Behind The Bright Lights

Chapter 8

Nate's voice from behind her made her jump. 'You scared me.' She breathed as he came up to stand next to her.

'Sorry, didn't mean to scare you.' He apologized raising his hand and it hovered around the small of her back causing her to tense in anticipation but he set it down again. She swallowed a disappointed groan.

'It's okay. I'm the one who should be more conscious of my surroundings.' She blushed then looked away trying to ignore Rocki's advice about looking people in the eye which was ringing in her head.

'You were taken in by the calm around here. It happens to me all the time.' He justified her with a smile which Kimmy returned.

They were quiet for a few minutes admiring the nature. Well, at least Nate seemed like he was. Kimmy was way too conscious of Nate standing next to her to think of anything else. It normally would have scared her to stand so close to such a big man but...Nate made her feel...safe and she didn't feel so hopeless in all her smallness when she was with him.

'You don't go out often, do you?' Nate suddenly asked and when he turned to look at her, she didn't look away and she could almost hear Rocki saying "See? Was that so hard?"

'No, not really.' She shook her head. Actually, Rocki, she thought, it is hard.

'You should. It really agrees with you. You are glowing.' He said and his hand twitched as if he was about to lift it again.

She blushed again. He was making it so hard to maintain eye contact. 'I'd call it sunburn build up.' She made an attempt at humor and she succeeded.

He laughed and shook his head. 'I'll just call it beauty. Tell me, how was your night out in the middle of the week?'

She chuckled. 'It was great. We had fun.'

'I'm glad you did but Rocki obviously did not handle it as well as you did.' He commented

'She just had a rough morning cos we didn't drink more than two drinks last night.' She defended Rocki.

'If you say so.' He said with no indication that he believed her at all.

'Honestly, we did. I'm not too big on alcohol so I regulated them really well.'

'Them? There was someone else with you?'

'Yeah, Lau. He is really good company.' She said combing through her hair with her hands.

'Oh, yeah I guess he is. Well, as long as you kept them under control I'm happy.' He smiled that smile of his that made her stomach flip.

'Yeah.' Her new confidence failed her and she looked down at her feet. 'I have to get going now.' She started walking up before he offered to walk with her. 'It's been nice chatting.' She waved and walked back to the site which was almost deserted now except for the guys who were bringing down the tents and clearing up.

She quickly jumped into her car and set it in motion. She had barely driven two hundred meters from the site when the engine suddenly coughed and died.

'What now?' she mumbled as she tried the ignition. Nothing. She tried again, still nothing.

She pulled the little nob that opened the hood of the car and got out of the car to look inside the engine not that she knew how to fix it. 'Urgh, this sucks.' She said looking blankly at the dirty engine.

'Hey. Are you okay?' Nate shouted from his car stopping at the other side of the road.

Kimmy felt her ears turn pink with embarrassment. How could he see her like this? He was going to think she is disorganized. She was trying to come up with an excuse why she was bending over her car engine...not even a single idea! And Nate was already stepping out of his car.