Jodi Thomas - Mornings On Main

She didn’t move. His hands, still on her, were below the counter. No one could see what he was doing. If she didn’t react, no one would know.

His hand moved again, patting her bottom this time like she was some kind of pet. “I can’t feel any. Maybe you’re one of those girls who wears a thong.”

She didn’t like the way he was talking, but this was Derrick. He must know what he was doing. She was just being skittish, like a girl who’d never had a boyfriend.

When he gripped her hip in his hand so hard she knew he was bruising her, she stepped away, banging her side into the cash register.

“Sorry,” he said. “But it’s not my fault you’re so damn touchable.”

When she let out a nervous giggle, he leaned close and said, “Tonight we’ll go somewhere really alone. I plan to examine a few more parts of your body. Play along, Shorty, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re not wearing my senior ring by Monday morning.”

It wasn’t exactly romantic, but she didn’t need romantic. She wanted real. Life was hard and cruel. Why should love be any different? Besides, Derrick was just a now guy. She didn’t see them as a couple forever. She never wanted anyone to matter to her as much as her mother had when she died.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she moved a few inches away. She had no doubt her father would ask.

“I thought we’d drive over to Tyler and catch a show. We could warm up a little in the back row.”

“What are we seeing?”

“Who cares? Something rated R.”

Sunnie nodded as if she agreed with the plan.

“Any chance you get a break from this prison? We could sit in my car and look up what’s showing.” Derrick bumped her shoulder with his fist.

“Yeah,” she said as Jillian stepped from the office. “Oh,” Sunnie said louder than necessary, “Derrick, this is Jillian. She works here with Gram.”

Derrick nodded. “Nice camera.”

Sunnie had the feeling he was looking more at Jillian’s breasts than the camera hanging just below them.

Jillian lifted the camera and sat it on the counter, but Derrick’s gaze continued to stare at her chest.

To Sunnie’s surprise, Jillian’s smile seemed to say that she thought of Derrick as a boy, not a man. “Take off for lunch if you like, Sunnie. You did a good job this morning. You need a break.”

The woman had obviously heard Derrick’s question, but she couldn’t have seen him touch her. She’d turned her attention back to her camera, totally dismissing them both.

Derrick didn’t seem in any hurry to leave. “You from around here, Jillian?” He said her name slow and low as he turned away from Sunnie.

“It is Jillian, isn’t it? I know I would have remembered seeing you.”

“No. Just passing through.” She didn’t look up.

“It’s a shame. I like your name, among other things.”

Sunnie watched as Derrick’s gaze rolled over Jillian like thin paint.

She had heard the phrase undressing someone with his eyes but she’d never seen it happen before. Derrick’s look was pure predator, like he’d just tossed aside a rabbit for a deer in the trap. Only Sunnie was the rabbit, and she had a feeling Jillian was the deer in his sights.

Sunnie didn’t hear Jillian’s answer. She was too furious to breathe as she grabbed Derrick’s arm and almost dragged him out of the store.

“What?” he yelled. The door chime sounded more like a clank.

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