Chapter Thirteen

 

Zoey

 

Color me surprised when I discovered that we’d spent a couple of hours painting those dang mugs. But since I’d been with Wyatt it could’ve been days and I wouldn’t have cared. But it also left me confused. He’d made it clear before that we’d never be together and yet, here we were out on a non-date doing non-valentine's day things. Couldn’t help but wonder what he had lined up next.

With it only being four-thirty in the afternoon, I couldn’t imagine why he’d pulled up next to Dub’s but I kept that surprise to myself. When Wyatt put his hand on my lower back to escort me inside again as he had at the paint place, I not only enjoyed the comfort the move brought me but I also welcomed it. Just knowing he was there. We could do this. We could be in each other’s lives, in whatever way, without it being weird.

However, when we sat down and he ordered a pizza with two beers, I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

“What are you doing?” I asked suddenly.

“What do you mean?” He took a slow drink from the glass the waitress had just dropped off.

“Pizza? Sounds like Valentine’s Day dinner.” Not the pizza specifically but dinner out in general was certainly a lovey-dovey gesture one would do on such a day.

“At four-thirty in the afternoon?” he asked back with an offended tone. As if the idea of him taking a girlfriend out for pizza on Valentine’s Day offended him on a deep level. “I don’t think so. Not to mention the beer. Not exactly what I’d call wining and dining.”

He had me there, I guess. But how was I supposed to know what kind of dates he took women on. This could totally have been exactly what he thought of as a romantic evening. Apparently it wasn’t but I had no way of knowing.

“I see. You just wanted to catch the early bird special, Grandpa?”

Wyatt snorted which made some of the foam from his beer spray up onto his face. “Exactly,” he answered while wiping it off with a napkin.

We fell into comfortable conversation about nothing as they dove into the cheesy deliciousness that was Dub’s pizza. He had a second beer but I asked for some water. I liked beer but didn’t love it and seriously only drank it in extreme moderation. If Wyatt hadn’t ordered it for me ahead of time I likely wouldn’t have had one to begin with.

I opened up and told him about some of the things I’d done in college. Not just the generic things about classes that I’d talked about at the painting place. This time I touched on the parties, the things that had nothing to do with higher education, things that made him scrunch his face up into a snarl.

“Did Riley know about any of this?” he asked sitting back with his arms folded across his chest.

“No. Why would he? He wasn’t around the first two years, you know. Besides, everyone deserves to go a little wild when they get freedom.”

“How wild are we talking?”

I gave a sly smile. “If I told you I’d have to kill you.”

Wyatt shook his head as he laughed. “Come on,” he coaxed. “Give me one thing.”

“Well… ” I leaned in and lowered my voice. “You know how they say college is the time for… experimenting?”

He nodded but all of his muscles tightened like he was honestly worried about where my story would head.

“Well, there was this girl… super-hot… so I figured, what the hell, ya know? You only live once.”

His face didn’t change the way I’d expected it too. Usually guys were easy to messy with but Wyatt wasn’t giving anything away. Everything about Wyatt’s demeanor said he wasn’t into this story the way other’s would’ve been. He didn’t seem to like any story about me with another person.

“Seriously?”

I snorted and threw a napkin at him. “No, you idiot. I’ve always been firmly interested in guys.”

After my attempt at messing with him failed, Wyatt paid and we were on our way to where ever he’d planned to lead me. Where didn’t matter because I’d go anywhere with him. Which was probably going to be my downfall because this whole thing was winning me over and that meant my heart would be at risk… again.

“Where next, Mystery Date?” I asked ribbing my hands together to warm them from the Michigan February wind.

“Ah, you’ll see.”

He came to a stop at our next location before the car had a chance to truly warm up. The movie theater was only about half a mile from the restaurant

“Now come on,” I said after a groan when he opened my door for me. “This is totally V-day date stuff. Are you trying to woo me?”

“Oh please.” He brushed me off with the wave of his hand as we walked toward the theater. “If I were wooing you, you’d know it.”

“And then Riley would kick your ass.” I giggled at the thought. I couldn’t imagine what scenario would make my brother all right with his best friend and me being together.

But Wyatt shrugged and said, “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

Something in his body language hit me as odd. Not weird odd but more of a confidence about my brother that I wouldn’t have had given the fact that I was his baby sister. There was something different in that shrug. That much I knew for sure.

Wyatt left me by the usher to go get the movie tickets without telling or asking me which movie we were going to see. When he got back to me, I grabbed them out of his hand.

“Furious Danger Part 2?” Again, I raised an eyebrow at him as a question.

“Been wanting to see it,” he said back but I continued to stand there and look from him to the tickets then back again in confusion. “I told you. This is not a Valentine’s Day thing. This isn’t even a date thing. A date doesn’t happen at six forty on a Saturday evening. Now come on. I don’t like to miss the previews.”

He grabbed one of the tickets out of her hand then turned away and handed it to the usher. Once through, he stepped to the side to and waited. I shook my head walked past him toward the correct theater.