We pull apart and she gives me a sheepish smile. “This was stupid, huh?”
“That depends. Are you looking for a quicky? Cause I could take you into the trees over there. The ticks are pretty relentless right now, and I’m not a big fan of Lyme disease, but if you’re really dead set on it…” I let out an exaggerated sigh and pretend like I’m starting to take my shirt off.
Charlie swats my shoulder. “You’re such a dork,” she says, but her smile’s grown warmer, more confident.
Score one for Ryan.
“I brought you something. Come on.” She takes my hand and leads me back to where she’s parked a white minivan, I’m assuming, belongs to her mom.
“Sweet ride,” I say.
She gives me the evil eye. “Keep it up and I won’t give you your surprise.”
“What kind of surprise?” I bob my eyebrows suggestively.
She swats me again. “Perv.”
“Okay. Okay.” I raise my hands in surrender. “What is it?”
Biting her lip, Charlie opens the passenger-side door and pulls out a brown bag. “A thank you,” she says, holding the bag out to me. “For dinner.”
Now I’m intrigued. I take the bag and peek inside, but all I see is aluminum foil.
She’s acting all shy, eyes averted, toe sweeping back and forth. It’s cute as hell. “You’d mentioned that you were tired of sandwiches, so I brought you something for lunch.”
“Yeah?” is all I can think of to say because—damn, that was sweet. I open the bag and peek in again.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t cook it. My mom did.”
I’m probably smiling like a goof, but nobody’s ever done something like this for me before. “This is awesome, Charlie. Seriously.”
Her face breaks out in a huge smile that hits me like an electrical shock to my bloodstream. Holy shit, Charlie really likes me. She went through all this trouble for me and was worried I wouldn’t like it. I can’t even wrap my head around that, so I just lean in and plant a kiss on her lips. Charlie doesn’t hesitate or hold back. She gets up on her tiptoes, wraps her arms around my neck, and kisses me like I’m the air she needs to breathe. It’s desperate and sloppy and vastly inappropriate for my work parking lot, but I couldn’t give a half a shit right now. I grip her body tight against mine, and Christ, she feels so good. I want to take her into the back of that van and fuck her brains out right here and now. My rapidly thickening cock agrees.
Reluctantly, I pull back and rest my forehead against hers as we both catch our breath. “Thank you,” I say between huffs of air.
“I should go,” she says, smiling, “before you get in trouble.”
I nod. She’s right, but I really don’t want to let go of her right now. “I’ll see you tonight.”
She bites her lip, and I know she’s doing it unconsciously, but it might kill me all the same. “Yep.”
We say our goodbyes and I give her another quick kiss before she leaves. I have to take a few breaths and adjust myself because if I walk back into the shop with a boner, I will never hear the end of it.
Inside, my brothers are exactly where I left them behind the counter with big shit-eating grins on their faces, and dammit if my face isn’t getting hot. If I looked in a mirror right now, I’d probably be beet red.
“Oh, my goodness,” Garrett starts, drying phony tears with the back of his hand. “Our boy has become a man.”
Trey’s right behind him, of course, drying nonexistent tears with the hem of his shirt. “It’s just so beautiful.”
They lean against each other and start wailing like a couple of idiots.
“Fuck you both,” I say, setting the bag on the counter and pulling out an aluminum-covered container.
Clutching his chest like an old lady having a coronary, Trey says, “But we’re just”—sniff, sniff—“so happy for you.”
I remove the foil, my mouth watering as the delicious scent of homemade mac and cheese assaults my senses and sets my mouth watering. “Laugh it up, shitheads. You won’t be laughing so hard when lunchtime rolls around.”
“Whoa. You telling me you’re not going to share?” Garrett asks, lips twitching as he attempts, and fails, to appear serious.
