Page 17 of Tandem
That was when I saw him.
He walked through the row of cars on the other side of where we were parked. And it suddenly didn’t matter what the conversation was or that my friends were around me, it all faded into background noise. I watched as his fingertips slowly trailed along one of the sports cars, his eyes, the only real feature I could see under the half-skull neck gaiter and black ball cap he wore, analyzing all of the little details about the car. I reached out blindly for Freddie as I kept my eyes on this mysterious stranger. “Freddie…” I yanked him to me.
“What?” Freddie looked at me, puzzled as to why I stopped him from interjecting into the conversation.
“Who’s that?” I nodded toward the masked man. He had stopped his walk to talk to a guy I recognized as Andrew from last year’s fifth-period math class.
“No idea,” Freddie told me, then shrugged off my hand and got back into the conversation he was in the middle of before.
I couldn’t take that for an answer. Staring at the outline of his muscular shoulders and dark hair framing his face, he was just too familiar to me for some reason and I couldn’t place it. I hopped off my car, and slowly walked toward them, squeezing between two people wearing leather jackets admiring a car across from me, trying to see if I could hear any of their conversation as I approached. But that was impossible over all the chatter and occasional booming engine rev. He walked away from Andrew just as I got through the cars, and I hopped the last few steps to Andrew. “Hey, Andrew, right?”
He glanced up from his engine, holding a rag that he had started using to wipe down the top of his engine. “Yo, Wells, what’s up?” I stopped mid-step and shifted my eyes from him to the mysterious man still walking away. I kept my eyes on him as I asked my question, hoping for an answer.
“Nothing much, I was just wondering, who was that you were just talking to? I haven’t seen him around before.”Please know his name, I thought to myself as Andrew whipped his head around to look at the guy then back to me.
“Who, AJ?” he responded, throwing the cleaning rag he was using to wipe his engine down onto his shoulder.
“So your name is AJ…” I whispered under my breath. “Thanks, Andrew! Gotta run!” I yelled as I took off in my own little jog past him down the rows toward the man.
He had kept looking at cars as he moved through the meet, but he had gotten a little ways away, so I had to move a little faster to try to catch up with him. I just had to talk to him. I didn’t know why. It was like a magnet was pulling on me, and I couldn’t resist it. There was just something about the way he confidently walked through the meet, his fingerless gloved hands either tucked in his sleeveless hoodie pockets or gently caressing the body of the cars.
I hardly remembered walking past Jayden, who was clearly doing something shady in the corner of the meet. He barely glanced at me, as I jogged quickly by, tucking something into his jacket pocket. I rolled my eyes and kept going, and just as I was about to reach him, super bright headlights hit my eyes, and I had to stop and throw my arm up to block them. I blinked rapidly, and the lights went dim, but he was gone. I glanced left and right, but he was nowhere to be seen, and I was at the end of the car meet. My heart dropped in my chest and I let out a sigh.
“Guess I’ll never know…” I whispered in disappointment.
“Know what, baby girl?”
I froze, and all the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I felt a hot breath on my neck and the low, smooth rumbling of the voice in my ear. I spun on my heel to come face to face with the man I had been following for a hot minute.
“O-oh! Ummm. Hi! That was n-nothing,” I stuttered, breathless being this close. His dark amber, almost red eyes looked straight into mine, then flickered down and back up, and I could swear he must have started to smile under his mask.Did he just check me out?My mind was racing as I took a step back, and dang it, if I wasn’t at the edge of a curb and didn’t realize it. I tripped and started to fall backward, squeezing my eyes shut and bracing for the fall. But suddenly, I wasn’t falling anymore. Instead, I felt warm fabric against my hands and cheek, and a musky smell of sweat and cologne hit my nose. He smelledso good. I opened my eyes and looked up, only to be met with those red eyes again.
“Easy there. Shit, girls have been known to fall fast around me, but that’s a first.” His words sunk into my soul. I could listen to his voice all night. After a few more moments of shock, I noticed one of his hands was firmly gripping my right ass cheek and the other wrapped around my upper torso and that my hands were clenching his hoodie.
“O-oh! I’m sorry, I’m not normally a klutz like that.” I let go of his hoodie, expecting him to let me go, but his hand massaged my ass once instead, and his other arm slid back so that he could use his hand to move some of the hair out of my face.My face! Oh my god, it’s gotta be a million shades of red right now! Don’t look at it!I turned my face toward the side, but he used his hand to slip a finger under my chin and turn it back.
“Nah, don’t worry about it, girl. You’re fine right where you are. Anyone cute as you is a welcome addition to my night,” he said, staring back at me. His finger trailed gently along the curve of my jaw, and a chuckle came from his throat.
“O-okay! But could you, ummm, let me go a bit? It’s getting warm.” That was the exact opposite of what I wanted to have happen, but it was only a matter of time before…
“Rosalie, you good?”
Before we got interrupted anyways. As my brother’s voice rang out behind AJ, he turned his head and glanced back, smirking.
“She’s good, man,” he replied to my brother. Jayden walked over, and then it became clear to me just how muscular AJ was. He was at least half a foot taller than Jayden, and his shoulders and arms were definitely bigger. Then he turned our bodies to square up to Jayden, keeping one arm around my butt.
“Funny, I don’t remember talking to you, and last I checked, my sister can speak for herself.” Jayden glared, especially at where AJ’s hand flexed as he kept it on my butt.
“Ahhh, now I get it. Are you protective over your little sister?” AJ’s dark eyes looked from Jayden to back down at me and chuckled, giving my ass a little squeeze.
Nuh-uh, I was not gonna let that slide. “Older sister,” I whispered, and AJ tipped his head toward me and chuckled again, his smirk growing.
“My bad, baby girl. Anyway, she’s good, like I said, aren’t you?” His fingers slowly caressed my shoulder, and I shivered as goosebumps went through my entire body. The added warm feeling on my face made me think my cheeks just got redder.
“Rosalie!” Jayden snapped, his voice dropping an entire octave as I looked back at him. His face was full of concern, and his stiff body language showed me he was dead serious and wanted an answer directly from me.
“I-I’m good. I tripped, and AJ caught me before I hit the ground and probably cracked my head pretty good. He’s just being nice, so don’t be rude, Jayden.” Pretty sure my voicewavered a couple of times, but my heart was beating a bajillion miles a minute, so could you blame me?
“Already know my name? Damn, you are the sexiest little stalker I’ve ever had,” AJ spoke into my ear and my body melted right then and there. Jayden glanced between us again, stepped over, and then grabbed my hand, which was attached to the shoulder his hand was on.