Rescued

Chapter 5: What Now?

*** Charlotte's POV ***

I let my guard down and got distracted. And now I'm paying for it. I am sitting in the passenger seat of Maya and Earl's van getting my scraped knees and heels of my hands cleaned out by Maya. "You alright there, Lottie?"

"Hmm?" I snapped out of it. "Yeah, I'm good. I should be helping them, though."

"They're fine. We don't need you getting an infection." She busied herself with my hands and then paused, tilting her full face. "Is it my imagination or is there something going on with you and that hunk?"

I felt my cheeks flush. "It must be your imagination." She gave me a look as if to say like hell it is. I sighed. "I know him. Or I knew him, I guess. He helped me when my childhood dog ran away."

"And..." Shr prompted. I looked at her in confusion. She sighed. "He was your crush!"

"What? NO!" I denied.

"Now whose imagination is workin' on overdrive? It's obvious in the short time that I've seen you two together that romance is brewin'." Maya insisted with a sappy, lovesick facial expression.

"You've been reading too many of those novels on that app!" I accused her defensively.

She put her hands on her broad hips. "You're blind if you don't see it."

I looked down at my torn up hands. I wanted to believe it and I felt it, but I was so bad at this stuff! And I don't know him. He claimed he wasn't a player, but ugh! This was just too much to process right now. These rescues were supposed to be routine and ever since I showed up yesterday and saw him, it has been anything but.

Maya patted the outside of my arms. "You see it but you're scared of it. Just be open to it, darling. Let what will be, be."

"Got him!" I heard Earl celebrate. Maya and I exchanged a look and I hopped down. Harley was walking our way, looking winded but with the escapee's lead securely in his hand. Earl met him first and patted his shoulder, saying something that made him laugh. I watched the way he tossed his head back and his Adam's apple moved in his throat. Damn.

Maya pressed a bottle of water and a clean towel into my hands delicately. She ushered me forward and whispered. "Go treat him right."

Maya strutted ahead of me, reaching for the lead from Harley. "Nice work, stud."

"You sure you want to risk taking him?" Harley questioned.

"You earned a reprieve." Maya played along. I reached them and she gave me a wink before scuttling off, drawing Earl along with her.

We stood for an awkward minute before I offered him the towel and the water. "Uh here."

"Thanks. He was fast." He acknowledged, wiping his face and the back of his neck and then cracking open the water bottle. "Did he hurt you?"

I held out my hands and showed off my knees. "Nah, not much worse than falling off a bike."

His eyes widened at my injuries. They looked worse than they were. He surprised me when he reached out to closely inspect my hand. I felt a tingle of nervous arousal course through me. His fingertips moved softly over my skin. He lifted his brown eyes to mine.

"I'm sorry. I..." He started to apologize.

"It's fine. Really. I'm just happy you caught him. I get nervous, especially with the amount of traffic around." I admitted quietly.