Chapter 7
Britt startled when she heard the tap on her window, then slid in her seat when she saw the man from K&Bs peering at her.
Oh boy. She hadn’t made enough of a fool of herself by running to the bathroom and standing in his way when he needed to go. She’d
been so out of sorts, she only waved goodbye to X and Maude and dashed out of the store and jumped in her car. She was planning
to go home and melt into a puddle of humiliation.
But she couldn’t just leave Maude and X hanging without saying a proper goodbye. She was just about to go back inside, deciding
that if she did see him, she would pretend she hadn’t inadvertently blocked him from using the restroom, and they hadn’t just
had their bodies pressed against each other.
Now he was here, with only her car door separating them. All she could think about was how he felt, how he smelled—completely
yummy—and how he had to think she was the weirdest person on the planet. Probably the entire universe.
He tapped again, and she pushed the button to roll down the window, only to fail since the engine wasn’t on. She started the
car and tried to roll down the window again. Instead her back windows went down. Good grief. She quickly rolled them up. Forget
the windows, she’d just open the door—
“Oof!” He took a step back.
“Sorry!” This was going from bad to worse. She got out of the car and shut the door. “Are you okay?”
He rubbed the center of his chest. “It’s gonna take more than a car door to put a dent in me.” He smiled.
And her knees swayed. Literally, she had to grab the hood of her car for balance. Hopefully he didn’t notice.
He took a step forward, his smile shifting to a concerned look. “Are you all right?”
Too late. “Me? Oh yeah. I’m fine. Perfectly fine.” She tried to play it off by putting her hand on her hip and draping her other arm
over the top of her car, hoping the position didn’t look as awkward as it felt. From his frown, she could see it did. She
straightened, her hands drifting to her sides.
“Glad you’re okay,” he said, but he looked unconvinced.
Uh-oh. Sweaty palms, galloping heartbeat, sour stomach... It was coming back with a vengeance. Again, she needed to escape. “I
better get back inside. I was just checking on something in the car.” Not exactly the truth, but it would work.
He nodded. “Maude and X looked a little worried about you.”
Her friends’ concern cut through her nerves enough to make her smile a little. “They’re really sweet people. Eccentric, but
sweet.”
“I could tell.” He glanced at the Yamaha motorcycle behind him. “Guess I’ll get going,” he said, moving away from her.
She made her own move to walk away, only to pause. “Thanks for checking on me,” she said, and she meant it. “You didn’t have
to do that.”
He stopped. Nodded. “No problem.”
Now that they were talking and she was acting somewhat normal, she could see his features in the fading light of dusk and took a more detailed inventory. Straight eyebrows hovering over hooded eyes. Light hazel irises ringed with brown. A sloped, even nose. Full lips, with the top one a little larger than the bottom, but not enough to distract. At least a two-day five o’clock shadow covered a square, proportional jaw. This man was not only incredibly good-looking, but he’d been blessed with almost flawless features. In her mind she imagined how she would draw him—
She blinked. Twice. Then realized he had tilted his head and was staring at her.
“I...” Brother. How was she going to explain that she was fantasizing about drawing him? She asked the first question that came to mind.
“Are you a model?”
He broke out in a laugh. “No. Not even close.”
“You could be,” she blurted, then resisted the urge to face-palm herself. “I mean, I draw portraits sometimes—”
“I know.”
“How... Oh yeah. The Wall of Britt.” She leaned against the car. “Maude and X are good teachers. I’m not the only one whose
artwork they display.”
He hooked his thumb into his beltloop, letting his bag of art supplies dangle by his leg. “Do they have their own walls?”
“Um, no.” She scratched the back of her neck. “I’d be happy to share, though.”
He didn’t say anything else. Traffic hummed from the street by the lot. A horn honked in the distance.
And here comes the awkward silence. “Uh, have a good evening. Night, I mean.” What time was it even? She reluctantly pulled her gaze from him and started for
the store, committing every detail of his face to memory the best she could. She definitely wanted to draw him. Was that creepy?
She wasn’t sure.
“Britt.”
She halted, stunned he’d called her name. Then she tried to turn on her heel, only to stumble on a piece of broken blacktop. Regaining her balance, she yanked at the hem of her multicolored flower power T-shirt. “Yes?”
He walked toward her, and for the first time since she’d met him, an uncertain expression crossed his face. He stopped a few
feet away. Shifted his bag to his other hand. Looked away for a moment before he extended his hand to her. “I’m... Hunter.”
***
When Britt’s jaw literally dropped and stayed open for a few seconds, Hunter wanted to touch her chin with one finger and
push it closed. He could almost smile at her shocked expression if he wasn’t so concerned he was making a terrible mistake.
He didn’t know why he’d told her who he was when he’d been so sure he shouldn’t. But as she walked away from him, he couldn’t
just let her go. Even if they never spoke or wrote to each other again, at least he’d had these few minutes with her. Still,
he hoped this wasn’t the end.
She finally closed her mouth. “Hunter. From—”
“Your channel.” He lifted his bag and half smiled. “Just bought my supplies for the ten-minute challenge.”
The parking lot streetlamps turned on as her eyes widened. “You live here?”
“Yep. About fifteen minutes west.”
Now she was blinking, as if she were trying to comprehend what he was saying.
“Me showing up here tonight was just a coincidence, I promise. I don’t want you to think I’m stalking you. Or that I’m an
axe murderer.” He tried to smile, letting her know he’d heard what she said when she was in the bathroom.
Britt took a step back, her expression now guarded. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
She had him there. His smile disappeared.
“I guess you don’t.” He backed away. “Don’t worry. I don’t know where you live, and I’m not going to try to find out. Like
I said in my messages, I came across your channel, started to watch the videos, and liked them.” He left out the part where
he listened to her as he fell asleep. She would really be freaked out about that.
She took another step away from him.
“Yeah... this was a horrible idea,” he muttered. “I shouldn’t have told you.”
“I don’t know,” she finally said in a timid voice. “It might have been weirder if you hadn’t.” She wrung her hands together.
“I get a lot of creeps who message me.”
“I’m not surprised.”
She lifted an indignant brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He held up his hands, palms out. “Just that you’re—” He almost said cute, and if he had he was pretty sure she’d be dialing
911 right now. “Talented. You have a lot of subscribers and tons of comments. Considering the law of averages, you’re bound
to have some oddballs reaching out to you.”
She crossed her arms. “What would the law of averages say the chances are that we just happened to be here at the same time?”
“I don’t know.” He dropped his hands. “Never made it past pre-algebra in school. But I’m serious when I say it’s complete
chance that we both decided to go to K&Bs today. And I did tell you I wanted to patronize one of your sponsors. I picked this
store because it’s local to me.”
“I suppose that could be true.”
This would be an ideal moment for him to hop on his bike, drive away, and forget all about Britt Branch so she could forget all about him. But as he’d done when making all his decisions since she’d walked into K&Bs, he continued to ignore common sense.
“I can prove it to you. Why don’t we meet back here, let’s say Monday afternoon around two or so. I’ll work on my ten-minute
challenge, and I can show you my work in front of X and Maude, so we’ll have witnesses. Until then, I won’t message you online.
How does that sound?”
She rocked back and forth on her heels, her gaze remaining on him. Finally, she nodded. “Okay. Two o’clock. Monday, in front
of my friends.”
His shoulders relaxed. “Sounds good.” Then he added, “Thanks for giving me a chance.”
Her expression still shuttered, she nodded, then turned and hurried to the store.
He didn’t blame her for running off. He also couldn’t help but smile. He would prove to her he was genuine about learning
from her. More importantly, she would see he wasn’t a stalker or a creep.
Then his smile faded when he realized he’d truly committed himself to drawing a seashell in ten minutes. Oh boy. He hopped
on his bike and headed back home. He had a lot of practicing to do.