“Don’t.”
“Aren’t you finished?”
“I am. I mean don’t pretend like it’s weird for me to care about you.”
“But it is. Rhett, I’ve gone to school with you all my life, and now we’re almost finished. Isn’t it a little late for all this?”
“I don’t think so—that’s not what I’m saying.”
Before Rhett can say anything else, Betty interrupts. “Kinsley, you’re needed in the kitchen.”
“Coming.” I take his plate, and grab his empty glass. “I’ll get your check. Actually, it’s on me. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I’d rather he just leave. I’m overwhelmed.
Betty’s waiting for me at the register, just outside the kitchen door. “Brian called, he figured out what’s wrong with the car, but he’s not going to be able to come for you.”
“He did, that’s a relief.”
“Honey, you know I’d take you home if I still drove, but these old eyes aren’t good at night.”
I’m about to tell her I’ll call Carson when Rhett chimes in. “I’ll take her home. She did buy my pie. It’s the least I can do.”
Betty claps her hands with delight, oblivious to the conversation I just had with Rhett a few minutes ago. “That would be wonderful. I knew this young man was a good one as soon as I saw him. Thank you, dear.”
I appreciate his offer, but I don’t want to become a charity care, either. “He’s already taking me home from school tomorrow. I don’t want to inconvenience him.”
“Kinsley, I’m offering. Let me take you home. I want to,” he adds.
I don’t want to argue with him. In fact, fighting with him is the last thing I want to do. I want to get to know him better—even if I still think he might be living in a dream world. “Okay. Thanks. My sister’s at work, I’ll let her know it’s covered.”
Rhett waits while I type out a text, and then says, “Let me see your phone.”
I hand it to him and he glances at the message I sent Kate.
“Just a friend?” he says, with an unexpected hint of disappointment.
I try to grab the phone out of his hand, but he holds it higher than I can reach. “Rhett!”
“Hold on.” He punches his number into my contacts. “There. Now you have no excuse. If you need me, you call me. And if you don’t, text me anyway.”
I laugh as he hands my phone back to me. “Clever.” When I glance at the screen, I snort. Instead of listing his name in my contact list, like a normal person would, he listed himself as “NOT a friend.”
“You know that’s going to come up on the screen—if you ever call me.”
“When I call you,” he stresses. “That was the point.”
“Okay, when you call.”
Rhett leans closer to my screen, checking to see if Kate responded. “She okay with it?”
I tap out one more message to my sister. “Yeah, she’s fine with it.”
“Are you going to tell her my name if she asks? Or are you going to make something up?”
I’m not sure I’m ready to tell Kate about Rhett. Not that there’s much to tell. “I might tell her. I have to see what kind of mood she’s in. She’s weird about guys, sometimes.”
“Good. She should be.”
I laugh at how firm his response is. “Are you warning me of your asshole ways?”
“Kinsley, I’m one of the good ones, I promise you that. Your sister is, too, if she’s looking out for you.”
“She’s a great sister.” I shouldn’t, but I get a little defensive for the simple fact that Kate’s the closest thing to a parent I have. She’s judged by everyone in town for getting stuck with her little sister and brother—even if she’s never once complained about it.
Rhett tugs on my apron again, pulling me close enough that he can slide his arm around my waist. “That’s why I want her to know about me. If she means so much to you, then I want to know her. In fact, I’m not taking you home until you agree to tell her who I am.”
“Why didn’t that approach work with my brother?”
Rhett winces when I call him out. “Kinsley, that’s different, and you know it. Plus, I have a bad feeling Wyatt will still try to kick my ass if he finds out.”
“That doesn’t concern you? Doesn’t make you want to hide like you did before?”
He’s completely serious when he says, “No, I’m done staying away. I told you I waited long enough.”
His words hit me hard, make me nervous even, but I’m still trying to process the fact that my brother challenged the entire school, warning all the guys what would happen to them if they so much as asked me to a dance. “I can’t believe Wyatt scared all the guys away. It makes a lot of sense now.”
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t know, but I had my suspicions. Either way, he didn’t make life any easier for me. It sucked never being asked to a dance, or on a date. I figured I was just that repulsive.”
Rhett rests his arms on my shoulders, placing his finger beneath my chin. I have no choice but to look him right in the eye. “You’re beautiful, Kinsley West. Absolutely beautiful. I’m sorry I waited so long.”
I want to duck my head and hide, but he doesn’t let me. “I don’t know what to say to that.”
“You don’t have to say anything—just tell your sister my name. We’ll take it from there.”
“And if she doesn’t want me getting into a car with some guy she doesn’t know, then you’re crazy quest to drive me places won’t happen, and I’ll be out a ride. You still think it’s a good idea?”
“I’m not just any guy, Kinsley.”
I laugh, because he’s completely serious—and a little bit right. “No, you definitely aren’t just any guy, Rhett. I mean, you’re the Rhett Taylor. She might pass out once I tell her.”
He taps the tip of my nose with his finger. “See, that’s why I like you. You could give two shits about who I am.”
“It’s a great name, and you’re well respected in this town for your accomplishments on the field, but there’s more to you than that. I can tell.”
He sighs in relief. “Yeah? So, you’re going to stick around to find out the rest?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Depends.”
“On?”
I pull away from him, even though I loved being so close, practically wrapped up in his arms. I need a little space before I say this next part. “It depends on you.”
“Then I have no worries. You’re mine.”
“Are you going to show me the real you, or the one you think I want to see? I want to get to know the guy who has been waiting two years for me. He’s the one I’m interested in.”
With a look serious enough to pierce through me, yet gentle enough to feel cherished, he says, “I want you to see all of me, Kinsley.”
Whether it’s littered with underlying sexual innuendos or not, I take his comment in stride. Because like it or not, I want to get to know Rhett, and the only way to do that, is to give him a shot. Even if I’m scared I won’t be what he was looking for. Two years is a lot of expectation to live up to. “Okay.”
“Okay? You want to see me?”
“If that means hanging out, then sure.”
He smiles so wide it’s contagious. “I knew coming here was a good idea.”
I bump into him with my body, playfully nudging him. “Oh yeah? So you could get a free meal?”
He shakes his head. “No, I’m paying you for the food now that I know you’re not going to run.”
“You were going to make me pay if you didn’t get what you wanted?”
He shakes his head, looking slightly exasperated. “It sounds terrible when you say it like that, Kinsley. I was just going to use it as leverage.”
“That’s not playing fair, Rhett.”
“I never said I played fair,” he says with a crooked brow.
I shake my head. He’s exhausting. “I want the real you, not the asshole. Remember that.”