Bottle of peppermint extract. She flashes him a wink. I see red.
Does she seriously not see me standing here?
To his credit, Gavin seems completely oblivious, his concentration narrowed on the groceries as he bags them.
But when she slides her fingers over his onmytin of cookie sticks, I lose it.
“We’re in a hurry,” I announce with a simpering smile in her direction.
She blinks as she focuses on me, like she didn’t notice me this entire time.
Theaudacity.
I reach for the paper grocery bags, and they crinkle loudly as I heft them into my arms.
“So sorry that took a minute,” she says, grinning at Gavin as her nails clack loudly on the register.
He bites back a smile, swiping his card through the machine before grabbing the remaining bags. “Don’t worry about it. My friend here seems to be in a sudden rush for some reason.”
And then he winks at her.
He. Winks. At. Her.
Like they have some sort of inside joke that I’m unaware of. Like they’re best friends and I’m the third wheel.
My teeth grind against each other as I turn toward the door.
Sunlight glints off the banks of snow in the parking lot as I step outside and storm toward my car.
“What’s the rush all of a sudden?” Gavin shouts from a few feet behind me.
“Trying to get away from the women around here who seem like they’ve never seen a handsome man before.”
A deep laugh rumbles out of him, and I stop in my tracks to turn his way. His big, shit-eating grin makes his eyes sparkle and his cheeks pinken, and all of it together affects my ability to breathe.
“So glad I had you there to protect me,” he teases, sauntering right past where I’m frozen.
“You should be,” I scoff, pivoting to follow him. “Who knows what they would’ve done next.” Stopping beside him at the back of the car, I pull out my keys and open the hatch, setting my bags inside. “Miss Blue Dress looked like she was about to strip you down right there next to the hot dog buns. Which is horribly unsexy, if you ask me. And then Miss Blond Cashier looked like she wanted to check out way more than your groceries.”
That infuriating smirk is still playing on his mouth as he sets his bags in the trunk. “And what would my big, bad Lena have done to protect me then?”
Chills race up my neck at the husky way he says my name, but I try to play it off by planting my hands on my hips. “Definitely would’ve defended your honor. Somehow.” I shrug. “I could’ve at least shoved her out of the way.”
“Mmm,” he hums, nodding. “And then?”
I roll my eyes up to the cloudless sky. “I guess then I would take her by the—”
My words cut off when Gavin snatches the keys from my hand. I lower my head in time to see him shove them into his pocket and declare, “I’m driving home.”
“Like hell you are.” I scowl up at him.
“You drove us here, I’ll drive us home,” he replies with his attempt at a convincing smile.
Unfortunately for me, all of his smiles are convincing, and my will to drive us home immediately frays around the edges.
“It’s my car. I am not playing passenger princess.”
His masculine scent surrounds me as he leans closer until he’s only a few inches from me. “You’re more like a passenger demon anyway.”
