Read Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) Online

Authors: Harper Bentley

Tags: #football, #baking, #bad boy, #alpha male, #college age

Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) (12 page)

BOOK: Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2)

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“My brother
has a basketball game, so no.”

He nodded.
“Friday?”

“Uh.” Dang.
It’d been so long since I’d actually been agreeable to going out
with someone I wasn’t sure how to go about answering.

“I’ll pick you
up at seven.” He grinned.

“What? What if
I’m not free? What if I’m busy?” I asked stubbornly.

“You’re
not.”

“I might
be.”

“But you’re
not.”

“How do you
know?” I stepped back losing his hands then put my own on my hips
and leaned into him. “How do you know I don’t have a
date
?”

He barked out
a laugh. “You? Ms. I don’t have time to date? Don’t think so.”

I narrowed my
eyes at him. “Now, you look here, Mr. I Think I Know Everything. I
could
have a date! You don’t know tha—”

His hands shot
out grabbing me by the upper arms and he pulled me to him hard, his
mouth colliding with mine and he proceeded to shut me up by giving
me a long, wet, deep kiss that made the friggin’ earth move. We
came apart abruptly and he looked down at me, his eyes intense.

“You have a
date Friday?” he asked gruffly.

“No,” I
breathed.

“You do now.”
I saw his eyes wrinkle at the edges then he leaned down, kissed my
forehead, mumbled, “I’ll call you,” then turned and walked to his
truck, giving me a head nod before he got in then drove off.

Holy cow. I’d
never been with anyone as infuriating or hot or sexy as he was.

And I loved
it.

Man, was I in
trouble
.

*Week Seven—9
^thEncounter*

“Was that Zeke
Powers?” Lane asked wide-eyed when I came in
.

I shot him a
look. “Yes. And if I catch you and
Grammy
(I hollered her
name because I knew she’d gone to the kitchen but knew she was
listening) watching again, I’m off kitchen duty for a month!”

“What’s he
like? Is he cool? Man, he looks huge! He was way taller than you
are! I hope the Seahawks take him! How awesome would that be?”

I smiled at
Lane. “He’s very nice and, yeah, he’s pretty cool.” That would be
awesome if the Seahawks took him, but from what Zeke had told me,
the players pretty much had to go with whoever drafted them.

“And you’re
dating him? I thought you said you were just friends?” Lane
followed me into the kitchen.

“We are
friends but he asked me out and I’m going.” I shrugged, picking up
one of the snickerdoodle cookies I’d made and taking a bite then I
got a glass out of the cabinet and went to the fridge to pour some
milk.

“Well, he’s
very handsome… from what little I could see,” Grammy said from
where she sat at the table working on a crossword puzzle.

I laughed.
God, my family. “When he comes to pick me up Friday I’ll invite him
in to introduce him. That way the blinds won’t get all bent out of
shape.”

Grammy looked
up. “Whatever are you talking about, dear?”

I canted my
head. “Grammy. You just said you saw him, admitting that you were
looking out the blinds.”

“That’s just
uncouth, Scarlett,” she mumbled then went back to her puzzle.
“There’s goulash in the pot on the stove that’s been heating. Get
yourself some,” she added flippantly.

“Got your
homework finished?” I asked Lane as I got out a plate.

“Yeah. I had
to write a poem for English. That’s sissy shit,” he said.

I didn’t say
anything because I knew Grammy would take care of it. And she did.
She looked up at Lane for a moment.

“You like
those video games of yours?” she asked.

Lane grabbed a
couple cookies and leaned back against the counter. “Yeah,” he
mumbled after taking a bite.

Between
spoonfuls onto my plate, I watched this exchange, quietly chuckling
to myself.

“How much do
you like them?”

“I don’t know.
A lot?” Lane knew where this was going.

“You wanna
keep ‘em, you need to watch your mouth.”

“Got it,
Grams.”

And that was
all it took. I sat at the table and ate as we talked about Lane’s
game the next night.

“It’s against
Ballard. They lead the league. If we win this one, we’ll get a good
seed in the conference tournament,” he informed us as he sat
down.

“Then go win!”
I said.

He laughed.
“Not that easy, Scarlett. They’ve got the leading scorer in the
conference. Coach Henley says I’m gonna guard him.” He took another
bite of cookie. “Gonna shut him down, just watch.”

“I know you
will. What’s he averaging?” I asked.

“Thirty-one a
game.”

Yikes. “Gonna
have to work hard.”

“Yep. I’m
gonna hold him to single digits. You’re coming, right?” he asked,
looking like a little boy just then. I was amazed at how he’d
grown. He was about five inches taller than I was now and had
developed muscles thanks to the workouts he did at school but also
to the hodgepodge of weights he kept in his room that I heard him
clanking around every now and then. He was also a good kid. Not
many fifteen-year-old boys would sit around talking with their
sister and grandma.

“Wouldn’t miss
it for the world.” I smiled at him.

He got up
mumbling something about calling Hannah or Heaven or whichever girl
he was “dating” this week and left the table.

I told Grammy
about Jezebel and that Zeke was going to try to fix her in the
morning at which she nodded and said that Zeke was not only
handsome but he sounded like a nice guy, to which I nodded then she
went back to her puzzle. When I finished eating, I rinsed my dishes
and put them in the dishwasher and noticed that Lane was standing
at the door.

“Yeah, bud?” I
asked.

“Uh, you think
you could ask Zeke to come to my game?” His face got red and I knew
it took a lot for him to ask.

Oh, boy. If I
did that, I felt like I’d be going from two years of nothing with a
man to jumping right in with Zeke and I didn’t want him to think I
was smothering him. Ugh. But I couldn’t tell my brother no, damn
it. I knew he missed Dad and was probably excited to have another
man in the picture, although he’d be too cool to admit it.

“I’ll
see.”

He nodded,
mumbled a thanks, said goodnight then went to his room.

“He misses
your father,” Grammy muttered.

“I know. Going
to get ready for bed. Night, Grammy.” I leaned down and kissed her
cheek then went to take a shower.

~*~*~*~

Text
Message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:44 p.m.

Zeke: What’re
you wearing?

I’d just put
my book down and turned off my lamp when my phone dinged. A thrill
ran through me when I saw it was Zeke. Holy crap. I lay there
looking at my phone as if I had no clue what it was feeling like
I’d been in a time warp or had been living in a bomb shelter for
years and modern technology and boys(!) had just been introduced to
me. Yeesh. I was so out of practice with this stuff.

Okay,
flirting. I could do this. I think.

Text
message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:50 p.m.

Me: PJs

Yeah, nailed
it!

Text
Message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:51 p.m.

Zeke: And
these PJs look like…

Text
Message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:51 p.m.

Me: Um, a
t-shirt my best friend got me and shorts

Text
Message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:51 p.m.

Zeke: Sexy

Text
Message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:52 p.m.

Me: Not if you
saw what the shirt says

Text
Message—Wed, Feb. 25, 11:52 p.m.

Zeke: ?