“Come on, it is what you meant. I can see it in your disgusted eyes.”
“Then you’re not reading my eyes right, because frankly I think you look awesome,” she burst out with—mainly because she was desperate by that point. But then she realized what she’d said, and winced so hard it felt like being turned inside out.You just told him you think he’s hot, her mind bellowed at her.
Though, thankfully, he didn’t seem to take any of this in.
He simply waved a dismissive hand at her. “You do not think I look awesome. You just came here to mock me,” he said, which was good, it was a relief. But at the same time, it left her floundering. Because how was she supposed to deny that she was doing anything of the kind without accidentally underlining that she thought he was attractive?
She couldn’t let that happen. Not when he found her this annoying—it would beawful.“That was not my intention at all. I don’t even know why you think that,” she tried. Slightly woodenly, she thought. But she got it out.
Then sagged with relief when he seemed to accept it.
“Because you’re suggesting I don’t know how to be a normal boyfriend.”
“That’s just what the book’s about. It’s not what I’ve been thinking.”
“Of course it’s what you’ve been thinking. And probably talking about with all your equally cute, nice, good-smelling friends. Well, you can go back and say to them that just because a person touches a book about improving himself enough to deserve a lovely woman, does not mean he needs said book. That, in fact, he’s already a totally normal, reasonable, mate-worthy human man. Good day, madam.”
He swept his arm toward the door on those last words.
So naturally she had to follow the gesture. She couldn’t stay here, arguing, when she’d already intruded so much and he was so adamant she should go. But god, the questions her brain was full of as she went.Cute, nice, good-smelling friends, she thought.Mate-worthy human, she thought.
Then, before she knew it, she was back at her car.
Slightly dazed, face still bright pink, part of her wondering what the heck had just happened. But most of her understanding completely: she had busybodied like she always did, and tried to make things better, and this was the result.
Everything between them was worse.
And most likely always would be from now on.
CHAPTER THREE
She tried not to panic too much about everything that had just happened.
Because, sure, he was going to be annoyed with her. But then, she had never known him to be anything but. Sometimes he crossed the street to avoid having to brush past her. Once he had been forced to sit next to her during a town hall meeting, and he’d spent the whole thing with his massive arms crossed over his huge chest, fuming.
She still remembered that muscle ticking in his clenched jaw.
So what was he going to do now? Come after her with a shotgun?
It didn’t seem likely.
But just in case, she sped up a little. She put her foot down on the gas. Even though putting her foot on the gas was a little scary while negotiating the dirt road that led away from his shack. It seemed suddenly narrower than it had when she’d driven up there. Narrower, and oddly darker.
Like hours had passed while she’d been in his home.
Instead of what it had actually been: minutes. The clock on her dashboard said it wasn’t even noon. Yet when she peered up through the sunroof of her ridiculous little car, all she could seewas shadowy darkness. Not even a glimpse of daylight through the web of interlacing tree branches.
She looked back through the windshield just to stem the rising panic the sight produced. But somehow, straight forward wasn’t much better. She could barely make out the road ahead—never mind the bright openness of the highway beyond.
Despite how close she knew that highway should be.
She’d been driving at almost sixty down a mile-long dirt road. The whole thing was supposed to be over in under a minute. But it had been five, and there was still no end in sight. And now the way through was so tight that branches were starting to claw at the sides of the car. One lashed against the glass so hard it made her jolt in her seat. Suddenly her heart was racing. Her breathing was coming too fast.
She knew she had to ease up on the gas.
Yet she found herself pressing down harder. Panic forced her foot, and the car leapt forward so surprisingly fast that she almost didn’t see the thing in the road. It just sort of flashed before her eyes, quick enough that she would tell herself later it had been a deer. But in that moment, she saw that hunched back. She saw that glistening, sickly skin. She saw the way it looked at her.
Only not with anything resembling eyes.
