find myself laughing too.
He flips off the radio. “Second of all, I think it’s hard to waste your life.”
“I don’t know,” I say warily.
“Have you not learned anything in life?”
“No. I have learned things. A lot of them.”
“Like?”
I roll my eyes but play along since I brought it up. “Like what it feels like to be twenty-six and have nothing to show for it but a few life lessons.” I scrunch up my face. “I’m kidding. I’m just having a moment. It’ll pass.”
Trevor looks at me, his eyes bright. “I think what you’re feeling is more normal than you realize.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. This goes back to what I was saying about love and how people change all the time. Do you know how many people I went to college with who are doing something outside of their degree right now?”
“I’m guessing a lot.”
“More than not, probably. I’d venture to say three-quarters of my friends who graduated with a four-year degree aren’t using it right now.”
“Are you using yours?”
“Damn right. I paid way too much money for that piece of paper.” He laughs to himself. “Well, my dad did. But he just paid for it so I wouldn’t bum off him forever. That was his biggest fear, I think.”
I laugh as he pilots the truck around a bump in the road. His forearms flex, his jaw moving as he thinks about something unknown to me, and I’m struck by what else there is that I don’t know about this man.
“I highly doubt anyone would ever think you’re lazy,” I say. “You seem very motivated.”
He laughs, running a hand over his jaw. “I have to be. Jake would kill me otherwise.”
“Is he married?”
“Nope. He agrees with me.”
“On what?”
“That there’s too much pressure to marry and settle down. It’s like you just get a handle on your hormones, if you’re lucky, and all of a sudden, you have to pick what you’ll do for the rest of your life and who you’ll mate with for the next fifty, sixty years. It’s asinine.”
“I hate the phrase ‘mate with,’” I say, making a face. “I get this image . . .” I shiver. “I can’t.”
“What phrase should I use? ‘Making love’?” He bats his eyelashes at me. “Let me give you a tip: never trust a guy who says he wants to make love to you.”
“Why? It’s so romantic.” I bat my lashes back at him. “A little cabin in the woods with white sheets and rose petals sprinkled all around . . .”
I open my eyes to see him looking at me, unimpressed.
“When a guy is thinking about taking you to bed, they aren’t thinking about whispering love notes in your ear.” His hand moves discreetly to his groin. He shifts in his seat, moving his eyes back to the road. “They’re thinking about the curves of your body and how you’ll feel wrapped around them.”
My thighs press together, my stomach clenching so hard I almost groan as I immediately picture him hovering over me. I divert my gaze from his and out the passenger’s side window.
“Let me give you a tip,” I say. “Talking like that won’t help lessen a girl’s attraction to you.”
“Ah, do you like a little dirty talk, Miss Raynor?” He chuckles, grabbing my thigh. His fingertips press into the denim covering my legs in one swift movement. It’s a reaction, a playful gesture he didn’t preplan; the way his mouth hangs ever-so-slightly open at the contact makes it obvious.
My gaze flies to the spot where he’s touching me. The embers aflame in my belly burn hotter. He pulls away, but it does nothing to quell the riot inside me.
This isn’t a date. He’s just a flirt. He lives in Nashville. This isn’t a date. He probably talks like this with every girl. This isn’t a date.
“We’re here,” he says, his voice a little rougher than before.
When I look up, I realize we are at Colby’s Steakhouse in Rockery.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TREVOR
After you,” I say, holding the door open for Haley.
She strolls by me, her purse tossed over her shoulder like we do this every weekend. I usually hate it when a woman gets a certain level of comfort with me. It’s always a precursor to particular behaviors—behaviors I have no interest in entertaining.
Strangely, this time, it just feels normal. Easy. All right. Nice.
“Reservation for Kelly,” I say. I slide up beside Haley, putting thoughts of anything other than having her by my side out of my mind. Even if it’s just for these