Then he called Reno a freak.
A second later, Trevor was lying in the cereal aisle with a busted nose and bloody lip.
“Don’t be like that,” I said, grabbing two bags and heading inside. “Maybe if you stopped trying to beat up every guy who talks to me, I just might actually find Mr. Right.”
He slammed the paper bag on the counter and washed his hands. “I may give shit to some of the guys who hit on you, but I want to make sure they’re man enough to take you out. I don’t want him near you again.”
“What’s wrong with Reno?” I asked defensively, turning on the air conditioner and closing the front door. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with him the other day. The guy saved me from a wine mishap that could have made my walks home from work unbearable had I cut up my feet.”
Trevor leaned over the counter and looked at himself in an oval mirror, pinching the bridge of his swollen nose. “Fuck. Look, I need to go out for a bit.”
“What about your tacos?”
“Have a sandwich to tide you over. We’ll do a late dinner. I need a few hours.”
“Wait a second!”
Trevor swung around and cupped my head in his hands, giving me his crazy-sexy smile. “Don’t be mad, babe. I’m just looking out for you. Sometimes I can tell things about a person that you may not see because you’ve got blinders on.”
“What blinders?”
He tickled my eyelashes with his thumbs. “Those long lashes you bat around. There’s an invisible thing that all boys can see that girls can’t.”
“And what is that?”
Trevor backed away and walked out the door, glancing over his shoulder. “Intentions.”
Since it was late afternoon, I put the meat in the fridge and chopped up the lettuce and tomatoes, thinking about what had happened at the grocery store. I’m not sure what had come over Trevor or why he took off, but whenever he got moody, he needed his alone time.
After I cleared off the counter and put the toppings for the tacos in the fridge, I went in the bathroom and scrunched my hair, staring at myself in the mirror. I briefly wondered what Reno thought of me. My natural blond roots didn’t look that bad against the platinum, but still.
Platinum was more stylish, especially with my long bangs. I had an experimental dark streak of dye that was fading. Maybe my natural color was more of a perception thing; I hated the idea of being called the dumb blonde. Some girls just rolled with the jokes or blew them off, but I didn’t want a label on me that said I was the party girl who would get drunk and sleep around. Maybe because of my mother, I’d become more sensitive to that kind of thing than most girls.
Trevor was the one who suggested platinum because it had a tough image that most guys thought was more badass than sweet ass. When I threw on my dark eyeliner and mismatched clothes, men didn’t know what to think about me.
I wondered what Reno’s impression was.
The air conditioner cooled my neck and I opened up my laptop and tried to look him up on the Internet.
Jeez. Stalk much?
After closing the search window and choosing not to become one of those women, I opened up a few files that Lexi had given me. There were so many miscellaneous documents on the flash drive, and I hadn’t even begun to sort through them all.
Then I thought about how arresting Reno’s eyes had been when I’d lifted his sunglasses. How strong his arms felt when they’d crushed around me, and how close our bodies were when they’d molded together like a piece of art. I’d felt every solid thump of his heart beating against my chest. He had a strong heart—like a banging drum. He also hadn’t shaved, and I thought about how sexy it made him look. Something had altered from my first impression of Reno when he’d scared the wits out of me with his formidable presence. It’s something I could sense without explanation. Behind the fa?ade of a tough guy was a devoted man. Devoted to what, I couldn’t be sure. But I felt it just as sure as I’d smelled his skin and felt his arms encasing me.
In fact, I sat at my table creating a romantic scene in my head of our interlude at the grocery store.