Chapter 7

By the time Jeff arrived a couple of hours later,I was ready to go.Dad was on the way home and Pamela was driving me nuts.If I had to hear her talk about the latest cute boy in her class one more time,I was going to retch.

Mom slipped me a twenty as I headed out the door at the sound of Jeff’s horn.

I gave her a genuine smile.“Thanks!”

“Have a good night.You two be careful.”

I rolled my eyes.“Just going to work and back,Mom.Love you,”I called as I ran out.

The music was low when I slid inside the truck.After I buckled up,I saw Jeff watching me.Intently.

“What?Do I have something on me?”I asked,glancing at my uniform.

He grinned.“Nope,you look good.”

I blushed.Was that a compliment?Or was he just being nice?Did he really think I looked good?Shit,now I was acting like my sister.“Thanks,”I mumbled.

“What,no compliment back?”

I saw the sparkle in his eyes.“Okay,let’s see…you look great.”

He gave me an exaggerated frown.

I rolled my eyes at him.“Fantastic?”

His brow furrowed as he pulled out of my drive.

“Amazing?Perfect?”

A smile tugged at his lips.“That’s all you’ve got?”

I groaned inwardly.He was being totally weird.“Fine!How about perfection in a movie theater uniform?Sexiest man in our class?Hottest guy on the planet?Does that meet your demands?”

He laughed.“Perfect!”

I shook my head and messed with the radio buttons.

“So,you think I’m sexy?”he teased,his voice low.

What the hell?I cleared my throat and tried to think of an answer.He laughed again and I turned to stare at him.“Dude,you are acting really strange tonight.”

“Oh,Aaron,Aaron,Aaron…you have no idea.”

Okay,was he losing his grip on reality?I shook my head again and watched him out of the corners of my eyes.He was smiling and focused on the road,but his cheeks pinked.“Um,Jeff,you okay?”

He turned those icy blue eyes on me for a second and my breath caught in my throat.He looked…confident.Something was different in his gaze.Now Iwas the one with cheeks heating.

“Yeah,actually really good.”He flashed me a smile.“You?”

“Um,yeah,okay…but you are…I mean,you’re acting…”

“Like what?”

I wasn’t sure what to say.“Never mind.”

We pulled into the parking lot of the movie theater and climbed out.As we headed in to work our evening shift,he clasped my shoulder.“Don’t forget we need to talk tonight.”

I nodded,trying not to focus on the way his touch made my shoulder also feel hot…or that I shivered when he squeezed.“Yeah.No problem.You know you can tell me anything.”

He stared at me a moment,his gaze intense,eyes searching mine.His hand stayed on my shoulder and I flushed,but didn’t move.I didn’t wantto move away.“You can tell me anything,too.You know that,right?”

I nodded and swallowed nervously.He pulled away his hand and instantly I missed the contact.

A grin spread across his face.“Great,now let’s get this shift over with so we can see about jumping your piece-of-shit car later!”

“Hey!I love that car,”I shot back,trying not to miss his touch.

Friday nights were always busy,but tack on the start of spring break,and it was a nightmare.Teenagers were everywhere.On top of that,two employees had called in sick,so everyone was working their ass off.One of my“sick”coworkers,Abbie,was in my class and she’d appeared fine when I saw her earlier in school,so I had a feeling she was skipping out to do something fun.But I wasn’t going to rat her out—still,it did piss me off.

I was lucky enough to work the ticket sales booth,but Jeff got stuck behind the snack counter,which could be really hard when it was busy.People never knew what they wanted when they reached the front of the line and it made us want to scream.Most people just ordered popcorn and soda,but even then they’d stand around,looking at all the candy behind the glass,trying to decide if they wanted to spend the money.And we heard a thousand times a night how expensive everything was.

A couple of the movie times had sold out,so I had to deal with some irate people,but I didn’t really blame them for being angry.They had waited through a long line only to be told it had sold out a few minutes prior.Luckily,my manager had given me permission to sell tickets at half-price for the next showing,which smoothed over things for most people.Since many of the customers were teens,they left to walk around the shopping strip,or headed to the pizza place across the parking lot.

I found myself glancing at Jeff often throughout the night.The snack counter was swamped,but he looked fine.In fact,he looked better than fine.He wore a huge grin.Every time I looked,he was smiling,chatting away with customers as he took orders and handed out snacks.How he handled it all so easily mesmerized me.

He had a smile that made you want to smile back.It kind of melted you inside.And those blue eyes—I swore I could see them twinkling even from my station.I wondered how many girls had come through his line and been on the receiving end of that smile.I tensed and tried not to think about it.I was being ridiculous anyway—he could look at anyone however he wanted.

Once,he caught me staring.My face heated as he winked at me before going back to serving popcorn.

He winkedat me.And what did I do?I got a damn hard-on!Seriously—what the hell is going on?Thank God I’d been behind the ticket counter so no one could see the bulge.Why was I getting hard over my best friend?I’d worked endlessly to avoid these feelings,so it made no sense it was happening now.

Flustered,I messed up counting out change for the next two customers.I spent the rest of my shift trying not to look at Jeff,but I failed miserably.

Hours later,it was finally time to clean up and close down the place.I was a sweaty mess,but so was Jeff.We worked together to mop floors and polish our stations.I helped him lock up the candy and clean the popcorn machines.More than once,he bumped into me and I had to fight the warm sensation that spread through my body,urging me to brush back up against him.It was an exhausting internal battle.

I was more than ready to leave by the time we walked out the doors.The night had cooled and the air felt good on my damp skin.It could get really hot in the ticket booth.

I sniffed the air.“You smell like popcorn,”I announced.

Jeff had that same damn grin on his face as he unlocked the truck doors and looked over the hood at me.He licked his lips,his eyes locked on mine.“Are you saying I smell good enough to eat?”he asked,his voice going low.

Shit!

He laughed at my frozen expression as we both climbed in.

He was smiling like the Cheshire Cat and I couldn’t help but grin back.But I still wanted to know what was going on.“All right.Out with it,man!”

“Out with what?”he asked with feigned innocence.

“You’ve been grinning like a fool for hours.Literally hours.Every time I looked at you,there you were with that goofy smile.”

“Really?”His eyebrows raised.“I didn’t even realize it.”

I rolled my eyes as he stared at me,surprise evident on his face.