Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2) (3 page)

“Scarlett
O’Rourke?” the professor called.

“Here,” I
answered, raising my hand a bit. Phew! Made it just in time. Still
trying to catch my breath from my run, I bent to open my backpack
at my feet, getting a notebook and pen out while roll call
continued.

“Ezekiel
Powers?”

And my head
popped up. When a deep and sensual voice answered from directly
behind me, I sucked in a breath as I placed my notebook on the
table in front of me. Crap. I tucked my hair behind my ear and
forced myself to act unaffected by that captivating voice of his.
Jeez.

“Oh, hey,
Zeke!” the professor said. “How’s everything going?”

“Going great,
Dr. Weston. Just gearing up for the combine.”

“Good, good.
Keep me updated,” Dr. Weston replied then continued with roll
call.

Dang, did
everyone know this guy but me?

A couple
seconds later, I felt my chair being kicked from behind and turned
to see hotter than hot Zeke Powers grinning at me, his straight
white teeth looking movie star perfect in that gorgeous face of
his.

“Hey, Scarlett
O’Rourke,” he said quietly with a wink.

Holy hell.

I gave him a
small smile then turned back to face the front, my heart suddenly
thudding in my chest as I remembered what Grandma Pearl always
said: When someone shows up in your life three times in a row, fate
is screaming at you to notice them.

Of course
Grandma thought she’d been a Gypsy in a past life and could tell
the future even though she was Irish through and through but
whatever. Some of the things she told me rang true. And it worried
me that she might be right again.

Okay, let’s
see. Zeke had been at the diner four days in a row now, but I
didn’t think I could really count that because, well, food.

So I’d jumped
the gun a bit. Wishful thinking on my part, I guessed. But I told
myself I had two more times to go to see if fate was really trying
to tell me something when it came to him.

And I didn’t
like that one bit.

See, I liked
to be in control. I needed to know exactly what would happen next.
And I
really
did not like surprises.

But Zeke was
turning out to be a total surprise and then some
.

After class, I
hightailed it out of there to avoid Zeke but glancing back I saw
that any hightailing I’d done had been pointless. He was standing
at his table talking to two girls who were fawning all over him.
Seriously, the redheaded one was, like, petting his bare arm. His
muscular
bare arm. His huge bare arm that had what looked
like a rose tattoo on it, the thorny stem curling out from under
his short-sleeved t-shirt. And she was
petting
it. Um.
Yeah
.

But upon
catching myself gaping at him, I turned with a curse and left the
room as quickly as I could, proceeding to continue cursing myself
for having ogled the guy. What was it about him, all six-foot-four
of rock hard muscle of him, that left my brain functioning at the
level of a sex-craved bimbo? Oh. Can I get a “Well, duh”?

My mood
declined even more when after getting into Jezebel I saw him
walking with a totally different girl to the parking lot who was
looking at him as if he hung the moon. I couldn’t help but wonder
why he was hitting on me when he had women falling all over him
everywhere? Was I just someone else to add to his little entourage?
Nope. Not going to happen. I decided right then to ix-nay my
usting-lay when it came to him and get my friggin’ head back on
track.

Our professor
said we’d need a book by Monday for class, so I drove across campus
to the bookstore, and after pulling into the parking lot, I dug my
checkbook out of my purse to see what kind of funds I had and saw
that it wasn’t pretty. If I juggled a few things around, like
paying the electric bill a little late and “accidentally”
forgetting to pay the water bill, I might be able to manage things
until I got paid next week. Man, I couldn’t wait until money wasn’t
a problem anymore.

I got out of
Jezebel and headed inside, my mood now having hit rock bottom. Then
I found the book that I needed and saw that it cost double what I’d
originally thought it would and felt my heart sink. Is there such
thing as hitting rock bottom rock bottom? The tears welled up in my
eyes as I stood holding the book wondering what else I could manage
to “forget” to pay when a deep, seductive voice said into my ear
from behind, “We meet again.”

Shit.

I quickly
wiped my eyes and cleared the lump out of my throat then with a
sniff turned to see Zeke giving me his sexy grin.

“Hey, you
okay?” he asked, his grin gone as he narrowed his eyes at me which
made me panic, not wanting him to see me upset.

I rubbed one
of my eyes. “Yes, I’m fine. It’s just allergies,” I lied hoping
he’d buy it.

He nodded
slowly watching me closely for a couple seconds, those beautiful
eyes of his not missing anything, then looked down at the book I
held. “Just what I was coming in for. May I?” he inquired then took
the book from me, turning it to see the price tag and let out a
whistle. “Damn. Are the pages gold leaf?” He grinned at me now.
“So, you buying this one?”

I bit my lip
and shook my head. “Not today.” I looked up at him and got lost in
those light brown eyes of his noticing they had little flecks of
gold in them.

“Tell you
what,” he said, his voice low. “How about we share? I’m on football
scholarship, so I don’t even have to pay. And it’s not like I’m
gonna need it all the time. You take it for now then we’ll figure
it out later.”

Oh, my God. I
felt tears sting the backs of my eyes, embarrassed that he’d
figured out I couldn’t afford the book. I shook my head. “I can’t
ask you to do that.”

“You’re
not.”

Glancing up at
him, I felt my heart pounding in my chest at how warmly he was
looking at me. My God, he was handsome. Then my stomach clenched at
what I was about to agree to because I really needed that damned
book. “O-okay. Thank you. I promise to get it back to you next
class.”

“Don’t worry
about it. C’mon,” he said, putting his hand at the small of my back
and leading me to the register. At his touch, I felt a shiver run
through my body but upon stopping to stand in line just feeling the
heat of him behind me made me want to lean back into him and absorb
it all. Oh, boy. Who was I and what happened to the me who was
focused on her future and who avoided distractions at all cost?

“Well, hello,
Zeke! What’s the news on the pros?” a middle-aged woman who was
manning the cash register asked.

Wow. This guy
knew everyone. Or everyone knew him, I guessed I should say.

“Hey, Lilah,”
he said with a grin as he kept his hand to my back pushing me
forward. “Broncos, Cowboys and Colts might be in the mix.” He
shrugged. “Combine’s next month, so I’ll have a better idea what
round I’ll go then, hopefully.”

Wait, what? I
looked up at him in awe not able to cover the shock on my face.
Holy shit.
Holy shit!
He was going pro in football? Wow! My
dad would bust a gasket if he knew a prospective Cowboy had given
me his number.

When Zeke
looked down at me with a smirk, I closed my mouth and became very
interested in the bookmarks that were on the counter but inside I
was still amazed at him. I mean, that was pretty friggin’ cool!

After Lilah
rang him up and bagged his book, he signed the necessary paperwork,
thanked her, picked up the bag then hand on my back led me
outside.

“Where’re you
parked?” he asked, looking around at the cars in front of the
store.

“Uh, that’s
me,” I said, pointing to Jezebel.

“Nice. My
brother’s got a ’65. You ever need parts or anything worked on, let
me know. Dad’s a mechanic. I’ll get you an amazing discount.” He
waggled his eyebrows at me as we walked to my car. When we got to
it, he opened the driver’s door, tossing the bag into my passenger
seat.

Seriously, who
was this guy? He’d not only given me a hefty tip then rescued me
from having to write a bad check for a textbook, now he was telling
me he could repair my car for cheap. And that was just today!

I looked up at
him and shook my head truly dumbfounded. “I don’t know how to begin
to thank you.”

And there was
the smirk again. “I’ll think of a way.”

Oh, my. Heat
hit my face as I considered the possibilities. Damn. When I finally
got my wits about me, I said quietly, “No, really. Thank you. You
don’t know how much you’ve helped me.” I bit my lip in indecision
for a second then went for it, resting my hand on his chest, which
felt like solid rock and made me pause for a moment once again in
awe of him, and tiptoeing up, I kissed his cheek.

Red-faced and
embarrassed at my boldness, I went flat-footed then turned and got
into my car, where, mistake of all mistakes, I ventured a small
glance up at him and holy crap-a-moly! The heated look he was
giving me, eyes narrowed and piercing mine, blatantly letting me
know exactly what he wanted, knocked all the air from my body and I
couldn’t look away. Whoa. Then keeping his eyes on mine, he stepped
back onto the sidewalk and nodded, jarring me out of my stupor. Oh,
yeah. Car. Drive. Go. I started Jezebel (somewhat roughly—stupid
carburetor), backed out and after giving him a small wave, drove
away. I’m pretty sure it took me three blocks before I was able to
breathe normally. And, dang it, how did I find myself suddenly
missing how good he’d smelled and how warm he’d been when I’d
pressed my lips to his cheek?

“Stay
focused,” I muttered to myself.

So shaking my
head to clear it some, I continued driving to the Dean’s office
where my work-study job helped pay for school when it hit me that
that’d been the third time I’d run into Zeke. Just today. If Grammy
was right, maybe he
was
meant to be in my life. Of course,
that could mean only as friends, but I couldn’t help but hope it
meant a little bit more.

Damn it.

~*~*~*~

“So what’d you
learn today?” I asked Lane when I picked him up from basketball
practice.

My
fifteen-year-old brother sat staring straight ahead, the muscles
jumping in his jaw.

Uh oh.
Something had to be up with Candice, his new girlfriend of a week.
He’d told Grammy and me about her over dinner the other night and
I’d never seen him talk that way about a girl before. He was
totally enthralled with her, which was new for him. He’d had
girlfriends before but they’d been typical middle-school crushes
and such. This Candice, though, seemed to be someone he was really
into.

“Lane? Did
something happen?” I questioned carefully.

He sighed and
pushed a shock of dark hair out of his face, looking so much like
our dad when he did that I had to chuckle. Lane’s head shot toward
me and he frowned thinking I was laughing at him.

“Sorry, bud. I
wasn’t laughing at you. You just looked like Dad then,” I explained
which got me a small smile from him.

I actually
looked a lot like Dad too with my dark hair and brown eyes, but
that’s where it stopped. Everything else I’d gotten from Mom: her
medium build and her facial features including an aquiline nose and
wider-set eyes. People had always told her she looked like a blond
Catherine Zeta-Jones, so I guessed that meant I resembled the
actress too, but Dad must’ve carried the dominant genes because
neither Lane nor I had Mom’s blond hair or green eyes.

We also didn’t
get her selfish outlook on life, thank God. She’d left Dad when I
was a freshman in high school which meant Lane had only been five,
saying she couldn’t do the “family thing” anymore. So because Dad
was a truck driver and was gone a lot, we’d moved in with Grammy
right after, and by doing so, she’d helped by giving us a place to
stay and we helped by keeping her young, or so she said.

Shortly after
Mom left, we’d learned that she’d really liked credit cards, as in
really
liked them, so as soon as I was old enough, I’d
started working at The Breakfast Nook, or The Nook as Jay and I
called it, to help out because Dad was doing all he could to pay
off her enormous bills. Grammy couldn’t help much because of her
back surgery and her scant Social Security check once a month only
went so far. So here we were ten years later, Dad was still working
to get everything paid, and needless to say, we didn’t have a lot
of funds to go around. I’d had to take two years off from school to
help out which had killed me, but now that I was back at Hallervan,
I was more focused than ever because I didn’t want to live this way
anymore.

And that’s why
Zeke Powers was an unnecessary distraction.

Lane cleared
his throat then looked out the windshield and said, “Candice broke
up with me.”

“What? Why?”
That was a surprise. Lane was a heartbreaker and having a girl
break up with him was definitely a first.

He frowned as
he continued staring straight ahead. “There’s a dance this weekend
and some of the kids are going out to eat before. She told me she
wanted to go too and I know she expected me to pay so I had to tell
her I couldn’t. She went all psycho on me and told me she couldn’t
be with someone who was… who was poor. She said it in front of
everyone.” He now hung his head in shame.

Shit.
Shit!

It didn’t
matter that I couldn’t have things. I could deal with it. But I
wanted Lane to have everything, damn it, and that’s why it was
necessary for me to stay focused and on track.

I nodded
slowly a couple times knowing exactly what this Candice girl was.
“Well, bubba, here’s the deal. Candice? She’s a bitch.” He turned
to look at me again and I saw the shock on his face because I
rarely cussed around him, trying to be a good example and all. “She
is,” I stressed raising my eyebrows at him as I nodded again. “Any
girl who would break up with you because of that is a shallow…
bitch,” I repeated. I mean, how else could I describe her? “You’re
much better off without her.”