"You want to what?" Jo lowered her coffee and raised her eyebrows incredulously.
"Paint. With you, at your house," he said. It had been a couple days since the start of school, and today Jo had decided to leave the crutches behind. She needed to start strengthening her ankle again, even if Ryker had grumbled about her needing the crutches. Soon she would be able to drive herself to the college, and he wouldn't have to put himself through the chore of picking her up and dropping her off at home each day.
Then again, judging by his offer, he might like chores.
The two of them were standing outside of Ms. Blue's place, out on the porch among the rocking chairs and the old iron and concrete planters. He was looking out at the road instead of at her as he spoke, holding his own coffee down by his side, his hand wrapped around the tip of the cup.
Jo stared. "Why?"
Ryker's head jerked toward her. "You don't want to paint?"
"No, I do, it's just really specific, especially because I didn't mention painting." Or at least she didn't think she had. Maybe he just assumed she was planning to since she lived in an ancient house that could use an entire paint job makeover. He wasn't wrong, she just hadn't been expecting it. She narrowed her eyes. "Do you think my house needs painting?"
Ryker rubbed the back of his neck and started down the steps to the sidewalk. "I thought you'd like the idea. What's wrong?"
"You're sort of implying that my house looks bad," she said. Which, well, wasn't entirely wrong, but it wasn't really polite to say it. Or insinuate it. Though maybe his honesty should be appreciated?
"I didn't say that." He stopped at the bottom of the steps to wait for her as she slowly followed, being more careful on the steps thanks to her stupid ankle. "You're fixing up the house, and painting is usually a part of doing that, right?"
"Right..."
"So I didn't mean anything bad by offering to paint."
"Fine, fine," Jo said, holding up her hand that wasn't occupied by coffee. "It just came out of the blue."
"We met in a hardware store. I don't think it's that random," he argued as they walked toward his truck.
Okay, that was true. But it seemed like he could've asked her for a project instead of choosing one himself...now she was being picky. He was offering to help and the only reason she was getting mildly defensive about it was because he seemed to be helping her a lot lately but he wasn't super happy about it.
She climbed into the truck, settling her foot carefully on the floorboard beside her bag. "Why do you want to paint, specifically?"
He shrugged. The truck rumbled to life and he pulled out of the parking lot and into traffic. "It doesn't have to be painting. That was just something a lot of people hate doing or get someone to do for them." He switched lanes and glanced at her for a split second. "It's harder to do by yourself."
"People do it alone in movies all the time," she said. "But...yeah. Okay." The living room could use a new coat of paint. Actually, every room in the house probably needed to be repainted.
Taking a sip of coffee, it suddenly occurred to her how strangely comfortable she felt in Ryker's presence. She'd only known him a few days, but they already had developed a morning coffee routine and talking to him came...easily. Naturally. She should be on edge getting to know a complete stranger but she felt nothing but safe and...protected around him. Wow. Getting lugged up a mountainside by him must have really done a number on her.
There was also the fact that every time he touched her it sent a current of electricity through her that made her want to practically jump his bones, but she wasn't going to think about that.
"Good, it's settled then. I'll bring pizza and come by tonight."
Jo blinked at him, not aware they'd been making plans for tonight. No, she was definitely sure they hadn't made plans for any specific day. "Um, what if I had plans for tonight?" Ryker raised an eyebrow at her and Jo found herself getting defensive. "Just because I'm new around here doesn't mean I don't have plans!" Heck, hadn't she just been making some with Ryker?
"Do you?" Ryker asked, a small smirk playing around his lips.
Something about that smirk set her off, and she came out with a much more mischievous retort than what she might've normally said. "Oh yeah, I've got a smoking hot date tonight with the love of my life."
Ryker was silent for a moment, apparently stunned. That was right mister, assumptions make an ass out of...well, just him. Jo watched as his hands seemed to tighten on the steering wheel, knuckles turning white, and Jo glanced out the windshield, confused--traffic didn't seem that bad.
"What?" he asked.
Jo rolled her eyes. "Pizza," Catching sight of Ryker's confused expression, Jo couldn't help but laugh. "The love of my life. You stumbled upon it. I can't say no to a good Hawaiian pizza."
Ryker's face relaxed in amusement, although his voice still sounded a bit irritated when he spoke. "Pineapples, really?"
Oh come on, what was with half the world's hatred of pineapples on pizza?
"Yep, half of that pizza better have them or we can no longer be friends."
"We're friends, huh?" Ryker grinned.
No need to make a big deal of it. Jo smirked, though internally it was giving her the warm fuzzies that Ryker seemed to be pleased with the idea. "Well," she said, with an exaggerated sigh. "It's be pretty crappy of me to deny you the title after you carried me up a mountain, drive me to school on a daily basis, and offer to paint my house for me." She turned in her seat and beamed up at him. "Plus offer to escort the love of my life to my house for me," she teased.
"So you can devour him. What kind of woman have I befriended?" Ryker responded, chuckling.
"You're right," Jo said, leaning back in the seat. "You better be scared of me."
"I'm so scared," Ryker said dryly, not even twitching when Jo lightly thwacked his arm in response to his clearly not afraid tone. Ironically, he really should be scared, but she wasn't going to ruin her morning by thinking about that right now. Their bantering continued to the school parking lot, and Jo found herself getting out of the truck with a smile on the face. It was possible...no, she had to admit...she was going to miss these morning pick-ups.
Ryker came around the front of the truck and leaned against it, looking at her. "You get to hang out with me most of today," he said, smiling at her. Jo tilted her head, frowning in confusion. She knew she had music appreciation with him this morning, as they'd discovered when they compared schedules, but that was all she thought.
It was going to be highly amusing to see what he did in that class though, because he'd complained about having to take it for their arts requirement multiple times already.
"I'm assisting with your wildlife class today too," he said in response to her confused look, taking Jo's coffee from her so that she could get her bookbag on.
"Really? Even though you're a student here?" She took her coffee back from him, a thrill running down her back as her fingers accidentally grazed his. Jo stilled, staring up at him.
"I'm considered something of a local expert," he said, eyes dark as he looked at her, almost sounding smug. That shook Jo out of her trance and she shot a pointed look at him, scoffing.
"You would be, creeping around people's woods and stalking unwary hikers."
"Nah, I just stalk the bolt-cutting ones," Ryker said, laughing.
Jo rolled her eyes. "I doubt that. There can't even be that many of us, not enough to completely absorb your stalker needs."
It was Ryker's turn to scoff. "I think at the moment, you're taking up all my time."
Jo paused and then swiftly sipped at her coffee. Was he mad about that? He was the one who was asking her to hang out more. What was even up with that, seeing how grouchy he had been toward her in the beginning? Being around him had become comfortable extremely quickly, but he sometimes seemed annoyed by her or what she said. Maybe that was just the way he was. In any case, she couldn't dive into the psyche of Ryker Monroe this early in the morning. She'd need a couple gallons of coffee to even start.
"I like being all-encompassing," she said lightly, "Obviously I twisted my ankle because I knew you were stalking me and I could get free rides."
"Uh-huh." Ryker huffed. "Yeah, I could tell. A master plan."
"Always scheming," she said. Reaching up, she tapped the said of her head. "You never know what I'll come up with next."
"Well then..." Ryker stepped closer, and Jo didn't step back. She blamed it on being half-lame, and balancing a cup of coffee. Then he was leaning toward her, and Jo stilled again as the warmth of his body wrapped around her in the cool morning air. He was leaning toward her, his eyes alight with an almost mischievous look, and she found herself wondering what Ryker was about to do.
"I guess I'll just have to be prepared for anything and everything," he said softly next to her ear, his breath making her skin tingle at the nape of her neck. The feeling didn't seem to stop, shooting right through her body, as Ryker stepped back, a smirk planted on his face before he turned and started heading toward the music building.
"You coming?" he called, barely glancing toward her. Jo broke from her frozen stance and scowled, but had no choice other than to follow, seeing as they had the same class first thing.
Didn't mean she wasn't going to be grouchy and take her time.
"What was that?" she hissed as she caught up to him right before they reached the building.
"First line of defense," Ryker said, grinning at her as he swung open the door. "Ladies first."
"Age before beauty," Jo automatically muttered, but she went in anyway. Growing up in the South, she learned a long time ago that there wasn't much point to arguing with a Southern guy about who should hold a door open. Didn't mean that when she had two good legs she didn't still sometimes run to get the door first. Look, a woman could hold a door open just as well as any guy.
Apparently Eli and Katie had this class as well, so Jo took a seat behind her lunch friends. It was no surprise to her at this point that Ryker took a seat beside her despite his earlier complaints. Katie seemed surprised though, raising her eyebrows inquisitively at Jo, cocking her head toward Ryker. Jo shrugged in response. Who knew why Ryker did what he did? Sure as hell not her. But speaking of which...
"I would've thought you'd want a break from me," Jo said, resting her chin on her hand and enjoying her turn to smirk at him.
"Yeah, well, I'm counting on you to keep me awake in this class. Everyone else I know will probably fall asleep too."
"How do you know I'm not the type to fall asleep?"
Ryker gave her an expressionless look, then snorted instead of answering.
Rude.
"You seem to think I'm some kind of nerdy, naive city girl," Jo said.
"Aren't you?" Ryker asked, placing his textbook on his desk.
Jo shook her head and looked away from him, realizing she'd unintentionally walked into that one. That was a question she didn't want to answer. Sure, she could lie, but...she was trying to limit the amount of lies she told to only the absolutely necessary ones.
Feeling a gaze burning into the side of her face, Jo sighed and faced him. "Everyone has their secrets. You leave mine be, I'll leave yours."
Ryker studied her, dark eyes curious and focused, to the point that Jo found herself shifting uncomfortably under his stare. But she didn't want to look away, because at the same time she felt compelled to meet his gaze.
"Okay," he said, facing forward again. But right before the professor started speaking, she could have sworn she heard a muttered "for now."
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A/N: The next chapter will be out on Wednesday, Jan. 27th!