“I better get Keely inside.” I stood over Jude. “Thanks again for the—”
I stepped into the dip in the grass Peyton had warned me about every time I came here, and I lost my balance, catapulting myself right into Jude’s open arms when he pushed off the step.
“Sorry,” I said, clutching his shoulders for purchase. We stood almost chest to chest as Jude’s concerned eyes searched mine. “I knew about that hole and managed to avoid it until now. Thank God I was with an officer of the law with excellent reflexes.”
I coughed out a nervous laugh as he frowned at me.
“Are you okay? You didn’t twist anything, did you?”
He dropped to his knees in front of me and squeezed my ankle. His fingertips were rough as they pressed into my skin, the soft scratch sending a zap shooting up my leg.
Men didn’t give me zaps or change my heart rate just from their proximity. My head was so screwed up that I was probably hallucinating all these weird feelings for someone I hardly knew.
Fuck, I was in trouble. Normal me would find him attractive since normal me would still have a pulse and be human, but this frazzled me was too damn captivated by him for it to make any kind of sense.
“I think I’m okay,” I said, tapping his shoulder. “The only thing I bruised was my ego.” I tried for an easy smile and hoped my flushed cheeks weren’t so obvious under the night sky. His hand drifted from my ankle to the back of my calf, my muscle twitching a second against his palm as he peered up at me. The humid air grew thin between us as our eyes stayed locked. Jude nodded but didn’t get up, and my feet were stuck in the grass as time and everything around us seemed to freeze.
“Is everything okay?”
I recognized the timid voice of Peyton’s elderly next-door neighbor, Mrs. Nolan, behind us. She peered out her kitchen window, looking us both over with a pinched brow.
“I’m fine. I just tripped and was lucky to have a police sergeant around to catch me,” I glanced at Jude, his eyes still on me as he stood, looking me over with an expression I couldn’t decipher. Lust, indifference—I couldn’t tell as his baby blues were as unreadable as they were gorgeous.
“My hero,” I said, roping my arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. I told myself it was for the show, that I didn’t mean what I said or want to feel what it was like to have him in my arms.
Jude didn’t press into me, but he didn’t move away. His gaze locked on mine and drifted to my mouth.
“Good evening, Davis. My regards to your father.” We turned to her scrutinizing glance before she shut her window.
“I thought I’d make my clutzy fall work to your advantage,” I chirped, trying to lighten the weird mood.
“Advantage?” he asked, squinting at me as more confusion spread over his features.
“She probably thinks we’re dating too, so you should be golden until I go home. And as I said, I have zero clue when that’s going to be, so…”
He nodded, sweeping his hand through his hair as if he were mulling something over. Just as his mouth opened as if he was about to say something, the door creaked behind us.
“Everything okay? I thought I heard you out here.”
Peyton stepped down from the porch, eyeing us both as her neighbor had a moment ago.
“Oh, sorry. I tripped in that dip in the grass you warned me about, and Jude caught me. I ended up having a drink on his father’s porch after Keely fell asleep on the way, and Jude walked me back here.”
“Oh,” was all she said, her nose crinkled as she unstrapped her daughter and gently rested her against her shoulder.
“Let me get this one in bed. Nice to see you, Davis.”
“Same,” he said, clearing his throat and taking a quick and long step back. “Have a good night, Claudia,” he said with the same dry and distant tone as when he’d told me, “Drive safely, Ms. Ng.”
“You too. Thanks for the walk back.”
He nodded and headed back up the block toward his house.
“Did I miss something?” Peyton whispered, patting Keely’s back as our gazes both drifted to Jude’s quick departure.
“That’s a good question,” I scoffed, a sting I couldn’t explain twisting low in my gut as the walk to clear my head ended up doing exactly the opposite.
9
