Chapter 5

Some people confuse crazy and passionate. Let’s be clear, I am batshit passionate.

-Reagan to Tyler

Reagan

I gave my dad a hug. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”

I mean, honestly, if he’d stay, that’d make me super happy.

Especially since Janie had set me up on yet another date—a real one this time, she’d promised.

Of course, I had no legitimate reason to tell her no because, let’s face it, Janie was a dog with a bone when she wanted something.

“No, Rea. I’m sorry.” He dropped a kiss on my forehead. “You have dirt on your cheek right…there.” He touched the spot.

I grinned.

“That’s not unusual now, is it?” I walked over to a mirror that I had hanging up in the entryway of my rental cabin and asked, “How long have you been staring at it?”

My father’s deep laugh sounded from behind me. “A while. I wasn’t sure if you were going to go out again or take a shower. What would be the point in telling you it was there if you were just going to go back out and play in the dirt?”

I turned and looked at my father, ignoring the dirt. I wouldn’t bother wiping it off. I was going back out…just not anywhere off the property. I was going through the research that I had and then collating everything into relevant sections so that it’d be easier to find.

I was thinking alphabetically, but I might just…

“You’re going to get yourself in trouble one day.” My father laughed.

I rolled my eyes. “We already know that I can get myself into trouble just fine. One day has already happened.”

My dad’s face dropped.

“I hate him with the power of a thousand burning suns,” Dad said bluntly.

I patted him on the shoulder and turned away from him.

“Let’s face it. I would’ve only gotten the one chance. It sucks…but, I was scared shitless about leaving y’all. I may have wanted to move out on my own, but I sure didn’t want to leave y’all entirely. You know that I don’t talk to anyone but y’all,” I said.

“You talk to me.”

I screeched and whirled, finding my dad at the door with it open wide and Tyler on the other side of it, his arms crossed, looking amused.

“I don’t talk to you,” I shot back instinctively. “I snarl at you. Or you snarl at me and I can’t let it go at that, so I have to counter back your asinine comments.”

Tyler looked even more amused.

“Whoa, T. What the hell are you doing here?” Dad asked, looking surprised to see his friend. “And why the hell are you talking to my daughter?”

Tyler’s eyes crinkled at the side when he grinned.

“I was patrolling the neighborhood because I got a burglar alarm in the house eight lots down,” Tyler pointed over his shoulder. The only house that would’ve bothered putting one in was the huge two-story house that started where the driveway ended and extended out all the way onto the lake. It had massive pilings that extended down into the water, holding up a deck from heaven. “Saw your truck and thought I’d stop in to say hi. I haven’t seen you in ages.”

Dad extended his hand to Tyler, who took it and shook hands with him.

“What about the part about you talking to my daughter?” Dad asked.

Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.

He did it.

“Your darling daughter decided to trespass on my property last week and steal some moss off a tree.”

I felt my dad’s gaze burning into my cheek.

I flushed and looked away.

“Reagan Rose, what have I told you about that?” he said slowly.

I shrugged. “Not to get caught.”

Tyler snorted, as did my father.

I glared at them both—but Tyler harder.

Okay, so my father would never in his life say that.

But…whatever.

“You know damn good and well that I didn’t say that. That was your stepmother. That wasn’t me,” Dad countered.

I bit my lip and tried not to laugh.

“She’s sorry.” Dad sighed.

I sniffed lightly. I was so not sorry. I was far from sorry.

Tyler snorted. “Yeah…no, she’s not.”

I found my lip twitching into a semblance of a smirk but immediately smoothed out my features. It wouldn’t do for him to know that he made me laugh.

“Honestly, I’m just surprised that she’s talking to you.” Dad shook his head. “The last time she got caught trespassing, she was hauled into jail and only told the arresting officer her name. They thought it was a stall tactic and I was called. Then I had to explain that she was incredibly shy and never talked to anyone, not even her friends sometimes. They let her go with the understanding that she wouldn’t trespass anymore.”

I mashed my lips together.

Okay, so I knew better. Sue me.

My dad sighed.

“I gotta go. I’d offer to take you out to lunch for your troubles, but I have to meet my wife to go shop for a new car. Ours was totaled last week when some dumbass ran off the road and smashed into it while she was at work.” Dad pulled his keys from his pocket. “It was nice seeing you, man.”

Tyler and Dad shook hands and I walked away. “Love you, Dad.”

“Love you, too,” he called from my entryway. “I’ll lock it.”

I rolled my eyes.

There’d be no point in locking it. The people that lived on the lake were all over the age of seventy. The only two younger people in this entire community that I’d seen were Tyler and me.

“Bye, Reagan. Nice talking to you,” Tyler called out.

I flipped him off over my shoulder and he chuckled.

His stupid chuckle could still be heard after my father closed and locked the door.

The bastard.

***

I shuffled reluctantly into the restaurant—one a town over from Hostel that looked so fancy that I felt totally out of place just walking into it—and went to the hostess stand.

“Welcome. Do you have a reservation?” the cute little blonde asked.

I nodded. “Cree.”

Janie had made the reservation and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to go, or there’d be hell to pay.

I decided to go…but only because I really did want to start dating again, but I knew I wouldn’t do anything about it on my own.

Sadly, Janie was a hundred percent right.

I needed help.

I was socially awkward, and even worse, I got extremely anxious when talking to people, even more so when I didn’t know them.

I already knew how this date would go.

I would sit there, not talking, occasionally spitting out a one- or two-word reply to the questions he asked. And, if all went well, he wouldn’t think I was a total freak and might even ask me out on a second date since it was so obvious how shy I was.

“Right this way,” the hostess gestured with the palm of her hand.

I followed her and let my eyes skip around the room, one person after another, wondering who my date was.

I didn’t see a solo diner throughout the entire room.

Not one.

A sick sense of fear knotted into my throat and I worried that he might’ve stood me up.

“Your date isn’t here yet,” the woman gestured to the table. “But when he gets here, I’ll send him right over.”

I smiled and took a seat, trying not to let my nerves get the best of me.

I was being stood up. I just knew it.

Pulling out my phone, I texted Janie. Are you sure you told whoever he is eight? Because nobody is here and I’m five minutes late.

She instantly replied.

This was Kayla’s pony show. But, I think it was Parker who got you the date. Surprise. She said she told him to tell his friend eight. Don’t worry. It’s not that late yet.

I looked at my watch and saw it said 8:06.

He was six minutes late.

I felt something akin to panic roll up my throat and would’ve gotten up to leave had the chair in front of me not been so rudely pulled out, making everyone in a two-table radius turn to look in our direction.

“Fancy meeting you here, trespasser.”

I looked up to find Tyler sitting across the table from me, dressed for work still, staring at me with an unholy glee in his eye.

“Go away, I have a date,” I told him honestly.

Tyler grinned. “You have a date? With who?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s another blind date. Don’t touch his silverware. Nobody wants your boy cooties on their cutlery.”

Tyler’s eyebrow raised and the laugh lines around his eyes became more prominent when he did. I wanted to lick them.

Oh, God. I had the hots for this man and it was burning me up inside.

You weren’t supposed to be attracted to a person who pissed you off. In fact, I was fairly certain you were supposed to like the person that made your vagina rev with need.

I crossed my legs and swallowed, smoothing the linen napkin down over my legs.

“I’m pretty sure that my ‘cooties’ are harmless. You, on the other hand,” he looked pointedly at my fingernails—which still had dirt underneath them from this afternoon—and curled his lip. “He might be scared to touch you.”

I glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Can’t a man eat?” he questioned silkily.

The waitress came over and smiled, but for once didn’t pay much attention to the man—nope, her eyes were all for me. And I wasn’t oblivious to her obvious perusal. “What can I get you?”

I swallowed. “A sweet tea. He’s not staying.”

The waitress’s mouth quirked. “Is that right?”

Tyler immediately interrupted me.

“I’m her blind date. Yes, I’m staying. I want a sweet tea, too. But make it a big glass. I’m thirsty as hell and I don’t want to run you ragged,” he explained sweetly.

I bared my teeth at him when she walked away. “What do you mean you’re my blind date?”

Tyler’s lips quirked. “Parker was asking another man at the station when I walked in. I told him I wanted to take you out again. He said okay because he didn’t want to do any asking anyway and that was that.”

I rolled my eyes heavenward. “God, what did I do to deserve this?”