When in Paris... (Language of Love) (12 page)

“Five-six,” I confirm in my next breath.

As he shifts the truck into drive, I can’t help but stare at his hand. Short, blunt fingernails on long, tapered fingers that look like they’ve taken their share of nicks and cuts. Nice hands. Hands probably capable of giving lots of pleasure.

Before I turn three shades of pink, I direct my attention to the road. The grocery store is literally across the street, in a shopping complex two buildings down from his apartment building.

“If April’s from Illinois, how’d you come to be best friends?” Zach asks, as we pull out of the parking lot.

“We met while we were auditioning for a commercial.” It comes out in a rush, like I want nothing better than to be rid of it. I’m touchy about my childhood modeling and acting past.

We hit the red light at the major intersection and the truck rolls smoothly to a stop, giving Zach the freedom to give me his focused attention for the next minute. I curse the light.

I don’t want to look at him, but I know he’s giving me the same look people give me when they know I used to be one of those kids stage mothers carted around from audition to audition. I can only thank God my father stopped my mother from entering me in those kiddie beauty pageants. I could never have lived that down. I also thank God I wasn’t very successful. A pretty face does not a star make—the wise and often reiterated words of my father.

“Don’t look at me like that.” I say this without looking at him.

“How am I looking at you?” The low timbre of his voice has me jerking my gaze to him and he’s got this look in his eyes that start my heart thumping
hard
.

“I don’t know, like everyone does when they find out.” My voice is tight as I steel myself for what’s to come, which is why I take the offensive. “They either feel sorry for me because it’s obvious my mother must be either pushy or self-absorbed—or both. Or they hate me because I must think I’m too cute to live. Either way, the fact never goes over well.”

That’s a lesson I learned early on. Kids are not impressed with other kids who spend an inordinate amount of their spare time meeting with casting agents, photographers and are occasionally excused from school for said activities. Actually it’s the quickest way to get a new girl in a new school despised and shunned—mostly by the girls.

He’s silent for so long, I don’t think he’s going to respond, adhering to the
if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all
philosophy.

“Well, we know you don’t think you’re too cute to live. Although you may be too gorgeous for most of my friends. And no matter how bad your mom
might
be, she’s got nothing on my dad, so if people should feel sorry for anyone, it’s me.”

His compliment knocks me over and he finishes off the job by flattening me with a sexy smile and a wink.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT

ZACH

I told her we’d be friends, knowing full well I want to get in her pants. And I’m pretty sure she wants me there as much as I want to be there.

I’m still deciding whether I’m serious about it or not. If I
am
serious, what the hell am I doing? Obviously my head isn’t screwed on tight. Friends shouldn’t want to strip their friend naked and kiss every inch of their body.

Me and Olivia alone in my truck is a bad idea because let’s face it, I don’t “do” the friend thing with girls like Olivia. Especially not when all I want is to do Olivia. And the last thing I planned to do tonight was to go grocery shopping with her.

It’s that asshole Dillon’s fault for the T&A comment he made when we saw her coming. Christ, it’s like some guys have never seen a pretty girl before. I might have been able to ignore him if he were talking about some random girl, but I know Olivia. She’s not some girl to me. At least not now.

And after hearing about her short-lived stint as a child wannabe actor, she got my reaction dead to center. That’s exactly how I pictured her mom after all the shit that went down when my aunt divorced my cheating-ass uncle. But God gave me brains for a reason and there’s no way I’ll ever admit that to her. She’s not responsible for her mom being a cheat and a home wrecker.

“
Don’t let April fool you,” she says as I pull into a parking spot at the grocery store.

“
What do you mean by that?” I turn off the engine and angle my body toward her. I notice her hand is already on the handle of the door. She looks poised for flight.

“
I mean she’s not just a pretty face, even though she flits around like she is, or that she doesn’t mind that’s how people treat her.”

I’m studying her, trying to read what’s in her eyes when she yanks open the car door and gets out. I follow her more slowly and meet her in front of the truck. In silence, we make the short walk to the entrance of the store. The first set of automatic doors
swish
open and I’m walking toward the other when I notice her hanging back.

“
You’re going to need a cart, aren’t you?” She stops a couple feet behind and gestures to four rows of steel-wired shopping carts behind her.

With her hair down around her shoulders the way I like it and wearing black skinny jeans that make her slim legs look like they go on forever, she attracts the attention of three guys on their way out. Judging by their appearance, I’d say they were all about my age. Two of the guys, who she actually brings to a stop about five feet from me, are practically eating her up with their eyes, their gazes sweeping her from head to foot while wearing these stupid-ass grins on their faces.

What the fuck?
What the hell do I look like? They don’t know I’m
not
her boyfriend. I could be. Well I am tonight as far as they’re concerned.

“
Hey, you got a problem?” I throw it out like a challenge.

Their gazes shift to me and a look of surprise flashes across their faces. The third guy continues out the door, a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

“
Naw, man, no problem,” the skinny guy replies.

“
Good. Look, I don’t mind if you look at my girlfriend, just don’t ogle her. It embarrasses her.” And pisses me off.

“
Cool. Didn’t mean no offense,” his friend says, pulling the skinny guy by the sleeve of his jacket, urging him outside where the third guy is waiting on the sidewalk doubled over in laughter.

Seconds later, in the
whoosh
of the doors closing, they’re gone. I turn back to Olivia, who is watching me with a curious look on her face.

“
Girlfriend?” she asks, quirking a brow.

I give a careless shrug. “Hey, they need to learn to show some respect.”

She chuckles softly and after a pause says, “Okay then, getting back to the cart, do you need one, because my stuff will hold in one of the baskets.”

“
Yeah I do. I told you I suck at this.” Some people say they have a quiet little voice inside them that cautions them when they’re about to do something stupid. Well the little voice inside me isn’t quiet. In fact that voice is loud as hell and he’s telling me in no uncertain terms I can never be
just friends
with Olivia.

Pulling a cart out from the line, she pushes it toward me. “You wanna steer?”

At her question, all kinds of crazy, dirty thoughts fill my mind. Thoughts of us naked on my bed, me above her, steering us to a mind-numbing orgasm. I bite down on my inner cheek hard to suppress a smile and clear my throat so I won’t sound like the horny bastard I am right now.

“
Sure. Gotta get used to this anyway, right?”

I get the feeling she knows exactly where my thoughts are because her cheeks get flushed and she nods in agreement while avoiding eye contact.

The next hour goes faster than I thought it would. It’s easy when there’s an objective in mind. And yeah, maybe Olivia has a lot to do with that too.

She shows me how to select the best vegetables and advises against getting bananas too ripe. Christ, there’s even a trick to buying lemons. I never thought about lemons being too ripe or not ripe enough. But if I’m going to need to learn about the ripeness of fruit, there’s no one I’d rather teach me than Olivia. Hell, I’m actually having a good time. And I’m not totally clueless. I know a choice porterhouse and tenderloin cut when I see one.

It’s getting pretty dark by the time we load the grocery bags into the back of the truck. I know I’m inviting trouble the next time I open my mouth to speak, but it’s like I can’t stop myself.

“
You eaten dinner yet?” I ask after I climb into the driver’s seat.

“
No, I’m supposed to meet April at the cafe in fifteen minutes. She just texted that she’s waiting for me.”

I’d seen her fiddling with her cell in the store and wondered who she was texting. I get the impression she’s not seeing Jeff anymore. Which means she’s available.

Yeah, but available for what?

“
Gotcha.”

I asked. She answered. We’re good. I’m just going to drop her off and see her in class tomorrow. Oh, there’s definitely something between us but I’m not sure she’s willing to act on it.

“
You don’t talk about your brother much, do you?”

Okay, where did that come from? I slant a glance at her. From her expression and what I’ve learned about her, it doesn’t look like she’s asking for the usual reasons girls ask me about Brett. Which is why I rarely talk about him and when I do, it’s in a way that doesn’t encourage other questions. That had sure stopped the autograph hounds, the guys looking to score tickets and those who wanted a connection to his high-profile life.

“
There’s not much to say.” I reverse out of the parking spot.

“
Do the two of you get along?”

I laugh. “Okay, what is it you really want to know?”

“
It’s just that I think most guys would never let people forget that their brother is the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.”

“
I guess I’m not like most guys, am I?”

She begins running the leather strap of her handbag between her thumb and index finger. Back and forth, back and forth, like a nervous twitch. She shoots me a look from the corner of her eye and laughs lightly. “Was that a question?”

“
No, just wanted to see how long it’d take for you to look me in the eye. Do I make you nervous or something?” I’m more interested in the
or something
. Whether she’ll admit to it or not is a whole other thing.

Instantly, her head comes up and she turns toward me. “Of course not. Why would I be?”

“
I don’t know, maybe because in high school I’d catch you looking at me.”

If I were a nicer guy, I probably wouldn’t mess with her so much but I have to get points for not bringing up the breast exam she’d made me give her. No, I haven’t said a word about that but I certainly haven’t forgotten it. Never will.

For a second she gives herself away as panic, horror, embarrassment, and then a combination of all three flare in her eyes.

“
I did not.”

As expected, an unequivocal denial. All I know is I love it when she gets all pink and flustered.

I return my attention to the road. “Olivia,” I warn teasingly, “don’t lie or your nose will grow.”

Crickets chirp in the half minute of silence it takes me to turn into the parking lot of her dorm and pull into the first available spot near the doors. After I shut off the engine, I look over and find her yanking on the handle of the door, clearly desperate to get out.

“
The door’s locked.”

She stops and slowly turns her head toward me, her eyes finally meeting mine.

“
Um, can you unlock it?”

I can’t help but smile. “Hey, I used to stare at you too.”

Her eyes go wide as if that’s the last thing she expected to come out of my mouth. “Why? You didn’t like me.”

“
Why wouldn’t I want to look at a beautiful girl?”

She blinks three times in quick succession and swallows hard. I’m familiar with that look, that look of awareness because damn if I haven’t felt it a million times over the last four years.

“
Zach, I thought we agreed we were going to be friends.”

“
And we are.” Grocery shopping together is friendly. And what I want to do to her definitely falls under the
friendlier
category.

“
And you think these are the kind of things friends say to each other?”

Her voice is soft and sweet and I’m getting turned on. Okay, so I’ve been halfway there since I saw her down by the commons. But she’s a fine one to talk about boundaries. She didn’t seem to mind blurring the lines back in high school—and at a time when we weren’t even speaking to each other. A little fact she obviously needs to be reminded of now.