Free Hope Entangles: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (Book 2 of 3) by Alice Bello

I’d never be able to drive my
car. I’d be sure to have an accident if I inhaled too many of the
man’s fumes.
    Ha! I smiled at that. The man’s
fumes…
    “ Thank you for the coffee,
and the offer… but I’ve got to go back home now.”
    I turned and dashed for the back door,
grabbing the knob like it was a life preserver and I was sinking on
the Titanic.
    I turned the knob, well, tried to turn
the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. So I tried to just pull the door
off its hinges. Which didn’t work… I’m not the Hulk.
    “ It’s locked,” he said
slowly, as if he were explaining it to a small child. “If you turn
the little thingy in the middle of the knob, it will
unlock.”
    I nodded my head and shot him a rueful,
totally fake smile. I got the little latch thing to turn on the
first try and yanked the door open, making it bang noisily against
the nearest counter.
    I jerked and winced at the sound. I was
just lucky I hadn’t broken the glass in the door with
that.
    I had one foot out the door when he
said, “Hope, wait.”
    I stopped, frozen, as if I were a deer
in headlights. I turned and looked at him.
    He had the knife in his hand again… and
a large dish. With practiced skill he used the knife to slide the
remainder of what was left of the loaf of zucchini bread onto the
plate—which was most of a whole loaf—and with a careless
nonchalance he pulled some plastic wrap out of a drawer and wrapped
the dish over with it.
    He stood there and held out the bread
to me. “You forgot your bread.”
    Shiiit…
    I so didn’t want to get one step closer
to the man. I didn’t trust him… I didn’t trust myself
either.
    Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck,
fuck!
    How do I get myself into these kinds of
fixes?
    Easy, you came over
here.
    Whose side are you on,
anyways?
    I shook my head. This was a no brainer.
I would just turn back around and leave. I had plenty of bread at
home…
    But that wasn’t just bread; that was
one of the most delicious things I’d ever had in my
mouth.
    Way to double-entendre
yourself!
    And you don’t even need Mr.
Winky…
    Shuuuuuut… Up!
    I edged slowly toward him, with ever
step ready to jerk away and run for the door.
    Finally I was close enough to reach out
and take the dish from him. I had my eyes trained on him, so I
didn’t watch where my hand was going, so when I took the bread from
him our fingers grazed each other.
    An electric shock went through me and I
jerked back and used that momentum to head for the door. I wasn’t
even going to close it behind myself, I just wanted out of there
and as far away from Raphael Morales as possible.
    “ And Hope?” he said just as
I was about to pass out of his kitchen. I stopped but didn’t look
back. I could tell he had that smirk on his face. “Call me if you
don’t find a date for the party. I’ll leave that night open for
you.”
    I closed my eyes and felt a dark doom
fall over me. What if I didn’t find a date in time? What would be
worse, taking him, or showing up alone?
    I opened my eyes and walked through the
doorway, pulling it shut behind me.
     

Chapter 9: Jake
     
    I’m not a stalker. And I hadn’t
intended on doing a drive by, not initially. I was just taking the
little Escort I’d slipped an alternator into for a little test
drive, just to make sure it charged right before I sent it off with
its owner.
    But since I was out, and somehow I’d
driven all but a couple blocks toward Hope’s neighborhood, and I
was in an unknown car—okay, that does sound kind of
suspicious…
    I turned onto her street and
immediately wanted to turn around. This was crazy obsessed stalker
shit, and I was too damn old— almost thirty—to be pulling the infatuated teenager
routine.
    I drove forward. Making a U-turn would
only attract attention. If I just zipped down the street and didn’t
stop to gawk at her place, maybe I could just forget I’d even come
here.
    Passing by her new neighbor’s (the
asshole) house, I looked over to it and