Chapter 11
Kennedy
“I’m not saying it.”
“Just say it.”
Dante shook his head and picked up his bowling shoes from the floor. “I’m not calling you Queen Kennedy, Bowler Extraordinaire.”
I thrust my shoes at him and huffed. “That is kind of a mouthful. You can shorten it to Queen Kennedy, B.E.”
Dante chuckled. “B.E.? You’re crazy, honey.” He walked away from me and set our shoes on the return counter.
“Oh, come on,” I pouted, walking over to him. “The only nickname I’ve ever had is Ken. I need something better than that.”
“I call you honey.”
I scoffed. “You probably call everyone that.”
“I can guarantee you that I do not call Kellan, Tate, or Roman that.”
I laughed at the thought of Dante calling Roman honey. “I think I would probably pay to watch you call any of them honey.”
“If I did, you can guarantee they’d all punch me in the face.”
“I’m sure you could defend yourself.” Molly had mentioned each of the guys had their own specialties, and Dante was the fighter.
He looked down at me and smirked. “Does that mean you don’t want anything to happen to my pretty face?”
I scowled and shook my head. “You are completely shameless, you know that, right?”
“There you go, thinking about me again,” he rumbled low. He leaned down while he grabbed my right hand with his left. “But you’re not going to admit that, are you, honey?”
I had the upper hand, and just like that, he touched me, and my world rocked.
Confession time.
While I was throwing sass and bragging that I had beat Dante at three games of bowling, inside, I was actually enjoying my time with him. I couldn’t admit that, though. I had started this date telling him he was just a decoy, but by the time I had bowled my last frame, I wasn’t thinking of him like that anymore. I didn’t want this. A relationship was not something I was looking for.
Running my business and avoiding my mother were my two priorities. There was no room for Dante in there besides being my decoy for one night.
At least, that was what I kept telling myself. After spending a few hours with Dante, I was starting to see that it was going to be hard to stick to those two priorities. “I admit nothing.” I pulled my hand from his and took a step back. “Except for I think you have a big head.”
He smirked. “You ready to have that talk about your mother yet?”
Crap. I forgot I agreed to talk about her. “I’m feeling kind of tired,” I stammered behind a fake yawn.
Dante crossed his arms over his chest. “I call bullshit, but this just means we’re going to have to go out again before going over to your mom’s.”
I shook my head. That wasn’t going to happen. “I see no reason for that.”
“Because we still need to get to know each other better.” He stared down at me. “When is this dinner?”
I did the math in my head and figured I had less than three weeks ‘til I couldn’t ignore my mother’s summons anymore. “Around the second week of the month.”
“So that’s like two and a half weeks, right? So, you expect us not to see each other for that long and then when we get to your mom’s to just act like we are so happy together? That shit ain’t going to work, honey.”
“Have you been talking to Karlton?” I huffed. “He said the same thing to get me out tonight.”
“He’s a smart man.”
“Jesus,” I grumbled. “Give me your phone.” He handed me his phone without a word, and I pulled up his contacts. I quickly punched in my number and handed the phone back to him.
Dante looked at his phone, hit a few buttons, and then my phone in my pocket was ringing. I pulled it out and laughed. “You called me?”
Dante ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket. “Now you have mine, and I also know that you didn’t give me the number to a pizza place instead of your number.”
Damn. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
He may have my number now, but that didn’t mean I had to answer when he called or texted me. “Next time, we’ll delve into the world of Vivian and how you became a karate hottie.”
Dante’s eyebrows raised and a grin spreads across his lips. “Karate hottie?”
Oh, for Pete's sake. First, I tell him about my lady bits tingling and now I called him a karate hottie to his face. “It’s what Karlton calls you guys. It’s catchy.” I assumed my face was ten shades of red by the heat flooding my skin.
Dante laughed and hitched his thumb over his shoulder. “Come on, honey. We can stop for ice cream on the way, and then I’ll return you back to your apartment so you can talk yourself into thinking of ways to get rid of me.”
“Do you say everything that comes into your head?” Who talked like that? So straightforward and not caring.
“I just speak the truth.” He grabbed my hand again, pulled me next to him, and held my hand the whole way out the door and over to his truck.
“I think I’ve had enough truth tonight.”
Dante reached for my door. “Yeah, I’d say you have, honey.” He opened my door, helped me in, and slammed it shut.
I watched him move around the front of the truck. He was an unusual type of handsome. I hadn’t met many men in my life who managed to pull off gray hair the way that he did. Silver Fox was a perfect name for him. His hair was shaggy on top, cropped close to his head on the sides and it was more silver than gray.
“Are we going to ignore the fact you can’t keep your eyes off of me?” he asked as he slid into the driver’s seat.
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out my side window. I wasn’t going to admit anything. “I’m pretty sure I said I had enough of your truth for the night. Ice cream, and then home. That’s it.”
Dante shook his head, started the truck, and buckled up. “You are an enigma, Kennedy.”
I rolled my eyes and ignored him.
He pulled out of the parking lot and turned on the radio. “You’re shy, but then you kick my ass at bowling, then have a dance party to celebrate.”
“It was hardly a dance party,” I muttered under my breath. It was a just a few moves that were my celebration dance. Kind of like when football players scored a touchdown.
Dante chuckled. “You do yoga and all that meditation shit, yet you managed to eat more than half of that monster platter of nachos, and eat your burger and fries.”
“I don’t see what yoga and my appetite have to do with each other.”
Now it was his turn to ignore me. “How you don’t care what your mother thinks, but you are going to the trouble of getting a decoy to make her happy.”
I turned in my seat to look at him. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and smirked. Handsome jerk.
“You’re my decoy because I’m trying to get my mother off of my back, not make her happy.”
“From where I’m standing, they are one in the same.”
“More of your truth that I’m really not interested in hearing right now.” I turned back in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest.
“There’s also this sass you have that I really didn’t expect.”
“I only give my sass to you because you’re an ass.”
He chuckled under his breath and pulled into drive-thru of J’s Ice Cream Shack. “I went from a karate hottie to an ass. I think we need to end this date before you really tell me how you feel.”
He pulled up to the speaker, and the lady on the other side asked us what we wanted. He sat back in his seat and motioned out the window. “What do you want, honey?”
I knew exactly what I wanted and leaned forward. “I’ll have a banana split, hold the strawberry sauce, extra caramel, and extra hot fudge. Pineapple on the whole thing. Three cherries.” I sat back in my seat and grabbed my purse off of the floor.
“Uh, make that two of whatever she just ordered,” Dante spoke into the speaker.
“Here,” I said, thrusting eight dollars at him. I knew exactly how much my ice cream costs. It was what I always ordered when I came to J’s.
“I’m not taking your money. I told you I was taking you for ice cream. That means I pay.”
“You’re crazy. You paid for my dinner. There is no reason for you to pay for this.”
He pushed my hand away and pulled up to the window. “The reason I’m paying is because I’m a man, and the man always pays when you’re on a date.”
I put the money in his cup holder. “But we’re not on a date, so I can pay for my ice cream. Just think, that’s cookie money for tomorrow.”
He pulled a twenty from his wallet and handed it to the cashier. “I have cookie money.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, use it for whatever you want. Just take it.”
He grabbed the money from the cup holder and reached across to shove it back in my purse. “No. This isn’t something you are going to win, so just stop.”
His tone was stern, and I could tell that he meant business. “Fine,” I huffed. “But I will get you back. Not tonight, but some other way, I will.”
He quirked one eyebrow at me and shook his head. “Doubtful, honey, but you’re welcome to pay me back in other ways.”
I put my hand in his face. “No. Whatever you are thinking, just get it out of your head. Not happening, ninja.”
He shook his head but didn’t argue with me.
“Holy shit,” he hissed. The cashier opened up the window, handed him his change, and then presented the first banana split. “This shit is ridiculous.”
He was right. The banana splits were served in a boat-like container that was longer than my hand and four inches wide. They were a sight to behold.
He handed me the first one, and I licked my lips in anticipation. This was going to be good.
He held the other one in front of him and shook his head. “Honey, I don’t know how the hell you can be hungry enough to eat even half of this. This thing is huge.”
“That was like an hour ago that we ate. I totally have room for this.” I looked over at him. “Did she give us spoons?”
“Uh, I don’t think so.”
“That’s okay. I plan on eating mine at home anyway.”
“So, I buy you ice cream, and I don’t even get to see you eat it?”
“Yeah, basically.”
He shook his head. “It’s a good thing I like you, Ken.”
My jaw dropped. “You did not just call me Ken.” I hated that nickname. With a passion.
He winked at me and pulled out of the drive-thru. “It might have slipped from my lips.”
“You may be a fighter, but I’m pretty sure I’ll kick your butt the next time you call me Ken.” I was scrappy, and if I really wanted to, I’m sure I could get him down at least once. I might need the element of surprise on my side and probably jump on his back, but I’m sure I could do it.
We managed to drive the rest of the way to my apartment without him calling me Ken, and I kept my thoughts of kicking his butt to myself.
“Well,” I muttered with my hand on the door handle. “It was fun. I’m sure we’ll do it one more time.” And by one more time, I meant when he went to dinner at my mom’s. He may think that we were going to do this whole getting-to-know-the-decoy game, but we weren’t.
“I’ll call you.” Yep. That was all he said. All night, he had been trying to convince me we were on a date, and all he had to say was he would call me.
Well, I was okay with that.
“I can’t promise I’ll answer,” I smirked.
“That’s okay. I know where you live now.” Crap.
“My mother always taught me it’s not polite to drop in on someone unexpectedly.”
He opened his door and hopped out of the truck. He was to my door before I could hop out, and he held it open for me. “You owe me at least one more date, honey, and I plan on collecting on that.” He bent down and pressed a kiss to my cheek before I realized what he was doing.
“Uh, um…” My mind went blank at his touch. Damn this man. I thought he was uninterested, and then he goes and kisses me. “We’ll see about that,” I replied lamely.
“You’re right, we will see.” He shut the door behind me and leaned against the side of the truck.
I walked to the front door of my building and looked over my shoulder at him. “Goodnight, Kennedy.” His words floated to me in the dark, and I quickly turned away.
“Goodnight, ass,” I grumbled under my breath.
His chuckle reached my ears as I opened the door, and then I slammed it shut behind me.
Don’t think how sexy his laugh is, Kennedy.
Don’t think about the feel of his hand touching you.
Don’t think about the touch of his lips to your cheek.
Just don’t feel, dammit.
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