Page 50 of Wait With Me
“I know it’s ridiculous to be spending time with a guy who doesn’t know the real you.”
“He does know the real me!” I argue. “He knows more about me than Dryston ever learned in our two years together.”
“But you’re hooking up with a guy who still doesn’t know your real name. How do you think that’s going to end, Kate?”
“I don’t know. We’re casual now, but maybe we could be more.”
“See! That’s what kills me. I thought Miles was just a rebound guy, but you’re trying to force him to be more, and I’m right fucking here trying to offer you more! This guy doesn’t even know your real name, and you’re shocked by my hope? Come off your high horse, Kate.”
“What high horse?”
“You’re so blind and self-involved. You should have seen this coming.”
My jaw drops. “Excuse me?”
“It’s true. When you’re in the book world, you ignore everything and everyone around you.”
“It’s my job, Dean!” I exclaim. “I can’t help it. It’s not a freaking switch I can click off.”
He exhales heavily through his nose. “You honestly didn’t see the signs?”
I close my eyes tight and cycle back through our friendship. Dean is a flirt. He’s always been a flirt. He gets handsy, and he tosses my flip-flop out doors, and he gives me a lot of crap…a lot more than he gives Lynsey.He’s like a kid on the playground who pulls a girl’s pigtails because he likes her.
That realization hits me like a ton of bricks.
I look up at Dean who looks so defeated, it breaks my heart. But I have to be honest with him. “I like Miles,” I state with a simple shrug.
“But he only wants casual,” Dean retorts, leaning toward me and grabbing my hand. “I want so much more with you, Kate. I’d want it all. The good and the bad. You said Miles doesn’t want drama. I’ll take all your drama because I care about you.”
His words are killing me. Slowly slicing through me like tiny little pinpricks of anxiety because regardless of Dean’s willingness to commit, I don’t see him that way. I pull my hand out of his and reply, “I’m sorry, Dean.”
He pulls back and exhales heavily with a tight nod.
“I still want to be friends,” I add, but he cuts me off with a scathing look.
“I need you to go,” he states, his jaw tight with anger.
“Dean—”
“I’m not kidding, Kate. This went worse than I could have ever imagined, and I need you to go before you ruin this bakery for me. We all have our own little places we vibe at, and this is my Tire Depot. So please, can you just leave?”
Seeing the resigned look on his face that I cannot ignore, I grab my satchel off the bench before sliding out of the booth. “I’m sorry, Dean.”
He nods woodenly, and without another word, I turn and walk out, leaving Dean behind to wait with our numbers.
“Hey!” Miles exclaims, his eyes wide and surprised as I stride around the hood of some sort of vintage blue truck he’s elbows deep in.
He hits me with a megawatt smile, and I have to pause to stabilize myself on the toolbox beside me. Miles isn’t dressed in his standard Tire Depot coveralls. He’s dressed in a pair of worn jeans and a white tank top that looks about one size too small for his enormous pecs.
“I was just heading toward the comfort center, and I figured I’d stop and say hello since the garage door was wide open.”
He sets down some sort of complicated-looking car thing and pulls the bottom of his tank top up to wipe the sweat from his brow. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, even his abs have dirt and oil on them.
His entire body is glistening with sweat and oil, and his bright blue eyes are electric as ever. It’s all doing serious things to my body.
I clear my throat and blink rapidly a few times to get control of myself. “What’s that?” I ask, pointing at the contraption he set down. I need to distract my thoughts from how badly I want to bone him right here in this dirty garage.
“A carburetor,” he answers, his mouth tipping into a half-smile.
