“Batman,” he confirms. “Next time you’re kissing him in your classroom, you might want to remind him his left hook needs work.”
A jolt of electric realization shoots through me when I catch on to what he’s saying. I roll back under the car so he won’t see it on my face, and try to keep it out of my voice. “How do you know it was him?”
He grabs a wrench from the cart and starts tightening the clamp on the radiator hose. “The blue ninety-eight Chevy Lumina he was driving was a pretty good clue. He wanted to know if you and I were messing around.”
“Crap,” I say¸ rolling back out and looking at him. “What did you tell him?”
“Are we messing around?” he asks with a wicked smile.
“No!”
“Then that must have been what I told him.”
I sit up and throw a greasy shop towel at him. “Stop it! Tell me what he said.”
He leans back on the workbench. “I told him not to fuck with you and he said he wouldn’t.”
My stomach sinks to my shoes. “I told you not to worry about that. He shot me down.” I don’t add the twice. There’s very little I keep from Chuck, but I don’t even know what to think right now. Rob left me wet and wanting, but he said it was because he would ruin me. His kiss, his touch, everything about him screams passion and desire. He never said he didn’t want me. He said I didn’t want him. Which is so not true.
Chuck folds his arms over his chest and his expression goes all serious. “Good.”
“You told me you weren’t going to scare off all my prospects.”
He shakes his head. “I think you have selective hearing. I never said that.”
“Oh, God,” I mutter, lowering my face into my hand.
“You really like him?”
I breathe in and hold it a second before exhaling. “I do. A lot.”
“But you said you don’t know anything about him.”
I lower my hand and look at him. “What did you think? I mean, does he come off ax murderer to you, or superhero?”
He gives his head a little shake. “Hard to tell, Ade. He’s trained in hand to hand, and he’s the best Danni has seen on the shooting range. He says it’s not military training, so I suppose he could have come through law enforcement. Danni says she’s asked him about it and he always hedges, which definitely tells me he’s hiding something.”
I feel my face scrunch. “I know. He’s not the most forthcoming person I’ve ever met, but . . .”
“But what?”
I lean into Frank’s fender. “But my gut tells me he’s not bad. I can’t even explain it, except it’s all there in his eyes.”
He pushes off the workbench and pulls me into a hug. “Your instincts are pretty fucking amazing. I guess you’ve got to trust your gut.”
Trusting my gut got me humiliated and jilted. I don’t think I’d survive that kind of rejection again.
* * *
I’m late getting home from Chuck’s so I boil water for frozen ravioli because it’s the fastest thing I have in the house, then call Dad to dinner.
“Sorry,” I say when he looks over the table. “It’s the best I could do in fifteen minutes.”
He settles into his seat. “Looks good.”
“How was work?”
He shrugs. “Same ol’. How about you?”
I cut a ravioli with the edge of my fork and swirl it in the sauce. “Since the troublemaker in my class got expelled, things have been a lot easier.”
“Any word from the school board yet?” he asks through a bite.
I shake my head. “They said they have ongoing interviews and probably won’t have a decision until April.”
He looks up at me from his food. “Another month? That’s a long time to make you wait.”
I shrug. “Don’t really think I have a choice.”
“I’ll talk to Stu, see what I can find out.”
After a lifetime on the Port St. Mary police force, there’s no one that Dad doesn’t know, so I’m sure Stu is some school admin crony.
“So, what do you know about this Davidson family up at Widow’s Leap?” he asks, shoving another ravioli in his mouth. “That’s the new boy in your class, right? The one whose older brother drove you home? See a blue Lumina parked up there every day.”
I drop my fork. “What do you mean, every day?”
He shrugs and stabs a ravioli. “I drive most of the island every day, punkin. It’s part of my job.”