Even his name felt like peanut butter glued to the roof ofmy mouth and if you said his name too fast, it all blended together into oneword.
Patrickinney.
Standing there, the light illuminated around him like hewas some sort of god.
Patrick Kinney was no god. He was a parasite, and nobodyworships a parasite.
“Hey McKenna, throw these on too, wouldya?”His partner Graham held up a bag of chips and waved them in the air for all oftwo seconds before taking the liberty of stuffing them into one of the paperbags.
“You got it,” I said, punching in the amount, and I addedup the total. “Okay, that’ll be sixty-seven, fifteen.”
Patrick Kinney placed his forearms down on the butcherblock counter top, leaning himself down a couple notches. “Hey, I’m a free mannow. I could takeyain the back, and maybe find away to knock that total down by twenty bucks.”
Graham erupted in a laugh that managed to echo through thepacked little shop. “Not sure a line like that’sgonnaget you in her pants, man. Maybe you should try, oh, I don’t know, being nicefor once?”
“Hey, I still have a few other lines I could try,” Patricksaid with a cock of a brow, lowering his head to find the eyes I kept hiddenwith my down-turned face. “What doyasay, Kinsey?Wannasee what I can do with my baton?”
I groaned irritably with a hot blast of air through mynose, drumming my fingers against the counter. It was a never-ending struggleto not let him get to me, and God, I was sick of trying.
“No wonder you’re still single, dude,” Graham chuckled,smacking Patrick on the back.
“Only single until she finally marries me.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” his partner laughed, andturned to peruse the racks of cookies and packaged pastries.
With Graham’s eyes diverted, Patrick made a bold littlemove; he curled a finger under my chin and lifted my head to look in his eyes,to hold me there. He had never dared to touch me during those two years sincemy return, and God, I wished he hadn’t then. I wished I hadn’t seen his eyes.They were what always sucked me in, called me home ...
“Kinsey, you know I’m justbein’anarse,” he said in a low voice, his eyes slidingsideways to see where Graham was.
“Oh, are you capable of being anything else?”
“You and I both know the answer to that.”
Preferring to not think about those old days, I jerked myhead backward, away from his touch. I wanted him to flinch at my reaction, andfeel my exaggerated disgust toward him, but he only dropped his hand to thecounter and held his gaze with mine. I hated the power that he had over me, butonce Patrick had his eyes on mine, I felt that welcome warmth, like returningfrom a long trip.
“I wanted to tellyathatChristine ismovin’ back to Jersey.”
I forced myself to breathe evenly, to keep my eyes on thecounter. I couldn’t let him know about the twisting in my stomach, or the waymy hands suddenly felt a little clammy at the sound of her name.
“And?”
“And… I thought you’d like to know that she won’tbe around much longer.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Right.”
He stood up, releasing me from his cripplingstare, and reached into his back pocket for his wallet. The four twentiesdropped under my nose, and I shuffled them into a neat pile. Pulling on thelever of the antique machine made the cash drawer pop out with its obnoxiousding,and I went to grab his change.
Patrick shook his head. “Keep it.”
“We don’t accept tips,” I said, glaring at him. He knew this.He’d been coming to the deli since he was a kid, and every single day for thepast two years.
All the better to torment me.
Pursing his lips, he nodded slowly, then held out an expectanthand. I slipped bills and coins from their designated spaces and recountedbefore dropping them in his hand, clinking coin onto coin. I went to pull myhand away after the last of the change had been dropped, but he reached for me,flipping my palm over and stuffing the cash in, before closing my hand aroundit.
It took everything in me to not close my eyes at the touchof his heated skin, to not sigh and melt into a puddle of lustful need on thefloor. It took everything,all ofmy energy, and inthose seconds, I was left drained.
