“Are you fucking crazy?! What were you thinking?”
“That there was only one car in this parking lot, and I doubt your dad drives a hybrid with a bumper sticker that reads ‘World Dominance’ with a stiletto heel running through it.”
“This isn’t funny,” my scold contradicts my smile. The friction of his fingers against my bare skin has goosebumps erupting on my flesh, despite the heat, as I grapple with the fact Easton’s in Austin. “Seriously, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on tour.”
“I am. I was in the neighborhood…on Butler Street.”
I frown.
“In Oklahoma, where I have a show in,” he pulls out his cell and checks the screen, “six and a half hours and another tomorrow night in Dallas, so we need to get you packed.”
“Yeah, right,” I scoff, loving the feel of his hands on my hips, putting my entire focus on him and instantly wishing I hadn’t. I can’t bring myself to remove his hands as he continuously sweeps lazy thumbs along the bare skin above my skirt.
He gives me the barely-there lift of his lips. “Tell me you aren’t happy to see me.”
“I am…really. I am. It’s just…I can’t come with you to Oklahoma, you know that.” I glance around nervously. Dad’s probably three beers in with Marcus already. Damon’s supposed to join them both. I could text Damon to confirm they’re occupied. When I look back at Easton, everything starts to dull, the world around him blurring into nothing but a backdrop.
“There you are,” he whispers.
“I’m just…I’m freaking out. You can’t ever do that again, okay?”
His grip on me eases as his nostrils flare. “Right, bad idea. Got it.”
“I’m serious.”
He ignores my blatant reprimand. “You have weekends off, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Come with me then,” he says, his eyes sweeping me intimately.
“You’re making this so hard for me.”
He smirks. “I could say the same.”
“Not funny,” I snap, my heart picking up rhythm.
“Then why are you smiling?”
I push against his chest so he’s forced to loosen his grip on my hips, his touch too seductive. “I’m so happy for you. Seriously, I’ve been watching the progress. Are you happy?”
“Yeah,” he gives me the half-smile I love so much. “I am.”
“So, where is everyone?”
He lifts his chin in the direction of the back of a coffee shop less than a block away. “They’re waiting in a van out front.”
“You’re really doing it.”
“Yeah, I really am,” he lifts a hooked finger to trace the side of my face, “and it’s been a mix of awesome and fucking terrible. I brought them with me so you can get to know them on the way back to Oklahoma.”
“You seriously drove from Oklahoma to pick me up, thinking that I would come after not answering your phone calls for two months?”
“Fuck yeah, I did. I’m pissed at you, but I can’t bring myself to act on it yet because I want to give you a proper tongue lashing.”
“Easton,” I admonish with a sigh.
“Beauty,” he fires back, unphased, continually running his fingers down my cheek. “I’m not letting this go, yet, so if you’re going to let me down, you’ll have to do it gently over the weekend.” His eyes trail his fingers as he caresses me, “Because we really don’t have time to argue.”
“I’m supposed to be having dinner with my parents later.”
“Well, you’ll be dining on peanut butter and jelly in a van that smells like blue cheese instead.”
I can’t help smiling. “You really know how to sweep a girl off her feet.”
He leans in. “I’m planning on doing my fucking best.”
“Easton,” I smack his chest playfully. “You’re putting me in the worst imaginable position.”
“Seriously, you’re killing me with the easy puns. Clock’s ticking,” he taunts, running his fingertips up and down the bare skin of my arms. “It’s hot as fuck here,” he glances around curiously as if just now seeing my corner of the world.
“This is so unfair. This is entrapment.”
“Come on,” he urges gently, “just this weekend. I’ll have you tucked in by Sunday at midnight.”
“If I go, there will be no tucking in.”