Should’ve Known It’s You (Not You Again #7)

Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

KENNEDY

A fter Austin and I left the coffee shop, I went home to get ready for our date. I was so excited that my heart was fluttering and my cheeks were warm. An anxious smile was on my face as I dug my hands into my pockets and kept my chin down to shield myself from the cold on my walk home.

He’d offered to drive me, but I’d declined. I needed a minute before I got stuck into getting ready to just breathe and process seeing Danny again. His appearance had been wildly unexpected and that smile he’d given me as he’d left was stuck in my brain. Warning bells went off about what it might mean.

If it had meant anything at all.

Part of me wondered if I was being paranoid about the whole thing. For all I knew, he’d spent the night with one of his conquests and she lived in the area. He might’ve been around for work, to go to a gallery, or any number of other reasons that had nothing to do with me.

While my gut said that wasn’t it, I shoved away the feeling and decided to focus on Austin and the float instead. I’d wound up showing him all the pictures I’d taken, and as I’d expected, he’d loved it almost as much as I did.

Tonight also marked a step forward in our relationship, an actual date that we were both aware was more than just drinks or a bite to eat. It eliminated the doubts I’d been having about whether he felt something for me too, and I was excited to move forward with him.

As a result, I shut the door on all thoughts of Danny as I walked into my apartment. Whatever he was up to—if he was up to anything—I would deal with it when I knew what was happening. Until then, the only thing I would achieve by worrying about it was letting him live in my head rent-free, which I definitely didn’t want.

By the time I reached my bedroom, my mind was firmly made up and I consciously redirected my thoughts to Austin instead. The man had been dominating my mental real estate for so long now that it took no effort at all to trip that switch. Before I knew it, I was smiling excitedly, taking my time in the shower and with my wardrobe and wondering what he had in store for me tonight.

Early in the evening, there was a knock at my door and I let out a soft squeal. Then I sucked in a breath and smoothed out my shirt. It was time, and nervous excitement fluttered in my belly as I took measured steps to avoid racing to get it.

When I opened the door, Austin was waiting on the other side to pick me up, a gorgeous bouquet of flowers in one hand. He held them out to me and grinned when I gaped at him. “We said this was a date, right? I wanted you to know that I’m taking it seriously, so flowers.”

“Flowers,” I repeated lamely, taking the beautiful purple and white arrangement from him and bringing it to my nose to inhale the delicate, floral scent. “They’re amazing. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He took a step back and offered me his arm. “Are you ready to go?”

“Let me just put these in some water,” I said, turning to race back into my kitchen and pulling out a vase. After filling it quickly, I gently placed the bouquet inside, then grabbed my coat and purse and slid my hand around his elbow as I left my apartment. “Okay, now I’m ready. Where are we going?”

“You’ll see when we get there,” he teased, not making any secret of looking me up and down as he started leading me down the hall. “You look incredible, Kenny.”

I glanced down at my jeans and the turtleneck combo. I’d tried my best to come up with a look that was both casual and classy, so I’d paired the dark jeans with a white, knitted turtleneck, a brown leather jacket, and a bunch of golden costume jewelry. My hair was loose and curled into soft waves that fell to my waist and I’d added a touch more makeup to my face than usual.

Smiling up at him, I bumped my hip into his and purposely raked my gaze over him in turn. “You clean up pretty well yourself.”

Also wearing darker blue jeans, he had on a hunter green sweater and a scarf to complete the look. I was glad he’d also opted for casual, and he laughed when he saw me looking him up and down but didn’t call me out on it. “How was the rest of your afternoon?”

“Not as exciting as my morning,” I said easily. “Yours?”

“Well, no one accused me of getting them fired, so I suppose mine wasn’t as exciting either.”

We left my complex in his car, and on our way to wherever we were going, he proceeded to fill me in on Tate’s tantrum and drove to a random, industrial-looking building.

“Are you going to make me design another float?” I teased as we pulled up.

He smirked as he opened the door for me. “No. I’m keeping that for our third date. Advanced float design didn’t feel right for a first-date activity.”

I chuckled, curious and a bit confused as we strode toward the doors but still just really excited. The parking lot was packed, but the exterior of the building held no clues as to what lay inside. “What is this, then?”

“You’ll see,” he said happily, taking my hand.

We strode into the place. Austin had been the perfect gentleman on this date so far, and I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting him to have planned for us, but as soon as we walked in, I realized I never would’ve guessed this.

We were at an arcade. A huge, sprawling, obnoxiously loud and colorful place. Kids were running around all over, loud music was playing, and lights were flashing. It definitely wasn’t what I’d had in mind, but the giddy excitement that flooded my veins told me it was exactly what I’d needed.

Absolutely more than a fancy dinner in a stuffy restaurant.

I laughed, so surprised that I stopped walking for a moment to take it all in. “You sure do come up with interesting first-date activities, Mr. Merrick.”

He pumped his eyebrows at me, dark brown eyes sparkling with humor as his gaze met mine. “I thought you might need a night of pure, uncomplicated fun after Danny showed his ugly mug today. I figured this would be a great distraction. Someplace you can really let your hair down. And,” he added with a grin, “I wanted to see how easy it would be to kick your ass at mini-golf. There’s an underground course beneath the arcade.”

“This just keeps getting better and better,” I said as my blood started pumping, my competitive spirit rising to meet the challenge he’d thrown out. “I think what you meant to say is that you wanted to see how easy it would be for me to kick your ass at mini-golf.”

He shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. “We’ll find out soon enough. Apparently, there are two themes to choose from. Under the sea or dinosaurs. It’s the lady’s choice this evening. What’s it going to be?”

“Oh, I’m all about the dinosaurs,” I said without skipping a beat. “Prehistoric all the way, baby.”

“Really?” He finally got us moving again, his palm in the small of my back as he guided me to a flight of stairs to one side of the cavernous arcade. “I was convinced you were going to choose the under the sea one. Who skips out on the chance to pretend they’re a mermaid?”

“Who skips out on the chance to pretend they’re a T-Rex?” I shot back, winking at him over my shoulder. “This was an amazing idea, Austin. Truly. I have no clue how you always end up knowing exactly what kind of distraction I need, but this is another homerun.”

When I glanced at him again, he lifted one of his shoulders in a smug little shrug, but I saw the first hints of flames flickering in his eyes. “I don’t know. I still think my first distraction was the best, but I guess the axe-throwing did the trick too.”

I hadn’t needed the reminder of his first distraction while we were surrounded by kids. As he mentioned it, I flashed back on what we’d done under the stars, surrounded by fireflies on the night of Jess’s wedding, and the desire I’d been trying to suppress all night flared up again.

Austin groaned. “Don’t look at me like that or we might not get to mini-golf at all.”

I was suddenly not opposed to skipping the mini-golf. With the heat growing in his eyes and his jaw tightening as he looked at me, I had half a mind to drag him to the nearest janitor’s closet and let him have his way with me.

The only thing that stopped me was that we were both excited for this date. It had been a long time coming and I actually wanted to spend time with him outside of us working together, which was exactly what tonight was meant to be about.

Digging deep, I breathed past the lust and dipped my chin toward the stairs. “If you’re afraid to have your ass whooped by a girl, you could just say so. I can always win you a stuffed animal at one of these games instead.”

“Game on, Sweet,” he said without wavering and we resumed making our way toward the mini-golf course. “Just for the record, I have no problem getting my ass whooped by a girl, but I don’t plan on making it easy for you.”

“Excellent. That way, when I win, it’ll be fair and square,” I shot back, a thrill running through me at the thought of actually beating him.

My competitive streak ran a mile wide, and when we started playing and my prediction of kicking his butt came true, I could boast as much as I wanted and it didn’t ruffle his feathers at all—not even when I made sure everyone in our close proximity knew he was a loser.

Laughing it off, he just kept going from hole to hole, giving it his best shot. I couldn’t remember ever having had this much fun with Danny. Beating him at anything had always resulted in a massive tantrum, with him telling me I was acting like a spoiled brat or that I was embarrassing myself.

With Austin, everything just felt easy.

I tossed my fists into the air when we finished the round, pride surging through me as I realized I had won. Shaking my tail feather and turning in a slow circle as I gyrated my hips, I flashed him a smirk and met his gaze.

“Let’s go hand in our scorecards,” I said triumphantly. “We’ll need someone to make it official.”

Austin sighed, but I saw him fighting a smile as he started toward the counter where an employee was collecting scorecards and handling the returns of the equipment. As we reached it, Austin swiped my card out of my hand and set it down with a soft snap of the paper.

“She had a good game,” he said, jokingly playing off my win. “It was beginner’s luck. She had it with axe-throwing too.”

The employee’s eyebrows swept up at the mention of axes and I laughed, shrugging at the poor teenager before I smacked Austin’s shoulder playfully. “Don’t be a sore loser. Show me any game and I’ll beat you at it.”

“I suppose there’s no use in competing against someone who was stealing tractors as a preteen,” he lamented laughingly, winking at the teenage employee before he offered me his arm, still as perfect a gentleman as he had been the whole night. “How about we go try the go-karts? I bet that’s something I have a shot at winning.”

As I slid my fingers into the crook of his elbow once more, those butterflies in my stomach were back in full force. Not only because I could feel the muscles in his arm just by touching him lightly like this, but also because Austin was getting to know every part of me and he still wasn’t running.

He was a unicorn, alright. One I was starting to think I wanted to hang onto.