“You’re good.” I assured him. “For real. Don’t worry about it?”
“Oh. For real? You like talking to me more than reading your very good book, Novi?” he teased. I averted my eyes and swallowed. Kaleo sat up and leaned forward. “You shy now, shawty?”
I looked at him and did my best to shake my head even while his eyes were baring into my soul and he had the most wicked smirk on his face.
“Are you flirting with me, Kaleo?” I tried to turn the pressure back on him.
“Nah. You ain’t see the people on my page? We’ve already been dating for a year and a have a baby on the way.”
I rolled my eyes but a stupid smile drifted over my face anyway.
“Boy or a girl?” I asked.
“Boy, one hundred percent.”
“Okay. Bet.”
Kaleo chuckled. I tried not to be self conscious about the way his eyes flicked over me.
I never got back to my book. Instead, we talked about our personal lives. He had a brother and sister both older. I told him I only had my sister who was younger. We ended up ordering food to share. Kaleo had a second beer before cutting himself off.
We joined the third round of playing the group did. Kaleo was one of the better players which I hadn’t expected. However, I was one of the worst, which was exactly what I’d expected.
After the fifth game, we decided to call it. So we cleaned up our area and all made the trek out to the parking lot together.
“Anybody want to head to the diner and get something to eat?” JV asked before we parted ways.
I resisted the urge I had to say no. I’d eaten in while they were playing and my social battery was waning quickly. but I also knew Allur was madly in love with him and would love to spend more time together. She was already letting me stay with her and trying to cheer me up. The last thing I wanted to do was be an inconvenience.
“Aye,” Kaleo got my attention. “I can bring you home if you want to tap out?”
I looked at Allur. She looked from Kaleo to me and back. She smiled and wagged her eyebrows up and down.
I did my best to ignore her.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I was calling it a night anyway. Come on.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Thank you.”
“No problem.”
Kaleo dapped up his friends and said his goodbyes while I stood awkwardly on the side. Then, he gestured for me to follow him and led me to his car.
The drive was mostly a quiet one. Kaleo played music and bobbed to it as he drove with one hand and I did my best not to just stare at him as he drove even though he was looking good as hell.
I exhaled once we were on the street that Allur lived on.
“Thank you for bringing me home,” I said.
“Nah. It ain’t a problem. If you need anything while you’re out here and life ain’t fucked up, I’ll try to make sure you’ve got it. We look out for Allur and we’re going to look out for you too.”
“And I appreciate that for real. Being-”
My sentence died on my lips and I blinked several times in shock while Kaleo pulled up in Allur’s driveway.
I looked from the silver truck parked in front of her spot to Kaleo and back. He repeated the gesture. His hand slipped between his seat and middle console and he pulled a gun free. He set it in his lap.
