Anything but Minor - Kate Stewart Page 0,52
don’t want to lose your friendship, man.”
I’d surprised both of us with my honesty. I wasn’t one to spit it out so easily. It was a growing change in me. It was a change Alice brought out in me.
“Good for you,” Andy said, trying his best to hide the bitterness in his voice.
“All right, so you coming?” I asked, my lip throbbing. The son of a bitch could throw a punch.
“Nah, I need to get my head straight.”
I nodded and turned to go to the meeting.
“Just give me some time, Rafe.” I paused briefly then nodded again as I made the walk down the hall.
Jon looked behind me as I closed the door and made a quick excuse for Andy. “Emergency.”
He nodded but not before he noticed my lip. He knew better, but ball was business, and he got back to it.
An hour after our meeting wrapped, I got a text from Kristina. I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to engage at all. This was one fucked up position to be in. I mean, sure, we had a friendship, and I coached her kid’s little league team, but our relationship had never been intimate. I’d never saw her that way, especially after Andy had shown interest.
Kristina: Alice is stranded on 526. Her car broke down. She texted me, but I’m already at the bar for a shift. Can you go?
Rafe: What exit?
Kristina: Just past the airport.
Rafe: I’m on it. Thanks.
I paused with my fingers over the text. I thought of all Kristina’s and my interactions over the years and couldn’t find anything to indicate anything other than friendship than a lingering kiss on New Year’s Eve last year. I thought maybe it was just the alcohol or my imagination. Kristina knew me and well. I suddenly felt the guilt of pulling her into my wager with Alice and kissing her at the bar like I had that day. Though I had none of those feelings for Kristina whatsoever, I knew that had to have been hard for her if she had them for me. Even if she’d said a word, I wouldn’t have pursued her, and she knew it. That’s probably why she kept silent.
The girl I couldn’t keep in my bed was stranded on a busy highway and was all that I wanted to concentrate on. I pulled up fifteen minutes later, thanking Christ it wasn’t rush hour. It was the difference between minutes and hours. Alice had her hood popped and was waist deep in the engine of her Prius.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She froze, and I heard her mutter “Oh great” as she kept busy with her inspection. Jesus, she was a tiny woman who packed one hell of a little body. She was dressed in slacks and heels, and that’s all I could see as she buried her head in the engine of her clown car.
“Give me your phone. Turn on the flashlight, please,” she held out her hand, and I gave it to her as I studied her sweet ass bent over the hood.
“If you’re going to just stand there and stare at my butt, you really aren’t of use here.”
“You called for help.”
“I called Kristina for a ride and company while I waited on a tow.”
“I’m of use,” I said as I moved her seat back and sat in her tiny car. “My little nerd’s car.”
“I heard that.”
“Good.”
“Rafe...just go away.” I looked around her cabin and picked up her phone. I turned up the volume and listened for a few moments to her John Hughes Flicks playlist.
“You really are stuck in the ‘80s.”
“Indefinitely, now eff off before I bite your head off again.”
“You have to mate with me first. Those are the rules, and it was a fight, Alice,” I called out as traffic buzzed by.
“Rafe, I have a degree in aeronautics. I’ll figure out what’s wrong and fix it. You can go.”
“Planes aren’t cars, baby, and if that were the case, you would have it figured out by now.”
“Don’t call me, baby!”
I turned her key and grinned from ear to ear in silent knowledge and then made my way toward her, deciding it was too dangerous to continue to argue on the highway.
She pulled her tiny body from under the hood to peer up at me. Her beautiful, brown eyes trimmed in dark black lashes would be my undoing. Her golden, honey colored hair slipped from a loose bun, and she had a grease smear on her nose. No woman had ever