Page 5 of The Naughty List

When I walk out to the living room, it’s quiet. Grant stands alone by the Christmas tree looking down at his phone. When he turns to see me, his eyes are wide as saucers as they trail down my body to my black wedges.

“Where did everyone go?” I ask.

“They had a reservation at seven, so I told them I’d wait here to take you.” He’s still staring at me in shock.

“Oh, sorry it took me so long,” I reply, feeling suddenly exposed...but in a good way.

“We should get going,” he says clearing his throat and pulling himself out of his stupor.

I follow him to his truck where he opens my door, holding a hand out to help me in. I’m pretty sure by the time I get myself half-hoisted into the seat, he has a front row view to my ass. I sort of hope he looked.

In the few seconds between when he shuts my door and crosses over to his side, I quickly remind myself that Grant is my step-uncle. He is much, much older than me. I don’t even know how much, twenty years? Thirty years? No, he’s not fifty. Maybe forty-five, tops. Still, I remind myself. He would never think of me like that. To him, I’m just a dumb teenager. So what if I have a little crush on my new step-uncle? No harm in that.

“You look beautiful,” he says without looking at me as he starts up his truck. He almost looks a little uncomfortable. “I should have said that when you came out of the bathroom. Sorry.”

A small laugh escapes my lips, but I quickly cover my mouth.

“What?” he says, looking at me with a furrowed brow.

“Nothing. I mean, thank you.”

Before he puts the truck into drive, he rests his arm on the wheel and turns toward me. “No, what were you going to say, Audrey?”

I know that what I’m about to say could make things very uncomfortable, and maybe Grant is hell bent on keeping things between us safe and innocent. His mind might not be in the gutter like mine always seems to be, but fuck it. I’m going to say it anyway.

“You said you should have told me I looked nice earlier, but...you’re my new uncle—”

“Step-uncle,” he corrects me, and I have to swallow before I can speak again.

“Step-uncle, and you probably shouldn’t be telling me that in first place.” I look up into his eyes for the first time, and suddenly things feel dangerous. All day from standing outside smoking to sitting together at the bar, I could look into Grant’s eyes and it was comfortable, friendly, but now...it’s charged and exciting. “Not to mention, by the way you were looking at me, you didn’t exactly have to say it.”

I’m frozen in his eyes for a moment, this unspoken connection between us suddenly taking up all of the space in the cab of this truck. I didn’t just point out the elephant in the room. I pushed the mother fucker front and center and shined a spotlight on it.

“Alright then,” Grant says finally as he turns toward the steering wheel and puts the truck into drive. Then, he starts driving like I didn’t just imply that he was checking me out. Him, my step-dad’s brother. Him, old enough to be dad.

I sit quietly in my seat for the whole drive until we pull up to the restaurant, and before we get out, he turns back toward me. My pulse quickens.

“Next time you want to say something, Audrey, don’t bite your tongue. Say it.”

With a sly smirk, he turns off the truck and jumps out, rushing over to my side to open my door like we’re on some kind of date or something. He helps me down and we walk together into the restaurant, him holding the door open for me of course.

The hostess leads us to the giant table in the back where my family is seated. My mother gives me a disapproving look and points to the two open chairs on the back side of the table.

Grant and I squeeze into our seats next to each other, and I’m relieved that they saved two spots in a row so I could be next to him. He’s already my form of comfort where my mother is involved, like I need him to be my buffer.

When we sit down, his leg presses up against mine. It’s like we carried that electric current from the truck with us into the restaurant.

It’s warm in here, or at least it feels warm to me. Every time I look up at the other people at the table, my mother, my grandmother, my new step-dad, and my brothers, I feel like they all know the thoughts running through my head. The things I suddenly want to do to my step-uncle that I just met this morning.

Then, his hand brushes my leg, and I swear I’m imagining things.

He was just adjusting his pants, and his fingers just happened to brush my leg, that’s all, but the skin-to-skin contact was a siren in my head, and I can’t focus now. His hand is safely folded in his lap as he tells the waitress his drink order.

Everyone is talking about something, but I can’t seem to join the conversation. All I can focus on is his nearness. That conversation we had in the truck is stuck in my head. At the bar, it was like he saw something in me that I’ve been waiting for people to see. Men especially never get me, but suddenly, it’s like Grant does. If he was anyone else and a few years younger, I would have been dating him by now, but I can’t pursue this.

Can I?

His knuckles brush the bare skin below the hem of my dress, and I stop breathing. That was definitely intentional. He’s touching me on purpose.