Wyatt reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear, his fingers lightly touching my glasses. “You know, these are actually kinda cute,” he said, his voice more gravelly than I’d ever heard it.
What was happening?
I struggled to find words or even remember how to breathe, but Wyatt and the way he was looking at me made that impossible. Thankfully, the slamming of my front door snapped me out of it.
“Here,” I said, finding my voice and reaching for a dish towel to hand to Wyatt. “You better go or Robby’s going to get chocolate fingerprints all over Scarlet.”
Wyatt’s eyes widened. “Right!” Then he jogged toward the front door calling after Robby.
I took a deep breath, shaking away the heart-stopping feelings that had momentarily possessed me. I didn’t know what had just happened between us. Maybe it was my imagination, but it really seemed like Wyatt had wanted to kiss me.
I shook my head. I was being ridiculous. My dreams from last night must’ve been trying to carry over into today. I was having trouble trying to wake up this morning.
Yes, that’s all this was. I just needed to clear my head.
I ran upstairs, splashed some cold water on my face and changed while Wyatt took pictures of Robby posing in front of his car. I could see them from my bedroom window and had a hard time keeping the smile off my face.
It was sort of adorable how sweet Wyatt was with Robby. He was certainly making it difficult for me to stick to my ‘strictly partners’ rule.
I was convinced Wyatt’s photograph would appear under the definition of Prince Charming if I looked it up—good thing I knew fairytales weren’t real.
Chapter Forty-One
Wyatt
Layne stole my breath when she came outside wearing my jacket. I’d never known a piece of leather could look so good. Perhaps watching the rest of that movie last night hadn’t been a good idea, because I was starting to have a hard time not acting on the feelings I’d been fighting over the past few days.
I needed to get it together. I’d almost made a fool of myself in her kitchen.
Unless . . . Was Layne starting to feel it, too?
There was an undeniable spark whenever we were together. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she’d been looking at my lips in her kitchen. She could tell me that kiss at Journeys was purely celebratory all she wanted, but I hadn’t been able to stop craving another one.
That had to mean something, right?
I’d kissed plenty of girls, and I couldn’t remember ever wanting a repeat performance so badly. I was trying to curb my bad boy ways with Layne, but she wasn’t making it easy.
She was holding the pink bakery box of donuts when she walked toward my car. “You didn’t get any. Did you want to take these to-go?”
Even though my stomach rumbled as she held the box of donuts out to me, I shook my head. The only thing I wanted to taste right now were her lips. “Why don’t we let Robby have them?”
“Yes!” Robby exclaimed, taking the box from Layne before she could protest.
“Share with your parents,” she ordered.
“I will.” Robby turned back to Wyatt. “Don’t forget to text me those pictures.”
“Doing it right now,” I called back, hitting send on my phone.
The phone in Robby’s hand dinged and he did a little dance. “Eat your heart out, Thomas!” he yelled, before running back up the steps and disappearing into the house.
Layne shook her head, trying to hide her laughter. “I think I’m going to have to start limiting how much sugar you bring him. His mom’s going to have her hands full all day if he eats that whole box of donuts.”
“You and your rules,” I teased. “Can’t a guy just have some fun?”
She gave me a strange look but slipped silently into my car without a response. I shut the door, walking around to the driver’s side wondering what I’d said. I was just messing with her. She had to be used to my teasing by now. Not taking things too seriously was basically my life motto.
Or that’s what I let everyone think, anyway.
I guess Layne would find out the truth soon enough. I didn’t want to hide who I was from her anymore. And this morning, I’d made my hasty decision to let her see the real me.
“I can’t believe you didn’t want any donuts after raving about them yesterday,” Layne said, her face looking casual again.
“Who said I didn’t want any?” I arched my eyebrow, glancing in the rearview at what was in the backseat as I started the engine.
Scarlet purred to life and I pulled away from Layne’s house. She turned in her seat and broke out into a fit of laughter. “Okay, you and Robby seriously have a problem. You can’t eat that many donuts, Wyatt!”
“They’re not all for me.”
Layne gave me a wary look. “Do you have a donut delivery route I don’t know about?”
I smirked. “Something like that.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Layne
I grew more and more anxious on our drive. It didn’t help that I didn’t know where we were going. I hadn’t been lying when I told Wyatt I wasn’t someone who liked surprises. What if he was going to surprise me with some sort of romantic gesture?
I cringed.
Why had I suggested watching Say Anything? That movie was way too romantic to watch with a friend. It sent the wrong message.
Lola’s words popped back into my head. ‘You need to keep your guard up. At least until you get through the competition.’
I pressed my head back against my seat and closed my eyes, hating Wyatt’s stupid reputation. It made my confusing feelings even harder to interpret. But he had his reputation for a reason. He was notorious for being the loving and leaving kind.
I opened my eyes and peeked at him. Was that what was happening here? Was he about to make his move and then leave me high and dry?
Ugh! Why did I have to let my stupid heart go falling for him?
Lola was right. I needed to nip this in the bud while I still could and keep this relationship strictly professional. Because no matter what my screaming hormones told me when I was with Wyatt, music was more important than anything I thought I felt for him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, catching me staring.
I swallowed hard, realizing I’d better just blurt it out now and save us both the embarrassment if this was some sort of surprise date. “Um, I need to tell you something.”
“O-kaaay,” he drawled.
“It’s serious.”
“Like I need to pull over, serious, or you finally realized I have better taste in music than you, serious?”
“No, I think you should keep driving. It’ll make it easier for me to say if you’re not staring at me.”
That wiped the smirk right off Wyatt’s face. “I’m listening,” he said, all traces of sarcasm gone from his voice.
“So, I had a really, really great time last night . . .”
“But,” he said cautiously.
“But I think it would be smart if we just kept our relationship strictly business.”
He glanced at me, a sincerely wounded look in his eyes. “Is that so?”