Without thinking, I looked at her and she glanced up and saw me looking. Her mumbling stopped and she flushed red down to the roots of that golden hair.

“Why are you embarrassed?” I asked sincerely. “I do it too. Especially when I’ve got an engine that won’t turn over.”

She looked away. Looked back at me, frowning, as if trying to figure out if I was for real. She bit her lip.

I swallowed and stared right back at her. My chest went tight and the room went so quiet, I could hear my heart beating…

She turned abruptly back to her work, her golden braid swinging. I stared at it, my heart thumping.

What is this?

I didn’t know. But I really, really liked it.

5. Erin

5

ERIN

I tried to focus on fixing the new laptop screen in place but my hands were shaking and my chest had gone light and fluttery. As I angled the screen to put it in, I saw the reflection of his glittering green eyes: they were burning right into me like lasers. My breathing went tight. Guys never looked at me.

Very slowly, I tilted the screen. His mouth crept into view. God, that jaw…strong, confident: I remembered how he’d lifted his chin a little, when he’d faced off against the gang leader. And then those sinful lips, soft but hard in just the right way. If the rest of him disappeared, Cheshire Cat style, that cocky, flirty grin alone could make a woman wet.

I tilted the screen again and stared at my own confused face. I was giddy and happy: happier than I had been in a long time. I liked him a lot but he was nothing like me. I went through life trying to blend into the background. Danny walked down the street with his cocky confidence and sharp suit and everyone turned to look. And he was brave in a way I could never be. He wasn’t afraid of anything. I’m afraid of everything.

Something else… He was calm and controlled, friendly: when we’d gone to the café to get sandwiches, he’d laughed and joked with the people behind the counter. But there was this aura of quiet menace, something in the way he held himself, the way he scanned the room when he walked in. An unspoken promise that if you hurt someone he cared about, he’d break every bone in your body. It should have scared me but it made me feel safe. Protected.

He was mysterious, too. He said he was a mechanic but I’d seen the way he’d taken down the gang leader: quick and brutal, with no showiness or wasted movement. Like he’d been trained.

I tiptoed through life. Danny tore through it like a cannonball. He was so physical, so real, he made my world seem floaty and unsubstantial. And that made me want to…