“Beaux, nice to meet you,” he said and introduced me. While I shook Kyle’s hand, Beaux scanned the parking lot, stopping on a shining black, Ford F-250 Crew Cab truck. The grill was an upgrade but other than that, we couldn’t see anything about the truck.
“I’ll take that one,” Beaux said and turned back to the salesman. “Cash. How soon can we wrap this up?”
“What?” I exclaimed. He was…how could…why… what? “What are you doing?”
He looked at me and grinned. “Told you. I know what I want.”
The heat in his eyes shocked me, forcing me back a step. My goodness he gave good innuendo. I wanted to lick it up like hot fudge off a spoon. Then my common sense kicked in.
“Would you like to take a look at it?” Kyle asked. His surprise was as evident as mine, but he wasn’t about to lose a sale, either. “You’re welcome to test drive it. It’ll only take me a minute to get the keys.”
Beaux shook his head. “Nope. I’m good.”
“You don’t even know if it has Bluetooth. Leather seats.” I tried to come up with things he’d care about since he said he didn’t know anything about trucks or engines. “How it rides. How many miles it has on it. If it’s new or used. You don’t know anything about it!”
So much for simple and normal! My heart was fluttering so quickly I feared it exploding.
Beaux pointed his thumb at me and looked at Kyle. “Does it have that crap?”
“Yes, sir. That truck is brand new and has been fully upgraded, the engine is—”
“Okay then.” Beaux clapped his hands together and dropped them to his hips. “Let’s get this taken care of.”
He held his hand out for me to go in front of him, but I stood there, knowingly gaping at him. I’d never seen anything like this in my life. He didn’t even know how much it cost.
“Maybe we should talk about this.”
“We will. Over dinner.”
I didn’t know whether to slap him upside the head or think what he was doing was sweet.
Slap him. Definitely. But not in public. I’d wait until he was in his new stupid truck he’d tricked me into going to buy with him even though he didn’t care at all about the darn thing.
Which was sort of sweet in itself. He truly didn’t care what he drove. No pretentiousness in him other than paying for it in cash.
A memory of the cash my mom used to send me for birthdays after she left flickered to my mind but I pushed it away. Now wasn’t the time to think about her.
Beaux shocked me further when we sat down, both of us on the other side of Kyle’s desk while he went to get paperwork.
“His name is Ballsman,” he snickered. “Poor man.”
I laughed, unable to stop myself before it burst out. This guy was something else, definitely not right in the head. We were still smiling at each other, that heat I’d felt earlier swirling between us, enveloping us. It seduced me with the sweet scent of his cologne and the soft look in Beaux’s eyes. It pulled me closer, made me feel something for the man in front of me. Things I had no business feeling, but could no longer remember why.
“Beaux,” I said, my voice thick with something unidentifiable. Lust? Need?
“You do feel it.” He leaned closer. “I’ve felt something every time you’ve been working and I’ve seen you for months. Glad you’re finally getting on the same page as me.”
“What?”
“Don’t come into Ride’Em Rough for the burgers, Paige. They’re crap on a bun.”
Oh my goodness. He’d just implied…He did. He said that. I had no response. I’d never waited on him until the other night, always passing it off.
And he kept coming back to see me?
“Why?”
“Because you’re beautiful. You say thank you to everyone. You always smile even when I’ve caught you fighting a yawn. You laugh with the cooks and most of the other servers look to you like you’re they’re big sister. I like it.”