Past
Icall Dean to let him know I’m coming. He is pleased that I called, excited even.
I’m nervous as hell.
I’ve never done anything like this before.
Ever.
But something about Dean makes me want to take that risk. Dares me to take a chance.
Pulling into a small cove, I park behind a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle before killing the engine. A crowd of people stand beneath the street lamp about several feet away. Mostly guys, a few girls. They all look much older than me and appear to be really drunk.
I reach for the ignition, second-guessing my decision.
“Going somewhere?” Dean appears out of nowhere, his mischievous smile a mere shadow on the other side of the glass.
Clutching my chest, I roll down my window. “Dean, you scared me half to death.”
His soft chuckle eases some of the tension in my shoulders. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he says with that crooked grin I am growing to like so much.
“What were you doing, hiding in the bushes?”
“Nah, just needed to step away for a minute.” He nods toward the crowd.
“Those your friends?”
“No,” he replies with a grimace.
“Oh.”
An awkward silence descends but Dean doesn’t allow it to linger. “I’m glad you’re here.”
I smile nervously, gripping the bottom of the steering wheel tighter. “Me too.”
His eyes hold mine.
Dark.
Haunting.
Harboring something I need. Only, I can’t figure out what. I keep trying to come up with something to say but I have nothing.
I’m too nervous.
And he is way too calm.
Finally, he lets go of my gaze and rounds the front of the truck, climbing into the passenger seat.
“Are we not going to the party?” I ask as he closes the door.
He stretches out, making himself comfortable. “Nah…I kind of just want to be alone with you. If that’s okay.”
I gulp twice as warning signals begin to fire off in my brain. Linc’s voice blares with insistence from the back of my mind.
He’s trouble.
However, my morbid curiosity outweighs the risk. Dean is mysterious, yes, and definitely intimidating, but he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would hurt me.
