Page 60 of The Puck Charmer
Alyssa sets her napkin down. “I have to go visit my grandmother, but I’d love to play some games when I get back.”
“I’ll go with you,” I say. “Maybe we’ll have time to talk alone on the drive.”
“Nope,” she says quickly. “You go shoot pool with your friends.”
I don’t look at Quinn. I can feel her gaze drilling into me. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. I’ll tell Grandma you said hello.”
She picks up her plate and reaches for the others. “Leave them,” Quinn says. “I can take care of these.”
Alyssa gives her a grateful smile, and she disappears inside. All eyes turn to me, and I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“Yeah, I know,” I say and jump up. I head inside, and Alyssa is grabbing her purse.
“Hey,” I say and wrap my arms around her, pulling her back to my chest.
She rests her head against my chest, and I drop a kiss onto her head. I breathe in her warm scent and my heart pounds against my chest.
“We won’t be long,” I say to her, and she turns in my arms.
“I won’t be either.” She goes up on her toes and presses her lips to mine. “See you soon,” she says, but then her head angles toward me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” I say, and rake my hand through my hair. With my friends outside, and her on the way to see her grandmother, now is not the time to tell her who I really am. “We’ll talk later, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” she says, and I give her another kiss before she heads out the door. I head back to the kitchen and find Quinn leaning against the counter, her arms folded.
“I know,” I say to her.
“I like her, Alek.”
“I like her too.”
“Yeah, so you need to talk to her,” she says.
“She’s going to hate me. Jesus, Quinn, if she does a search on me, she’s probably not going to like what she sees.”
Quinn’s face softens and she pushes off the counter. She places her hands on my shoulders. “You’re a good guy, Alek, and what you did in your past is your past.” Her gaze moves over my face. “Why did you keep it from her?”
“I liked the way she was around me.”
She nods. “I get it. I really do. So, what are you going to do now? What do you want out of all this?”
“I never thought I’d fall for her,” I say, and she smiles. “I thought we’d just have some fun, and go our separate ways, but I…I fell in love with her, Quinn.”
She goes up on her toes, throws her arms around me and gives me a big hug. “Then that’s what you need to tell her.”
“You’re right.”
She goes back on her feet when the guys all come in. Jonah looks at me, his face contorted like he knew Quinn was going to tear me a new one.
“We can clean this up when we get back,” I say to Quinn as Scotty tugs at her shirt, asking to go for a swim.
“You guys go, have fun.”
We head out, climb into Cason’s vehicle and head to town. The guys chat, but I’m too lost in my thoughts to add to the conversations. Fifteen minutes later, we’re all sipping on beer, and shooting pool, all anonymity gone now that the three of us are together.
A couple of women come over and begin to flirt with us. Any other time, I would have been all over that, much like Cason is right now, but I’ve lost all appeal for one-night stands. There is only one girl I want to go to bed with at night, and more importantly wake up to the next morning.