Strangely Normal - By Tess Oliver Page 0,48

gossip.” He leaned down and kissed me lightly. “Look, Eden, I know this complicates things some—”

I peered up into his incredibly perfect face. “You think?”

“All right, it complicates things a lot, but contrary to what my sister may have told you, I’m not a complete jerk.”

“Actually, she uses the word ass more than jerk.”

“I’m not a complete ass,” he continued. “Maybe a partial ass but not a complete one.” He fell silent and then reached up and pushed the hair off my face. “I’m here right now because I badly want to be with you. And as my sister can tell you, there aren’t many people I want to be with.”

Everything would have been much easier if my initial dislike of the guy had stuck, but it had been obliterated almost from the start. In fact, it had disintegrated so completely I questioned whether I’d ever truly disliked him at all. Now there seemed to be no turning back. I just needed to remember to keep my head.

Jude leaned down and kissed me again, and a tingling sensation warmed my skin.

Keeping my head was not going to be easy.

“Hey, tomorrow, I’ll take you on a ride on the bike. If you want to go-that is? And we’ll have to clear it with the Empress. But we could just take a short ride. What do you say?”

“Uh, let me think— hell yeah. Do I get to wear one of those cool Harley helmets?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of the law out here in L.A.”

“Yippee.”

CHAPTER 14

Finley and I had spent the morning attempting to knit. She was quite skilled at it, but I’d spent more time untangling the yarn than actually getting it around the needle point.

I held up my project. “It looks more like a spider web than a scarf.”

Finley’s phone had buzzed several times during our knitting session, and each time she’d looked at it and then put it back down.

“You’re a popular girl this morning,” I said.

“It’s Max. He wants me to call him. He says he’s worried about me.”

I lowered my yarn disaster into my lap. “So call him. You know how many guys out there take the time to worry about anyone but themselves?”

“Three maybe four?” Finley laughed.

“That’s being generous. Call him.”

“I will. When you go on your ride with Jude.” She looked slyly up at me.

“Oh, he asked you already?”

“This morning. But I told him not to go far. That thing is dangerous.” She picked up her yarn, and her fingers moved quickly with the needles. “Just be careful, Eden.”

“I wasn’t planning on jumping off the back or anything.”

She stopped knitting. “You know what I mean. And it has got nothing to do with the ride.”

“I know.” We’d been sitting with our legs crossed on the floor, and I stretched them out to wake my sleepy feet. “All I can tell you is that I’m usually pretty level headed when it comes to guys.”

“Have you ever been with a guy like Jude?”

“No, definitely not.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to be careful. He likes you for sure. That I’ve known from the start, but my brother has never settled down with one girl before.”

I wasn’t sure if she was telling me this for my protection or her own. I knew falling for Jude completely screwed things up, and I as much as I didn’t want to mess up this awesome summer job, I’d never had a guy like Jude interested in me before. I was, after all, only human.

Finley stretched out her legs too. “Like I’ve said before, I love him but sometimes he’s an ass.”

“Mental note taken.” Unfortunately, I sort of knew what I was getting into with Jude. For a guy like him this was probably just a summer fling, or now that he was off house arrest, it might just be a June fling. Or even a one week fling. I was determined not to go crazy about the guy. Even if he left, I would stay on with Finley and be perfectly content. Hopefully.

I pulled on jeans and sneakers for the ride. I only wished I’d had a pair of cool motorcycle boots to go with the helmet. And maybe a leather jacket with a flaming skull on the back.

Jude was out front dressed head to toe in black and looking completely breathtaking straddling his bike. His smile matched my enthusiasm for the ride.

He adjusted the helmet strap beneath my chin and then leaned over and kissed me. “Let’s go, biker mama.”

I threw my leg