Page 5 of Protecting Kelli
Kelli shrugged.
“Hey,” he said softly.
She still wouldn’t look at him.
“Kelli,” he said, putting a little more force into his voice.
Finally, she turned, and seeing the way her eyes sparkled with unshed tears tore at him.
“What?” she asked a little aggressively.
“You want to have dinner with me?” The words were out before he’d even thought about what he was going to say.
She stared at him with those wounded eyes, and Flashached to do something that would make them sparkle with humor again.
“I mean, since the guys I’m with are obviously going to be hanging with your cousin and the Three A’s, it means we’re free to do whatever we want. I’ve heard great things about the restaurant here. I bet we could even get a table on the beach.”
“But you hate the sand,” she said softly.
“I hate seeing a beautiful woman torn up because her snobby, clueless, obviously stupid cousin was hateful to her even more.”
Kelli sighed. “She knows I made dinner reservations for all five of us tonight. And that dig about not coming to look for her? She obviously doesn’t want me anywhere near the guys who’ll be drooling all over her tonight.”
“Fuck her,” Flash said, way past caring that he was being derogatory about Kelli’s relative.
“Don’t you need to watch your sister’s fiancé?”
“He already knows that if he does anything other than talk to another woman, I’ll tell my sister so fast it’ll make his head spin. And he might be more scared of Nova than he is of me.”
Kelli giggled, and Flash was so relieved, his muscles relaxed. He hadn’t even realized how tense he’d become.
“Have dinner with me, Kelli. Please?”
“Well, when you ask me so nicely, how can I refuse?”
“You can’t,” he said with satisfaction.
“What time?”
“Six-thirty?”
She nodded. “Okay. I need to go talk to the front desk and tell them to cancel my previous dinner reservation.”
“You need to go right now?” he asked, wanting to prolong his time with this intriguing woman.
“Probably not. Why?”
“Because it’s a beautiful day. We could sit here for a while and enjoy it.”
She stared at him for a beat, before nodding. “Okay.”
“Okay,” Flash said, before taking another swig of his disgusting warm beer.
“You mind if I read? I was just getting to a good part.”
“Not at all.”
Sitting next to Kelli while she read and he stared out at the waves was relaxing. For the first time this trip, Flash felt the tension he always carried on his shoulders dissipating. And it took…what? A pretty woman saying yes to his dinner invitation. Hearing the pages of her book shuffle as she turned them. Her quiet chuckles each time she read something funny.
