Unhinge Me by Ann Montgomery Read Free Book Online

her but didn’t meet the woman’s eyes, hoping she would drop the food and go away. Instead, the flat woman sat down in the chair opposite her. Shit, thought Alex. Now she had no choice but to look up at her.
    What happened next was kind of like a standoff. The women stared at each other and had a silent conversation of assessment. Alex’s eyes said, “What is the problem? What have I done to make you not like me? What next?” while Josie’s eyes said, “Who are you and what are you doing with my friend? What are your intentions?” and “Know that I will hurt you if they aren’t good.”
    Alex answered aloud and was surprisingly honest and upfront with the intimidating woman. “Look, I don’t know what I am doing here either. He just drove here without even telling me where we were going! Whatever this is, it just started and I’m just as unsure of it as you are. And well, there’s just something about Caleb. I don’t get it or know what it is yet, but I really like him. I get that you’re scary and all, but… unless he tells me to, I’m not leaving. So…” Alex didn’t know how to finish the sentence. She was so confused with all this and now, with the looks this woman was giving her, she was about to lose it. She looked up to see her reaction to what she said and found her smiling.
    “Fair enough,” Josie said simply, and Alex was surprised that she didn’t have an accent like Caleb or Joe. “He’s just never brought anyone in here before. Joe and I feel real protective over him so I just wanted to make sure. Though, whoever you are, you must be important if he brought you here.” She sighed, nodded, and got up from the table just as Caleb was coming back.
    Caleb sat and put his hand on Alex’s leg, moving in close to her. “You alright?” he asked.
    She looked back over the bar at Josie, who looked back at her and smiled a little. They were either going to be good friends or never get along, Alex couldn’t tell. For now, it was going to have to be good enough.
    She looked back at Caleb. He was watching her carefully, trying to read her expression. She smiled at him. “I’m better.” She thought about whether or not to be honest with him. “This whole thing is just going really fast and it’s so intense. I love it, but it also freaks me out at the same time,” she smiled weakly.
    “We could slow down a bit if it makes you feel better,” he suggested.
    “It might,” she smiled thankfully.
    They spent the next few hours just sitting close, talking, and eating what Caleb called chips, which were really just thick french fries with gravy. Alex thought it was delicious. While they talked, they never took their hands off each other. A caress here, or a light touch there, the sexual tension was never far off. At one point, Alex couldn’t help but feel like a teenager as they played footsie under the table.
    They kept the conversation light and didn’t get too deep. They talked about their favorite music and movies. They both had eclectic tastes and had a surprising amount in common.
    They also talked a lot about poetry. Alex loved having someone to do that with again. It seemed like forever since she could quote a line or two of her favorite poems without someone giving her a weird look. In fact, the last person interested in hearing anything about poetry was her grandmother.
    Not that it mattered what they talked about. Even if it was balloon animals, Alex still would have loved it. Caleb’s deep voice and accent was even sexier when he was trying to whisper or keep his voice down. Once, when he laughed heartily at something she said, the low sounds rumbled through her whole body, making her shiver from head to toe.
    She noticed Josie, and sometimes Joe, looking over from time to time to watch them. For the most part though, Alex didn’t notice anyone else in the room. When she was with Caleb, it was as if the rest of the world fell away and it was just the two of them in their own