to see a tourist bus had rolled into the parking lot with a group already disembarking. “Oh.” I let out a breathless, startled laugh.
“So, I’ll text you?” he prompted.
“What time is it?” I asked.
He blinked. “Oh, you mean what time is the fundraiser. Right.” He gave a little head shake, and I thought maybe he was a little discombobulated too. “Six o’clock. Are you working?”
I shook my head, relieved for once that my shift wasn’t scheduled that night. “Nope.”
“I’ll see you then.”
A moment later, I watched him walk toward his truck. I climbed into my car and sat there for a minute before I lifted my fingers to my lips. They were still tingling.
I took a shaky breath and whispered to myself, “See you then.”