Free Rock Me All Night by Katherine Garbera Page B

they could get into bed, he could stop trying to remember how he was supposed to act and just make love to this woman who wouldn’t get out of his head.
    â€œYou were saying something about the car,” she said after a long minute had passed.
    He was? He dropped his hands to his side and recalled what he’d been thinking before. “Like you weren’t sure I was going to get your door. You know I will.”
    â€œIn the beginning most guys do. Then they stop. I wasn’t sure….”
    He held the door to the building open for her. “I’m not most guys, Lauren. Which that stunt with the car should have proven. What am I going to have to do? Jump over four parked cars? Juggle fire?”
    â€œCan you juggle fire?” she asked, taking off her coat and hanging it on one of the hooks by the door.
    â€œYeah,” he said. He shed his coat and hung it up, as well.
    â€œDon’t,” she said, pulling him to a stop.
    â€œDon’t what?”
    â€œDon’t pretend that I’m different. I’ll start believing you.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œNot good, Jack. Painful. Why didn’t you call me for two days? I waited by the phone believing…well, believing something that I know better than to believe in.”
    Â 
    Lauren followed Jack into the restaurant. She’d play it cool during lunch. She’d had guys not call before, so it wasn’t that. It was that he kept talking about being her knight in shining armor and she’d started to believe him.
    The hostess took their drink order and Lauren studied the menu, not really seeing the words.
    The menu was taken from her hands. Jack placed it on top of his and took her hands in his. “I’m sorry.”
    Let it go, she thought. But another part of her wanted to push as hard as she could and make him feel as bad as she had. “For?”
    â€œNot calling.”
    â€œNo biggie. I told you it wasn’t the silence that bothered me, it was…” She wasn’t going to say it again.
    â€œRemember what you said about your mom, when we went snowshoeing?”
    She nodded. She couldn’t talk right now because there was a pain and anger in his voice that she inherently understood. It spoke to her where she was waiting to get hurt again by a man she’d already started caring for.
    â€œWell, my mom is the same way. I had to threaten Ty to keep you a secret from her.”
    â€œAre you not sure about me?” she asked.
    â€œNo, I’m sure about you. So sure I don’t want my wacky family scaring you away.”
    She understood what he wasn’t saying. That family expected things when you introduced them to someone new, and sometimes you weren’t ready for those expectations. “That doesn’t forgive me for not calling.”
    â€œReally, it’s okay. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
    â€œAre you ready to order?”
    Lauren glanced at the waitress who stood impatiently by their table.
    â€œNo. We’ll need a few minutes,” Jack said.
    The waitress left. Jack didn’t let go of her hands.He didn’t say anything, just held them and watched her face. And for the first time she felt as if she was enough for a man. That there was no test she had to pass. No skill she needed to acquire. Nothing more was required of her than just being herself.
    She tugged her hands free and picked up her menu. “Have you eaten here before?”
    â€œYes. The food is first-rate. You can’t go wrong with any of the daily specials.”
    â€œUnless you’re on a low-carb diet,” she said automatically. She’d always been a little chunky and sometimes still felt as if she should be on a diet. Not all the time, but when she sat across from Jack, who looked as though he’d just posed for the cover of Men’s Health with his rock-hard abs displayed…well, she wasn’t feeling up to par bodywise.
    â€œAre you?” he