She focused on the back of Wayne’s head across the room. Brek stepped in front of her. “Hear me out. Please. I’m sorry about the bike. I’m sorry I didn’t handle that well.” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. “I’d like to make it up to you.”
“You’d like to make it up to me?” she asked, incredulous.
This time she shoved past Brek, but he whispered from behind. “You’re on a date. With someone else, V.”
She spun around. “You told me to do something crazy. To try something new. So, I did, and it was scary. It was scary, Brek. And then it was humiliating.”
Great. Now she was whisper screaming. She jutted her chin in defiance, glaring with all she had.
“I made a mistake. I’m sorry.” Brek held his hands palms up.
“Is everything okay over here?” Pam asked, her eyes darting between Velma and her son.
Velma turned her head toward the restaurant and shoved her hair out of her face. The room had gone silent. Everyone stared at them.
Maybe she had screamed more than whispered?
Oh God.
A blush of itchy hives crept up Velma’s chest.
“I should leave.” Velma’s cheeks burned. Turned out, yes, this day could, in fact, get more embarrassing.
“Right. Let’s go home,” Brek agreed.
Everyone in the room seemed focused on them. No, she couldn’t look anymore. She wanted to crawl under the nearest table and hide. She wouldn’t, but she wanted to.
“Ma, thanks for the fun time. Velma’s comin’ home now,” Brek said calmly. “Would you mind letting her date know?”
“Please tell Wayne I’ll call him,” Velma said as carefully as she could, being that her love life was flipped upside down.
“Nope. Don’t tell him that,” Brek corrected.
“Have you two finally decided to see each other?” Pam lifted a manicured brow. “Officially?”
“Negotiations are currently taking place,” Brek replied.
Velma shot Brek a look, daring him to say anything more.
He didn’t. He just shrugged at his mother.
She pressed her hands together and tapped her index fingers to her lips. “Well, then, I’ll find someone else for Wayne.”
Pam’s eyes sparkled. She patted Brek’s arm on her way to apparently have a chat with Wayne.
“We need to talk.” Velma grabbed Brek’s arm and pulled him outside to the sidewalk next to his bike. She stood as tall on her toes as she could. “Have you lost your mind?”
He closed the gap between them, his mouth on hers, kissing the stuffing right out of her. Everything she had built up in her head melted away as she kissed him back furiously.
He broke the seal of their kiss. “I’m sorry. About before.”
She swallowed down all the emotion from the day. “Why did you stop? In the garage? What did I do wrong?”
“This is all new territory for me—the whole caring thing. So that was me respecting you.” He was all hard muscle and kind eyes. “We both know what this is. I won’t leave you hanging again. Now’s the time to say no if you don’t want this.”
She remained silent and kissed him again.
Chapter Fifteen
