Like a Fox Read Free Page B

“Vic.”
    “Vic,” I repeat, breathless from our stare.
    I know I can’t stand here forever so I reluctantly leave, and I’m pretty sure his eyes follow me from the way my spine prickles.
    Maybe I’m wrong about him not being interested. A flush creeps up my neck at the idea.
    “You okay?” Maya asks, standing to help take a pitcher and refill glasses.
    “Mm hm.” I’m dazed, still feeling the effects of contact with him.
    My staring gets worse and I’m disappointed when he leaves.
    A couple of hours later, I call it quits myself. Nobody argues, knowing I have early mornings.
    The night is far too chilly and I wish I had my scarf. I rub my hands along my arms, feet clicking the pavement, echoing through the night.
    I don’t normally get spooked, but some nights, like tonight, when the streets are vacant and everything is so still, I do.
    Shops have already closed down and I pick up my pace. Despite being in a small town, nowhere is safe from crazies anymore.
    My sister, mom, and I take a self-defense class every year, but tonight it doesn’t ease my nerves; I feel like I’m being followed.
    I reach behind my back and scratch a pretend itch between my shoulder blades, forcing my head to swivel a bit, and I try to slyly peek over my shoulder. Nothing but looming fog.
    The feeling of someone behind me intensifies. I contemplate if I should turn around and shout, hoping to scare them off, or run like hell.
    I swear I hear a faint echo of a footstep and a small cough.
    I book it, running like hell the rest of the way home. I know there’s a good chance I’m overreacting but I don’t care, I’m too spooked.
    Arriving at the front door, I remove the key I always keep inside my shoe, my fingers icicles as I try to unlock the door. I hurry in, lock it, and spy through the peephole for a full five minutes, expecting to find someone there. Nobody appears; not even a cat.
    Once my breathing returns to normal, I call my sister to make sure Flynn’s coming home with her. He is. I go to bed, unable to shake the feeling that I was being followed.

 
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
    “Psst,” Maya whispers, nudging me with her elbow, “Tight Buns is watching you.”
    I glance up to find him doing exactly that. I give a small, nervous smile. This is when I wish I was more like my sister and didn’t get timid and unsure of myself around the opposite sex.
    He doesn’t smile back, his mouth staying the way it always does: hard and straight, as though nothing ever agitates or excites him; it’s all blasé. He goes back to his paper.
    “He’s kind of hot.” Maya truly takes the time to admire him. “In that elusive, off-limits kind of way. It gives him an edge.”
    It does. It makes me even more uneasy around him.
    I’m staring and I don’t even realize it until he glances up and catches me still looking.
    To say I turn red would be an understatement.
    I duck under the counter, pretending like I’m getting more straws, which is silly for two reasons: he can’t see what I’m doing, and I refilled the straws when he first came in.
    It’s beginning to get embarrassing how many times he’s caught me staring. I’m surprised he still comes in here; I’d be on high creep alert if I were him.
    I come up with straws in both my fists.
    Now what the hell do I do with them? I look around, not noticing right away that he has gotten up and is now standing on the other side of the counter.
    Luckily my mouth remembers how to work even if my brain has gone to shit, “Can I get you something?”
    “What time are you off?”
    God, his voice. It’s so freaking sexy.
    My mouth stops working.
    “Four-thirty,” my sister jumps in, taking the straws from me. “Thanks,” she says, like I had gotten them for her. I love my sister.
    “I’ll be waiting out front. We can get dinner.” He doesn’t wait for a reply (not that I would have been capable of giving him one), and leaves.
    “That was strange.” Maya spoke what I had been