Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
Aaron
I notice the armor the very second she climbs out of the truck. The instant her shoulders square up and her brows furrow. There’s a shift, her becoming a woman ready to battle in a war that isn’t even being fought.
I wait, wondering if she will walk in my direction or if she’ll completely ignore the fact that I am even there at all.
She unhooks the red car on her truck, another man coming out to offer assistance. She stands by as the car is driven into the shop and a younger girl follows, taking a seat in the small waiting area through the floor to ceiling windows in front.
Kendall glances back at me, and then toward the shop, tucking her hands into her back pockets. I watch and wait, wondering what her next move will be, still unsure of exactly what I’m doing here. I was on my way to the office, when I took a left instead of a right.
And now here I am.
When she says something to a tall guy just inside the garage door then starts to walk in my direction, my nerves kick up.
Crossing the road, she gets closer and I climb out of the truck.
Immediately noticing the waistband of her jeans, I point. “Plan on shooting me?”
She looks down and her shoulders relax just a little, a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth.
“Had to scare a man a little,” she says in explanation.
“I think you’ve mastered that skill, Kendall.” The words are out of my mouth before I even have time to filter them.
Lifting her gaze to meet mine once more, she arches a brow. “Why Aaron do I scare you?”
I hold her stare, so many things racing through my mind at once, then I nod. “For so many more reasons than you know,” I confess.
I’ve been tied in knots for weeks. My head jumbled with ideas and doubts.
“What are you doing here, Aaron?” She doesn’t even attempt to touch on my words. She doesn’t ask what they mean, just brushes right past them and gets right to the point.
“Honestly?”
“Yeah,” she replies, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I was on my way to the office and ended up here instead.”
“Where is your friend?” she asks. “Probably should have gone to visit her instead.”
“Why does it bother you?” I already know this conversation isn’t going to get us anywhere and most likely will end with us getting pissed off at one another and her storming off or me peeling out. But I’m unable to stop it from moving forward in the wrong direction.
“It doesn’t.” Kendall’s nostrils flare.
I ignore her answer. “And why is it so easy for you to lie about how much it irritates you?"
She stares at me, without answering my question and I take another step toward her.
“It was good between us,” I push. “Admit it.”
Again she says nothing, just continues to stare at me.
“That’s the part that’s bothering you the most," I tell her. Suddenly all of it makes sense. “It wasn’t a meaningless hookup, it wasn’t some random release with some guy you know but don’t care about.
” Kendall narrows her eyes at me. “It was different, and you can’t let it go any more than I can.
You can’t forget the connection like you’ve always managed to do before. ”
“Maybe if I didn’t have you in my face all the time it’d be easier to forget.”
And there it is, the confirmation I need to know I’m right. But the question of why still remains. Why does she want to forget?
“I doubt that’d it be that easy,” I poke the bear a little more.
The fire in this woman amazes me, the drive in her to be right and to be in control all the time no matter what the situation intrigues me.
“But we aren’t gonna find out, because I’m not going anywhere, Kendall.
I am right here, reminding you every day how I made you feel.
So sooner or later you are going to have to face the truth. ”
“Yeah and what truth is that?” I sense her irritation, it’s written all over her face, but I don’t care.
“That you want me too, and not just for sex.”
She laughs sarcastically, but the nervous energy it contains cannot be hidden.
“You need to go,” she says, taking a step back.
“Why, because it’s true?”
“Because you have no idea what you are talking about.” She drops her hands to her sides and looks back over her shoulder before refocusing her attention on me.
“I don’t want you, I’m not harboring this deep connection to you,” she says with her nostrils flaring.
“I’m not thinking of you, I’m not running from some imaginary pull you think is there.
I am actually working. I’ve got a life, Aaron. ”
I nod, not giving her the reaction she is looking for and her temper flares.
“Leave.”
“Is that really what you want?”
“I said it, didn’t I?” The way her nostrils flare should scare me a little but it doesn’t. What I do know is pushing Kendall to the point where she snaps means that I will finally get through the barrier and gain the truth. When she snaps, that’s when she is honest.
“I know you said it, but what I am asking is did you mean it?”
“What do you want from this?” She throws her hands out to her sides.
“What do you think you are going to accomplish showing up here and getting in my face like this? Do you think I am going to fall at your feet? You think I’m gonna fall head over heels and be some cushy little housewife waiting for you at home after a long hard day? ”
“I don’t want you waiting for me at home.”
“Then what the hell do you want?” Her voice rises.
“I want you,” I confess. “I want your attitude, I want to fight with you, and I want you to challenge me. I don’t want boring and predictable. I want you and all that comes with it.”
Maybe I am setting myself up for disaster. But keeping it all in hasn’t gotten me anywhere.
“And I want you to admit that you feel something for me. I want this battle to come to an end. I don’t want to change you Kendall, fuck I love everything about you.
That one night with you, it hit me harder than anything else ever has.
It wasn’t a hookup for me. It was a pivotal moment in my life when I realized you are the one person I know I’m meant to be with. ”
“Stop,” she practically growls the word.
“No,” I challenge her again, taking another step forward.
“I want you, and I’m not going to stop telling you that. I’m not gonna let it go because for some reason you can’t admit it to yourself. It doesn’t make you weak, Kendall.”
She looks at me, and for a second I see a shift in her expression, an acceptance. But it is gone faster than it appeared.
“I don’t feel the same way.” She shrugs. “Sorry, but it really was just sex, Aaron.”
With that she takes a few steps back and then turns around and walks away.