A frown pressed into his forehead immediately, as though he’d forgotten momentarily that he was supposed to be angry with and mistrusting of the world.
She reached up and swept aside a lock of his sandy-blonde hair from getting tangled in his long lashes.
His eyes searched her face intensely. “You’ve been the only thing I’ve had to smile about for a very long time. Thank you for accepting me with all my—issues, Kylie.”
“Of course I accept you.” She reached out and touched his shoulder, immediately feeling heat pouring through his T-shirt and warming her hand like she’d just reached in to a cooling oven without a mitt.
“Wow, you weren’t exaggerating!”
“So are you ready to go?” he asked. His voice came out breathy, Kylie’s hand still on his wide chest.
Kylie smiled to herself at the affect her touch obviously had on him.
“To go home with you? Absolutely!” She chuckled at her own breathy voice. Regretfully, she dropped her hand to her side and turned to walk back to where Evan parked their ride.
Both reached out their hands at the same time and together they walked through the darkness into the moonlit night. Evan was too desperate for the girl’s acceptance to pay attention to the hazy vision of violence he glimpsed in her future at the touch of her hand.
3 Mixed Signals
“Kylie?”
“Hmm?”
The two had just reached the bike when Evan decided he couldn’t let the night end without telling her.
“I’ll be leaving to go back to Texas soon.”
Kylie stopped walking and looked up with wide, worried eyes.
“How soon?”
“Probably two, maybe three days.”
She turned away, letting go of his hand and reached for the helmet. Her eyes were downcast.
“So suddenly?”
“It’s what the meeting was about today. We were given clearance to go back.”
“But what about that Senator who has it out for you and the scientist who has been hunting you?”
“The Senator has my sister. There’s going to be a battle and he’s pompous enough to think he’s going to win against us. Williams has been pretty quiet lately. I’m more worried about Arkdone.”
“Is your sister on the Senator’s side?”
Evan grimaced at her question. “I have to ask you something.”
Kylie sighed sadly, but said nothing.
“I know it would be too much to ask you to drop everything and come with me. Neither of our families would go for that and we really haven’t known each other for very long anyway.” He stopped talking and ran his hands up her arms until he reached her shoulders. A gentle squeeze encouraged her to look up at him. “Please believe me, Kylie. I don’t know why God put you in my life when he did. All I know is how I feel when I’m with you.”
“How do you feel?” Kylie asked despite herself.
“I feel—” Evan hesitated but forced himself to swallow his pride realizing it didn’t matter to him in front of Kylie. What mattered was for her to understand and believe him. Pride and logic were roadkill on the highway of love.
“I feel like I can breathe when I’m with you. More than that, you make me feel twelve-feet tall and bulletproof!”
Kylie saw his pupils dilate so widely that the honey was just beautiful circles framing them. “Wow,” she whispered. “I wasn’t expecting you to say that at all.”
Evan’s frown was immediate, the light draining from his eyes.
“Evan, we’ve only known each other for a few days. I like hanging out with you and I think we could be more than friends under different circumstances, but—with you leaving the country, I just don’t see how a relationship would be possible.”
Evan’s hands released Kylie’s shoulders slowly. He nodded once and climbed on the motorcycle without saying another word.
Smooth move Evan, he chastised himself.
The ride back to Kylie’s house was completely different from the one they’d just enjoyed coming out to the hangar.
Kylie held herself close to Evan and worried, biting her bottom lip and mulling over thoughts she would never be able to express to him. She knew she was sending him mixed signals, but there was no way around it.
Evan couldn’t understand the girl holding him close. He wanted to. He thought he did. Wow, idiot. You completely misread her signals. Who am I to think a smart, sweet girl like Kylie would want to get mixed up with me? Any semblance of happiness he felt earlier just got punched in the face with Kylie’s indifference.
Evan pulled up to her house knowing he couldn’t stand anymore rejection.
Kylie hesitated to let go of him, and though she was supposed to keep him at her house, she was feeling too out of control around him to manage that. If she were honest with herself, the boy on the bike was making her rethink a lot of things.
Evan didn’t make a move to get off the bike, so Kylie climbed off and slowly unlatched the helmet. She shook her straight blond hair out and handed it to him. Their hands stayed far from touching, to both their disappointment.