Page 15 of Hopeless Romantic
Part of the reason Beckett brought her companions-in-training with her to the Crow’s Nest was that they were great conversation starters. While Beckett might appear to be outgoing, in reality, she was an introvert hiding in extrovert’s clothing.
Lessons in social interaction were quite different from the norm in the Hayes household. Her parents had had a hard enough time communicating with each other, let alone the patience to host playdates or sleepovers. By the time Beckett turned five, the fairy tale her mother had constructed around marrying a musical genius had crumbled, and her parents separated. They tried, on and off, to fix things, but Beckett had few memories of living under the same roof as her mom.
Thomas was the product of one of those “on” times, and she’d hoped he’d be the catalyst to bring her parents back together. And for a while, he did. Thomas was developmentally on target as a toddler. Then, almost overnight, the symptoms appeared, and her mom shut down. By his next birthday, she had moved out and moved on—leaving Beckett and the rest of the family behind.
All these years later, Beckett still wasn’t any better at social situations, but she could fake her way through them. So yeah, last night she’d wanted a reason for Levi to talk to her, and Gregory was her wingman.
He gave her a complete visual assessment, then asked, “How are you feeling?”
She glanced down. Her leggings were covered in dog hair, her shirt had smudges of leftover frosting from the doughnuts she picked up at the mini-mart, and she could only imagine what her hair looked like.
She patted her head, only to be reminded she’d twisted and secured her hair into two space-girl buns on top. “How bad is it?”
“Hottest Girl Wonder I’ve ever seen.” She waited for her BS meter to blare as he took a slow inventory, from her boots all the way back up to her space-girl buns, but that stark look of male appreciation couldn’t be faked. “I asked because a moment ago, you apologized to me. Uncoerced.”
“Oh,” she breathed.
“Yeah, oh.” Levi brushed his knuckle over her cheekbone, scattering her thoughts. It was the gentleness of such large and work-calloused hands, she decided, that knocked her off balance. “So question two, how can I make today easier for you?”
The sincere offer was so foreign, Beckett was uncertain how to respond. Or how to feel, for that matter. She couldn’t recall the last time someone had offered to take some of the load. That it was someone she barely knew extending the lifeline made her question just how bad her poker face had become.
She moved to step back, but he’d already dropped his hand and given her a little breathing distance. With oxygen depletion no longer an issue, she went about gathering all the thoughts that didn’t include him naked, him kissing her, or him naked and kissing her.
“Thanks, but we’ve got it.” She gestured vaguely toward Thomas and Diesel.
“We do not have it,” Thomas said. “You want me to go inside. I do not want to go inside.”
Beckett let out a sigh that was half exhaustion and half ready to call it a day. She didn’t have enough bandwidth left to take on Levi, Thomas, and a market full of people who would insist on talking to them. She dropped her head forward. Her plan was to count to ten, then head home without even a pint of mint chip to take the sting out of waving the white flag. Only before she got to three, a pair of flip-flop–clad feet came into her field of vision.
“How about I stay here with your brother while you get whatever you need from inside,” Levi offered.
“He won’t stay with anyone but me or sometimes my dad.”
“Okay. Then how about you two hang here, while I pick up the things on your list?”
Astonished, she said, “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered.” He gave a playful tug on her cape, then looked at Thomas. “Does that work for you, Tommy?”
“He doesn’t like to be called anything but Thomas,” she began.
“He can call me Tommy,” her brother interrupted. “I like Tommy.”
“You hate Tommy.”
Her brother stopped pacing, and Diesel bumped into his calf. “Not anymore.”
“If only Girl Wonder was as easy to impress.” Levi plucked the list out of her hand and headed toward the store.
Men finding an excuse to leave after getting a small taste of her reality wasn’t out of the norm. A man finding a reason to come back? He would be the outlier. A refreshingly unexpected—and completely unsettling—outlier.
“You need money,” she called after him.
“Normally, I’d request payment in the form of cornbread and honey butter. But you’re in luck. Today I’ll settle for a smile.”
Hard not to when he said things like that. She knew he was watching her for a reaction, so she schooled her features, hoping not to look too eager. The apples of her cheeks burned from trying to tame the smile from aMy heroto an acceptableThanks, friend.He wasn’t fooled.
The corners of his mouth lifted. “Be back in a minute, Girl Wonder.”
