Page 68 of Tenderfoot

Evidence was suggesting all Javi had to do was whisper and call me Lolita and he’d get his way.

The thumb swipe was overkill. A fabulous overkill, but overkill.

And I was putty in his hands (or against his thumb).

Therefore, without another word, he took my hand, led me out of his house and into his truck, and I didn’t make that first peep.

“Hey,” he called.

I came back to him in his truck to see we were idling outside the back door to The Surf Club.

I turned to him. “Hey.”

“You good?” he asked.

I was sitting in Javi’s truck with Javi, he was really into me, he was a great kisser, he was overprotective (and I didn’t think that was at all a bad thing), and he could toast a mean bagel.

I was definitely good.

“I’m good,” I said.

The sweet look on his face told me he heard all the things I did not say, and I didn’t think that was a bad thing either.

For some reason, I wasn’t nervous anymore. Not at all.

“What’d you pick to take to this thing tonight?” he asked.

“Pigs in a blanket,” I told him.

“When you gonna make that shit if the meeting is half an hour after you get off work?”

Wow.

He really knew a lot about me and my schedule.

Then again, I’d been paying extremely close attention to him too. I didn’t know his every move, but the ones I did know, I paid a whole load of attention to.

“I was going to ask Raye or Luna to run to the store for me, and I was going to use the SC ovens.”

“Text me what you need. I’ll get it and drop it by.”

How nice!

It was then I realized it was ten to eleven, and he was not at work.

“Why aren’t you at work?”

“Because I’m with you.”

“Don’t you have to work?”

“Yes, and my work this morning includes looking after you.”

What?

“Like, as my bodyguard, or something?” I inquired.

“No, like, as the guy who wants to spend time with you, also the guy who wants to see you naked, when you’re ready for that, so obviously the guy who wants you to survive long enough for me to do both. But, yeah. Like your bodyguard.”

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