Page 27 of Catching Feelings

Tyler’s eyebrow ticks up in interest. “Are you saying you’re in a vulnerable position right now?”

Even through my haze of regret, my lips twitch in a smile. I turn away before he can see it, dialing Kara.

“Hey! Where are you?” she answers. “I’m waiting at the diner, and Harper is squawking about how she can’t let me have the booth this long without a full party, and—”

“Do you still have jumper cables in your car?” I interrupt.

She pulls up beside me a few minutes later, popping her hood and grabbing a bag from the trunk. “I just want you to know we’ve for sure lost the best booth by now,” she calls grumpily as she rounds the car.

Then she sees Tyler and stops, eyes wide. “Hello?”

Tyler just nods, already grabbing the cables. “Hey. It’s red on red, right?”

I google to confirm before giving him an impressed thumbs-up.

He tosses me a smirk over his shoulder. “We’ve been over this. I’m more than just a pretty face.”

Kara bugs her eyes out at me behind his back. I slice my hand across my throat in the age-old sign for we’ll discuss this later—don’t you dare embarrass me. She hesitates before hopping back into the driver’s seat of her car to give us some juice. I’m just glad it’s her who came to our rescue and not Naomi, who would already be posting thirst traps of Tyler playing mechanic on her story.

After a minute of charging, my engine roars back to life when I turn the keys. Tyler carefully detaches the jumper cables and comes back around to the passenger-seat window. “Do we trust this thing to get us to the Lakeside?” he asks cheerfully. “Or should I be looking for a new job?”

I roll my eyes. “Get in. Kara, we’ll meet you there!” I call.

I’m on edge as we roll down the street, but Tyler sitting shotgun calms me. He starts humming along to the college radio station, and his pitch is so god-awful, I have to repress my laughter. But then it just gets worse, and I can’t help snorting.

“What?” He turns to me with oblivious, innocent eyes.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Do what?” His eyes only widen farther.

“Pretend to sing badly. I mean, no one’s pitch is that… bad…” I trail off at the outraged look he’s giving me. “Oh. You’re not pretending?”

“Never pretended a day in my life,” he says solemnly, and I believe him. “There’s a reason I didn’t tell you my talent was show tunes.”

I laugh despite myself as we turn onto Main Street. “Speaking of which, we’re going to have to get you practicing that ventriloquism routine.”

He groans, but cuts it off midstream. “Yeah. Okay.”

I eye him suspiciously. “What changed your mind?”

The corners of his mouth quirk again in that mischievous smile. “Well, if your car is no longer going to be roadworthy, I’m going to have to come up with another reason to hang out with you.”

I pull into a parking spot in front of the diner with a jolt, turning to him with my mouth agape. I’m not regularly speechless, but Tyler’s sure done it.

He’s already halfway out the door, about to run to the diner to catch the start of his shift. But he pauses, turning back to catch my eye as he shuts the door.

“Hey,” he says, leaning in the open window.

My breath snags stupidly at the sight of his forearms braced on the sill, the way he ducks his head to meet my eyes. “Yeah?” I’m not sure what I hope he’s going to say.

He pauses for a second, then shakes his head. “You’re going to need to get that battery checked out. Promise? Can’t have you breaking down on the side of the road again. Especially not sometime you don’t have a hot football player to defend you.”

I don’t know why I’m disappointed. “Yeah. Of course. Though some good you were to me.” I summon another eye roll.

He grins back. “Hey, who got this thing going again?”

“Listen, I think I could have managed ‘red on red.’ ”