CHAPTER 5
ELIZA
I pull my coat tighter around my body to help me keep warm against the dropping temperature as I walk home. The sun hasn’t set completely, thankfully, and it’s not a far walk. Still, it’s getting colder at night now.
I’m not looking forward to asking my parents for a ride after work. It’s not like there are a lot of other people to ask. There’s also no reason for me to buy a car. That would go against my whole plan to save up money this year.
Asking my parents for help with the cost of a car isn’t an option. Not when they aren’t happy with the choice I made to stick around for this year. As far as they’re concerned, I should be on some campus and spending all my free time in the library.
Instead, I’m walking home.
When I hear the sound of a vehicle behind me, I don’t even think twice about it. I’m sure they’ll wave or honk when they pass. Most people do. The likelihood of us not knowing each other, especially with how many people I interact with at the market, is pretty slim.
“Eliza,” my name being barked at me with barely contained anger has me jumping.
I turn toward the sound slowly. All I can do is stand still and blink when I find Kendrick leaning into the passenger side of his father’s truck to get closer to the window which is barely cracked open.
“What are you doing?” I hiss the question and look around like Mrs. Riley is going to jump out of a nearby bush.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he pushes the words past his clenched jaw. “What are you doing out here, in the cold, walking all alone? Anything could happen to you,” there’s fear mixed into his words, but it’s overshadowed by the anger I hear.
Instead of making me want to cower, it has the hair standing up on the back of my neck and my spine straightening.
“Kendrick, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re in Seneca Falls.
We are not wherever you ran off to, which must be far more dangerous than here if you think walking alone while the sun is setting is a problem. ”
My words are full of sass. It’s far more bite then I’ve ever shown anyone before. I’m not entirely sure where it comes from, but I don’t regret it. I should, right? I mean, it’s not like he’s really done anything to deserve my reaction to him.
Well, other than treat me like some airhead blonde who is too na?ve to live.
“You have a lot more fire than I was expecting, Baby,” he says it like it’s a compliment.
Then there’s his grin and the way his eyes sparkle with amusement. Somehow, I don’t think he’s making fun of me either.
“What’s your game here, Kendrick?” I sigh and glance down at my feet. “I really need to get home; my feet are killing me.”
“Hop in,” his voice a mix of a demand and pure temptation.
My head snaps up to find his dark brown eyes willing me to say yes. To give in. To leap.
I’ve never leapt into anything blindly in my life. Life was planned for me. Expectations were given and I simply rose to them. What was the alternative? My parents worked too hard for me to be a source of more work for them. It’s not like it didn’t make it easier for me either.
They trusted me and didn’t question my decisions, right up until I told them I wasn’t going to college this fall. I started to see cracks then. It was like peeking around the curtain and being blinded by the sun.
I was only a source of pride as long as I was going along with their plan. I was only worthy of attention if I was meeting their expectations.
What they didn’t realize is I was exhausted.
Maybe they didn’t see it.
Or they didn’t care.
I push the thought away, and ignore the way it gets louder every day, with a shake of my head. “I’m not getting in your truck,” the words come out a lot huskier than I intend them to.
And Kendrick’s mouth tips up into a smirk. A smirk I should not find sexy but can’t quite seem to look away from.
He leans farther over the seat and pulls the inside door handle which causes the door to open with a creak.
“Hop in, Eliza,” he tells me more forcefully.
“I’d like to take you somewhere if you could spare a few minutes of your time.
I just came back from seeing Dad and,” he takes a breath and looks away to take in how the sun has finished setting, “I just need a moment. There’s one place I would go when I was growing up and felt like this. Can I share it with you?”
His eyes come back to meet mine, full of earnest intent that isn’t shy about desiring me while being tempered by something sweeter, something softer.
I take a step closer to the truck without even realizing it.
The way he deflates has me opening the door all the way and sliding inside the warm interior.
He watches me closely as I buckle myself in, almost like he wants to make sure I’m safe. The thought has butterflies swooping around in my belly.
“How is your dad?” I whisper the question in the quiet as he drives, unable to hold it in a moment longer.
Kendrick glances at me, a wariness in his eyes which I’m not sure has anything to do with me. “He’ll live,” he tells me, his voice even, but strained.
It only takes a few more minutes for us to pull off the road and onto a path I’ve never noticed before.
Kendrick keeps driving through a copse of trees but then stops, the sound of the fall leaves crunching under his tires.
My mouth falls open at the wide-open field.
The grass is tall and yellow, but I can imagine it in spring and summer. This little meadow would be gorgeous.
I look out across the expanse of land to find us closer to the mountains which help define our county and where you can find the waterfall that gives our town its name. People use our little town as a weigh station before they go and hike the trails to the falls and along the mountainside.
“It’s beautiful.”
Kendrick flashes me a panty-dropping grin which has my nipples hardening like they’re trying to grab his attention. If he notices, he doesn’t let on and I’m grateful for it.
He reaches into the backseat to pull out a few blankets. Then he’s out of the truck and around back where he drops the tailgate. When the whole truck vibrates, I swing my door open and pop my head out.
“What are you doing?” I ask, making sure I’m loud enough for him to hear me, which isn’t difficult with how quiet it is out here.
“You should be asking what we are doing, Baby?”
I huff out an annoyed grunt while trying not to smile at the way his nickname for me has my body buzzing with an awareness I should not give into. Even though part of me desperately wants to.
Giving in, I try again, “Okay? What are we doing?”
He gives a satisfied nod at the flatbed of the truck before coming around to my side and offering me his hand.
I stare at it a moment before sliding my hand into his.
Why does it feel like I just jumped without a parachute?
My stomach is in free fall, but the warmth of his hand grounds me and has me craving more.
When I glance up at him, he’s already looking at me with an emotion dancing in his eyes that I’m not sure I want to identify. Not yet at least. He smiles before gently pulling me out of the truck and toward the back.
“We,” he emphasizes the word, “are going to bundle up back here and look up at the stars for a moment.”
He acts like it’s a perfectly normal configuration of words. I’m not sure it is.
“We are?”
“Oh yes,” he fires back, the look on his face is serious as we face the truck bed where he’s laid out the blankets into something like a bed.
“Aren’t you the same person who was just saying it’s too cold for me to be out and walking around?” I’m not even sure why I’m challenging him, but I am.
“Did I say that?” When I nod, he makes a humming sound and shrugs. “I guess we’ll have to snuggle under these blankets to make sure you don’t get too cold. It’s not at all the same as walking around out there. And I’m pretty sure I was more upset about the darkness than the cold.”
“Could have fooled me,” I grumble under my breath.
The way he chuckles tells me he heard me loud and clear.
He doesn’t say anything and gives me zero warning before lifting me into the bed of his truck.
I look back at him over my shoulder, my eyes wide as I scramble away from the edge.
Kendrick follows me right up and has us underneath a blanket and bundled up so quickly that it takes my breath away.
“You move fast,” my voice is breathy, but there is an accusation somewhere underneath my words.
With a frown he tells me, “I’ve never been one to wait around for something to come to me. I go after what I want with a single-minded focus.”
The way he looks into my eyes says more than his words do. He wants me. He’s coming after me. I don’t need him to say it.
Honestly, I’m not sure I would be able to survive it if he were to say the actual words. My heart is already hammering way too hard inside my chest to be healthy from being this close to him. He looks me over carefully, scanning me completely and cataloging everything.
“Are you warm enough?”
“Yeah,” I breathe out, “thank you.”
He nods and then carefully lays back and looks up at the stars above us. After following him down, our heads are probably far too close to each other, considering we don’t really know each other. But it’s thrilling being so close and I have no intention of moving away.
“Dad’s an ornery son of a bitch,” Kendrick’s words are harsh, but his voice is filled with resignation. “He tried to chase me away, but I made it very clear that I’m not going anywhere.”
He turns his head toward me and as much as I try to resist the urge to look at him, I find myself meeting his gaze. Even in the dark, his brown eyes blaze with an intensity that makes me want to squirm. Instead, I tug the blanket tighter around me.
“Everyone will be talking about you coming back,” I murmur.
“Aren’t they already?” He snorts out a laugh and when I look at him, there’s a hint of bitterness in his expression.