Zoey And The Nice Guy (Big Girl Panties #1) (11 page)

“Oh, good,” he said. “I wasn’t sure.”

She gave him a funny look.
 

A waitress came and delivered their menus as she took their drink orders. Zoey opened her menu and nibbled on her bottom lip as she browsed. Kellen was entranced, waiting in suspense to see what would happen next.

Her eyes darted up. “Uh, what?” she asked.

He shook himself and opened his menu. “Nothing. Do you like pancakes?”

“Yeah, who doesn’t?”

“I just know I mentioned pancakes yesterday, but you can get whatever you want.”

“I’m gonna, so don’t you worry.”

He glanced at her again, and she was still engrossed in the menu. Then she slammed it shut, leaned back, and smiled. “Got it. What are you getting?”

“Uh—“

“Y’all ready to order?” the perky waitress asked. She sat two mugs of coffee in front of them.

“Yes,” Zoey said. “I’ll have the tall stack of chocolate chip pancakes, a side of home fries, and a slice of bacon. Could you bring me a glass of milk with that?”

“Sure, darlin’. What about you?”

Kellen gaped at Zoey. “Steak and eggs with pancakes instead of biscuits.” He handed his menu over without taking his eyes from Zoey.
 

After the waitress left, Zoey leaned forward. “You got a problem with what I eat?”

“No. Not at all. It’s just been a while since I dated a woman who was willing to eat in front of me.”

“Oh, well, I’m not worried about what you think of me, so that’s why.”

He laughed. “Okay. Well, that’s awesome.”

“Besides, this isn’t a date. Breakfast? No. Not a date.”

He frowned. “I’m paying. Doesn’t that make it a date?”

“Nope. Dates are romantic. There’s no way to make breakfast romantic.”

“But if I did pull off a miracle and make breakfast romantic, would it then count as a date?”

“Sure. You can’t do it, though. It’s impossible.”

He leaned back and got lost in wondering how he could make breakfast romantic.

“See, now you’re ignoring me,” she said. “That’s just seriously unromantic.”
 

“I think I’m just so in awe of being here with you, it’s left me speechless.”

She twisted her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Hmmm. Nope. Not enough. Keep trying, though.”

He leaned forward and grabbed her hand. She’d taken the mittens off, and her hand was warm and soft. “How’s the family doing?”

Her guard went down. “Good. All the swelling in Maya’s face is gone. She’s just black and blue, now. Sophie and Matthew are taking good care of her, bless their hearts. Those are seriously the best kids I’ve ever met. How’s your face feeling?”

“Hurts. I’ll survive. You yelled at any defenseless, middle-aged women today?”

“Not yet. You carried groceries for any little old ladies today?”

“Not yet.”

“Maybe that’s what we are. Maybe your powers of good counteract my destructive forces, creating balance in the universe.”

He grinned and stroked the back of her knuckles with the pad of his thumb. “I don’t think you’re as evil as you think you are.”

“That’s your mistake.” She pulled her hand out of his and laid it in her lap.
 

He leaned back and studied her. How to get inside that fiery wall of protection? “What’s it you’re guarding yourself from?”

“Huh?”

“All the prickly attitude—it’s a shield, right? What are you afraid of?”

“Oh, I’m not afraid of anything, jackass. I just am who I am, and if you don’t like it, then fuck you.”

He mouthed the last two words along with her and then laughed. “You’re getting predictable—or I’m just figuring you out.”

“There’s nothing to figure out, Kellen. I’m just a bitch.”

He frowned and nodded. “Maybe, or maybe you just want a man who will fight for you.”

Her cocky expression faltered.
 

The waitress showed up with their food. Zoey pulled her hair back in a band and pushed up her sleeves. “You should try these,” she said, cramming her mouth full of chocolate chip pancake. She nudged her plate toward him in offering.

He laughed and speared a bite with his fork. “Good,” he said. “Hey, sharing food…that’s romantic, right?”

Her eyebrow went up in a skeptical scowl. “Not hardly.”

And then something suddenly felt wrong. Kellen glanced over to see Damon walking in the door with his arm around a woman. She had on a tight skirt over wool leggings and a shirt that barely contained her cleavage. Her skin was nicotine yellowed and her blond hair was black at the roots.
 

Damon grinned when he saw Kellen. “Hey, little brother,” he said.

“Jesus,” Kellen muttered.
 

“Mind if we join you?”
 

Before he could answer, Damon wedged in next to Zoey, forcing her to scoot down on the bench. She grabbed her food and slid it down the table with her, even as she glared hatred at Damon.
 

The woman pulled up a chair and sat at the end. She ran her hand up and down Damon’s thigh.
 

Kellen felt sick for so many reasons. Seeing Damon cheating on Maya, seeing him at all, was nauseating. There was a very sudden, very real fear, now, as he truly saw his brother, for the first time, as a dangerous man. A dangerous man who was crowding in next to Zoey.
 

Kellen said a silent prayer that Zoey would keep her mouth shut. “Damon, what are you doing here?”

“Having breakfast. Just like you. Hey, how’s your face? Sorry about that, by the way.”

It was only a little satisfying that Damon’s face was in worse shape. Though Kellen couldn’t take credit for the broken nose. “That’s fine, but maybe you could get your own table.”

“Why? You two on a date or something? Not very romantic, a breakfast date. Or is this a morning after breakfast?”

“Christ, Damon, don’t do this.”

“Do what? I just wanna know what’s going on in my little brother’s life.” Then Damon turned to Zoey and brushed his knuckles along her jaw. “Get to know my future sister-in-law, here.”

Kellen’s fight-or-flight kicked in and it was all fight. He gripped the table edge, trembling with rage. “Keep your goddamn hands off her.”

Damon laughed. “Jeez, Kellen. You never used to be this aggressive. You must really have it bad for this one.” He slid his arm around her shoulders.
 

Before Kellen could do anything, Zoey reached up and grabbed Damon’s nose, twisting it out of shape. Damon screamed and tried to back out of the booth, but Zoey held firm until he was on the floor, his hands on his face, screaming in agony. “You crazy bitch!”

“Never put your hands on me!” she shouted down at him.

“I’m gonna kill you, you stupid cunt!”

That was when Kellen hauled Zoey against him. She kicked and flailed, but he held her tight. A moment later, two of the sheriff’s deputies came in. They grabbed Damon and dragged him outside. The blond woman followed after him, shuffling along in her ridiculously high heels.
 

Kellen turned Zoey to face him. Zoey, who wasn’t afraid of anyone, was shaking. Her eyes were red-rimmed with tears. She looked up at him and when her bottom lip quivered, Kellen’s heart broke in two. “Come here,” he said, as he gathered her into his chest.
 

“How dare he!” she screamed into his chest, her voice muffled. “How dare he touch me!”

“I know. You took care of it, though, didn’t you?”

“You should have done something! You should have stopped him.”

Her words cut him, but he swallowed down the pain and held her tightly. “It’s okay. Everything’s fine, now.”

She sobbed into his chest for a couple of minutes before she finally calmed. He could feel the tension easing out of her. She stepped back and dragged her wrists over her eyes.
 

One of the deputies came back in and they all sat in the booth, Kellen with his arm around Zoey. “He wants to press charges.”

Kellen stiffened, but Zoey spoke first. “Tell him I won’t if he doesn’t. He was sexually harassing me. Touching me after being told to stop.”

The deputy made a note and then stepped outside. They watched through the diner windows as the deputy talked to Damon. When he came back in, he wore a hesitant smile. “He’s not going to press charges after all.”

“Good.”

“Maybe you should anyway,” Kellen said.

Zoey shook her head. “I’m not going to add to the drama.”

“Ma’am, if you feel you’re in danger…,” the deputy said.

“No. No, I’m not afraid,” she said. Which wasn’t exactly an answer. The deputy left and they leaned against each other for a few minutes.

At last they stood and Zoey cast a longing look at her breakfast.
 

“We’ll get it to go,” he said. He signaled the waitress, who hurried to the back for boxes.

“I can’t believe you’re related to that asshole. I can’t believe there’s not a bad name equivalent to cunt for the male of the species. It’s so fucking unfair!”

“I know. I know it is. I’m so sorry, Zoey.”

The waitress brought them their boxes, and he handed her his credit card. He and Zoey packed up their food and then headed out to the truck, grabbing his card and signing the receipt on the way out.

He drove toward her home. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t do anything,” she muttered.

“You’re mad at me?”

“You just sat there!”

“I’m sorry. I’ve never had to defend a woman’s honor before. It’s virgin territory for me.”

“I don’t need you to defend my honor!”

He jerked the truck to the left and parked in the gravel off the side of a gas station parking lot. “You’re making my head spin. You don’t want me to defend you, but you’re mad at me because I didn’t?”

“No! I don’t need you to defend me, but I’m mad you didn’t at least try.”

He shook his head and stared out the windshield. The silence dragged out. At last he laughed in frustration and massaged his temples. “Jesus, Zoey.”

She didn’t answer and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
 

“Listen, I was about to jump all over him. Maybe you don’t believe me, but I’ve never wanted to hit someone so badly in my life. When he touched you, it just made me sick and angry beyond comprehension.”

He turned to her, then, and saw she was listening.

“But you beat me to it, Zoey. You had him down before I could move. I think we both just have to accept that you’re more badass than me.”

She stared at him and a slow smile crept up her lips. “I am, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” he said, laughing in relief. “You’re amazing. I’m sorry you had to go through this today.”

“It was the least romantic breakfast I’ve ever experienced.”

He shook his head. “I was a fool. As though I didn’t have enough odds against me, I had to go and attempt the impossible.”

She laughed, and he drove her home. They took their breakfast inside and ate at her kitchen table. The kids were as excited as ever to see Uncle Kellen. He loved the way they wanted to tell him about every little thing going on in their lives.

He and Zoey had come to a silent agreement to keep Damon’s recent activities from Maya. When Maya asked what happened to his face, he told her he got in a bar fight with a drunk guy who wouldn’t stop flirting with Jayce. The story was believable because Jayce always had a disproportionately large number of men flirting with him.
 

After a couple of hours of playing with the kids, Kellen decided to head home. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with Zoey that day, and he had some work he needed to finish up.

“What work?” Zoey asked as she walked him to his truck.

“Gotta edit some photos for a magazine.”

“Oh, yeah. Freelance photography. How well does that pay?”

He gaped at her and playfully shoved her shoulder. “It didn’t pay too well at first, but I’m doing pretty damn good for myself now, thank you very much.”

“If it made you a millionaire, I’d still say it wasn’t a real job.”

“Well, I’d be a millionaire, so fuck you.”
 

She dropped her head back and laughed. “You so stole my line.”

“I did,” he said, stepping toward her. He couldn’t resist putting his hand in that thick, red mane of hers. As fine as her body was, that hair had always kept his attention ensnared, even in high school.

She sat in front of him in his AP Biology class. He was so impressed with how she’d worked to get here. Sixteen and wrapping up her senior year. She was easily the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. He wished it wasn’t so, because she clearly didn’t know he existed. He tried to get her attention whenever she was with Maya, who was usually with Damon. But Zoey either ignored him or glared at him. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

It was lucky getting to be in a class with her. Maybe this would be his chance to ask her out. He could ask her to prom. Sophomores loved being asked to prom. Maybe if she went to prom, he could get his hands in her hair. He’d always figured he was an ass-man, and Zoey indeed had a fine ass…but that hair.
 

He spent entire classes trying to come up with an excuse to get her attention and this day was no different, except that he finally had an idea. Maya and Damon were going to see
The Hills Have Eyes
that night at the theater. He would invite Zoey to come with them and then maybe she’d get scared and hang on to him.
 

Class was almost over. Mr. Snider was droning on and on. Kellen had been getting increasingly nervous. It was now or never. He reached up and tugged gently on a lock of her perfect, perfect hair.

He’d expected her to turn and raise a brow in gentle, silent inquiry. Instead, her spine stiffened. She spun, her hair whipping to the side, and pierced him with rage-filled eyes. “Touch my hair again and die, asshole!” she snarled in a harsh whisper

She didn’t wait for a response, but turned back to her desk and scooted further forward, out of his reach. Somehow, Mr. Snider didn’t notice. Kellen sat there, his hand still outstretched, his mouth open, and stared at the back of her head.

That night, Kellen found out about Maya’s pregnancy. He consoled her and promised to help her even as Damon held her and promised to care for her. As the evening wore on, the talk turned from practicalities to dreams. Damon was promising white picket fences and two-car garages. Kellen was just excited to be an uncle. He’d never held a baby before. On a more selfish note, he was glad Maya was permanently in Damon’s life because that meant always having Zoey nearby.