She cocked her head, eyes steady on him. “Do you want me to drive you home?”
“Home,” he murmured.
The memory of his room in the house he shared with a few others in Sister’s Edge flashed across his mind. It didn’t feel like home anymore. The hotel he was staying in was dim, small, and cold.
“I don’t think I know where home is yet,” he uttered honestly.
A smile took her lips, and she shrugged. “Same. Maybe we’re both just in transition. We are stuck right in between our old selves and our new selves.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because of the possibilities. I know I’m not going back to the old me, but I haven’t met the new me fully yet. There’s a possibility she’s going to be great.”
“She already is.”
The smile faltered on her lips. “You say that so easily, but you don’t know me.”
He huffed a breath. “I know you enough.” Tawk dusted the coaster off and held it up. “Thank you.” He didn’t really know what he was thanking her for. The words had just spilled out of his mouth without thought behind it.
“Listen, I am getting off my shift right now. My replacement just came in to close the bar down. I have this thing I have to do tonight.” She shifted her weight to the other side, looking nervous.
“What thing?”
“I have to make cupcakes for this community bake sale tomorrow morning.” She shrugged her shoulders up to her ears and held them there. In a small voice, she asked, “Do you want to come over?”
“Are you asking me to fuck you?”
“What? No! I’m asking if you want to hang out while I make cupcakes. You know what? Forget it.”
“Yes to either,” he said as she walked off.
“I’m not asking you to come over for a booty call, Tawk.” She sounded angry.
“Look, every time a female has asked me to come over at night, that’s what they want from me. I just wanted to know up front.”
She was glaring at him, her head cocked, her lips parted. “Forget it.”
“I like cupcakes,” he tried again. “Please forget I asked the other question. I wasn’t asking you for that. I just…I likeknowing where I stand and what to expect. If you had needs you wanted me to take care of, I like to know that’s what it is.”
“I can take care of my own needs. With…myself. I don’t even need a man,” she gritted out as she began walking away again.
Shhhit. He’d messed up. In his defense, she confused the hell out of him!
Tawk gripped the back of his hair and muttered a curse. He climbed back into his truck and watched her turn sideways to shimmy between two cars. Her boobs almost brushed a sideview mirror. Hot.
Tawk gritted his teeth and wished he knew what he was doing with this one. Did he even like this? No. She was confusing and hot and cold, and he couldn’t find his footing with her. He didn’t like this. Not at all.
She yanked open the bar door and disappeared inside.
Good riddance. Confounding woman!
He chewed the side of his lip and just sat there in his truck, door open. God, he was so glad the Cold Foot Crew wasn’t still here to witness him air-balling this.
He inhaled deeply and pulled his phone from his back pocket, and typed her number into a text thread, and then typed out,I don’t say the right things to you. I’m confused the whole time we talk. You make me feel like I’ve never talked to a woman before. I don’t like it.Send.
