The Deeper We Get (3 page)

“New York was hurting in the sex appeal?”

“Who could tell, everyone was always covered up for months at a time, and in the summer months we were all sweaty.”

They laughed.

“Really though, we did all right. I never complained.” We spent the rest of the time laughing and joking around. I didn’t feel so out of place anymore. Maybe California wasn’t going to be as bad as it seemed, even if the sun did shine all the damned time.

Just as we were getting ready to leave
she
walked in with another girl, looking entirely too appealing. My mouth dried up just looking at her. I needed distance from her, not to keep running into her wherever I went.

“Hey, why am I not surprised to see you here?” Scarlet waved and came to hug Vin and Ian.

“We had to show our boy Chad here the best food in town.” Vin nodded in my direction.

Apparently Scarlet and the Trager brothers knew each other from somewhere.

She smiled at me nervously. “Hey.” Her voice was soft.

“Hey.”

“You guys know each other?” Vin raised a brow.

“We just met, Chad is working for Frank now.”

I noticed she didn’t mention the encounter at the beach, not that I could blame her. “How do you all know each other?” I gestured to everyone around us.

“We all went to high school together
,” she answered. “This is my best friend Taryn.” She slung her arm around the skinny brunette she had walked in with.

Taryn’s eyes widened and Scarlet elbowed her in the side. I wasn’t sure what that was all about but then again girls were weird sometimes.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Chad.”

“Yeah, I know who you are.” She giggled.

Scarlet elbowed her again. “We’ll leave you guys alone.” She tugged Taryn away.

“Why don’t you sit with us?” Ian scooted over to make room for the girls.

Taryn whispered something to Scarlet who was rapidly shaking her head. Apparently Taryn won out because she slid in next to Ian and Scarlet slid in next to me.

“I’m not stalking you, I swear
,” she whispered, her eyes dancing with amusement.

“Isn’t that normally what stalkers say?” I laughed. I tried not to notice the heat between us. There was something there and neither of us could deny it.

Everyone was talking and laughing except for me and Scarlet. She seemed just as uncomfortable. We hadn’t exactly left things great the last time we saw each other.

“I should probably get going.” I made a move to slide out of the booth, but Scarlet was there and all I accomplished was our legs smashing together.

“Stay.” Scarlet smiled up at me.

That single word, her soft voice, they made me want to do just that. “I can’t.” I wanted to
, but she was already affecting me more than I wanted her to.

“Ok
ay.” Her smile faded, and she slipped out of the booth to let me up. “See you around I guess.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you.” I pushed my arms through the sleeve of my jacket and waved to everyone else before leaving.

This was not good, not good at all.

Scarlet was everywhere, I couldn’t
escape her. In the weeks since I started working at the garage she was always silently watching me, waiting for me to say or do some unknown thing. We hadn't spoken much since the night at the restaurant
.
She was hot as hell, but not what I needed. I made up my mind not to do anything about her. She was Frank’s niece, and I didn’t need that trouble. Besides the fact that she was still semi seeing Max. He had come by the shop a few times to pick her up.

“Hey.”

I looked up from the engine I was cleaning to find her standing with a hand on her hip.

“What’s up?”

“I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to get coffee or something later?” She looked nervous, chewing on her lower lip and barely making eye contact.

“What about Max?”

“What about him?” she shot back. There was that fiery temper I had only gotten a glimpse of before.

“Last I checked you were still seeing him. I don’t need to be stepping into something like that.”

“So he’s the only issue? You would say yes if he wasn’t in the picture?”

“I didn’t say that.” I wiped my greasy hands on my coveralls.

“Are you always such an ass?”

“Mostly. Which is why you shouldn’t hang out with me.”

“I think I can make my own decisions about that. So what do you say? Coffee later?”

“You never answered my question.” I leaned against the counter.

“He’s not in the picture anymore.”

“For how long?”

“Pretty much since the night you kicked the crap out of him. It just took a while to really end it.” She crossed her arms, allowing me a glimpse of her cleavage.

“How does Frank feel about you dating guys from the shop?”

“He doesn’t really get to say who I do and don’t date. Besides, he likes you.”

“I’m not saying yes to a date, I’m saying
okay to coffee, that’s it.” I knew I was making a mistake. My head was screaming at me to say no—to run the other direction and not look back. But the other part of me, the part that resided behind a zipper a little to the south of my brain was saying yes. And unfortunately for me, that was the voice I listened to most of the time.

“
I wasn’t asking you on a date, just coffee. I’ll see you after work.” I watched her walk away, enjoying the sway of her hips and the way her ass looked in the tight jeans she wore.

Frank eyed me from the other side of the shop, but he didn’t say anything. I went back to cleaning the engine and tried to forget about how much trouble I
was getting myself into.

That didn’t happen,
because Scarlet made sure to walk by me every chance she got. She had questions about forms or needed to know the part number on something. She used any excuse she could find to interact with me.

By the end of the day I could see how agitated Frank was by the whole situation.

“Langer, in my office,” he called from the back.

Shit.
“Coming.” I finished cleaning up my space and trudged back to talk to him.

“Sit please.” He looked tired.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, well...No you didn’t do anything wrong at work. You do a great job here. The thing is, well, the thing is Scarlet.”

“We’re just getting coffee, nothing else.”

“She seems tough, but she’s not. She’s been through a hell of a lot in her life, and I’d hate to see her hurt again.”

“I don’t want to hurt her, if I had wanted that I would have let Max finish what he started at the beach.”

His jaw tightened. “Watch your step Chad. I will only put up with so much when it comes to her. You seem like a good kid, just know that I’ll be watching, always watching.”

“You’re okay with this then?”

“I didn't say that. Scarlet’s old enough to decide who she wants to date, I haven't been able to say much about it since she was seventeen. Just be careful with her, that’s all.”

“I can promise you I will. I told her this was a bad idea, but she wasn’t having any of it.”

“She never is.” He laughed.

I was happy the tension had been relieved. I like this job a lot and didn’t want to lose it.

“We good?”

“Yeah, we’re good. Get out of here and have a good night.”

“Will do. See you in a few days.”

She was waiting for me out back when I walked out into the twilight air.

“Did he tear you a new one?”
she smirked.

“Not exactly.” I slipped my arms into my jacket. “You have a helmet?”

She gestured to the handlebar of my bike which now held two helmets. “Good, where do you want to go?”

She chewed her lower lip while she thought
, and I almost took a taste of that lip myself. She was so damn appealing without even trying to be.

“I’ll give you directions as we go.” She tied her long hair into a ponytail and strapped her helmet on.

I backed the bike out and waited for her to hop on behind me. She slid on behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist, and nestled her legs next to mine. We took off and she shouted directions until we ended up at a small coffee place by the beach.

“Will you think less of me as a man if I order hot chocolate?” I asked as we walked up.

She gave me the side eye and laughed. “Probably, but is that going to stop you?”

“No,
I just wanted to know what my odds were.” I held the door open so she could walk in ahead of me, as much to be nice as to check out her ass.

“Enjoy the view?” She gave me that sexy smirk again.

“Very much.” My tone was light, but I could tell she got my meaning by the blush that crept across her cheeks.

We ordered,
and I paid. She got some whipped something or other, and I got my usual hot chocolate. We found a table outside to sit at.

“Tell me why you think this is a good idea?” I asked once we were seated.

“You don't pull any punches do you?”

“Not usually, no.”

“I think you’re hot, reason enough for you?”

“That’s reason enough for a quick roll in the sheets but not to date.” I watched her for a reaction. I was going to enjoy this, I could already tell.

“If I just wanted sex, I could get it easy enough.” She shrugged.

“You still didn't answer my question.”

“I don’t know the answer.”

“I guess that will have to do for now won’t it?” I leaned across the table and pulled her mouth to mine. She tasted like strawberries and sugar, and I couldn’t fucking get enough of her. I bit at her lower lip as we kissed, wanting a whole lot more than I was going to get tonight. I pulled away and sat back in my chair.

“So I guess you think I’m hot too then.”

“Something like that.” She was more than hot
—she was the sun, and everything around her paled in comparison.

“Tell me something about you.” She took a sip of her drink and studied me from across the table.

“What do you want to know?”

“I don't really care, just something.”

“I have one sister and three adopted brothers. I spent the last five years in New York, but I’m originally from Washington. Boxing and working on bikes keep me sane.”

“Boxing?”

“Yeah, I like to hit things sometimes, and this is my way of not ending up in prison for doing it.”

She shivered.
Shit, shouldn’t have said that.

“It’s not in the way it sounds.”

“It sounds pretty nuts.”

“I just need the fight, I crave it. Do you get that? Like, I need to know I can take care of myself if need to.”

“That I can understand.”

There it was again, that look. The same one from the beach, that haunted look. She knew, and it wasn’t just because of Max.

“Tell me something about you now.”

“I’ve lived with Frank since I was ten
—been at the garage and working on bikes pretty much since then.”

“Let me stop you there, what you just said is probably the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard. I’d like to see you work on a bike, covered in grease and oil.”

Her cheeks flushed, and she sucked in a breath. I knew I should stop, or this was going to end in us horizontal on my bed. I’d told Frank it was just coffee, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to be a liar.

“What else?”

“Um, I forgot what I was going to say.” She smiled.

“What do you do for fun around here?”

“The beach is usually fun, but there’s always something going on somewhere. Some trouble to get in. Tell me about school.”

“School sucks, I hate it. I’m really only going
just to appease my family. I want to own my own shop, not work some corporate job.”

“Why don’t you do that then?”

“I will, but I need to do it right. I’ll probably get my degree in business or something so I will at least have a fighting chance at it.”

“Sounds reasonable to me. Your family doesn’t approve?”

“Not, it’s not that. They want me happy, they just think school needs to be a part of the equation. I get it, I really do. A college diploma opens doors that a high school one doesn’t. So, I’ll work for Frank and still follow my passion while I’m in school.”

She nodded
. “Why California? I’m sure there are plenty of good schools in New York.”

“It was far away, and that’s what I need for now
,” I replied as I finished the last of my hot chocolate. “Ready to go?”

“Are we done?”

“Did you want to go somewhere else?”

“Your apartment.”

“Not a good idea.”

“You don’t want to?”

“I do, but it’s not happening tonight. I’m not rushing into something with you to have it go south after we fuck. I like you, just let it happen okay?”

The look on her face was priceless, this was a girl who was not used to hearing no when it came to sex. But since I was the one with the dick, it wasn’t going to happen, at least not tonight.

I wasn’t sure how comfortable
I wanted to get with Scarlet right away. I didn’t need a relationship, and she wasn’t the type of girl you just messed around with. She was a hearts and flowers, all or nothing, kind of girl.

“Hey.” She smiled brightly. It had been a couple of days since I had seen her last
.

“Hey.” I looked up from the engine I was cleaning.

“So, were you ever going to call me?” She leaned against the table.

“Yeah, probably.”

“Probably huh? Am I that awful to be around?”

“Seriously? No you aren’t awful to be around. I agreed to coffee, and we went to coffee.”

“I know you felt it too. That pull.”

I had felt it, too much of it. I wanted to step back about a mile. “Feeling it and wanting it are t
wo different things. I don’t want anything serious right now.”

“Who says I want anything more than casual?”

I looked at her, she was lying to herself, and we both knew it. “You aren’t a casual dating kind of girl. You want to be a girlfriend, and I’m not ready to be a boyfriend.”

“Stop it, stop telling me what I want. You don’t know me well enough for that yet
,” she snarled.

I held up my hands. “I’m just being honest. If you want to try casual, then by all means let’s try it. Just know that it’s not going beyond that.”

“Fine.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“Why do I feel like you’re mad now?”

“I’m not.”

She was, I’d been around enough pissed off chicks to read the signs. “Fine, if you say you’re not, you’re not. I need to finish this, so I’ll catch you later
okay?”