Big Red and the Little Wolf

Chapter 17

Kodi Pov

Harrison grumbled as he took one of the spare keys behind the desk to look at the lock on Echo’s door. I wanted to comment that he could forget about the keys since the lock was broken, but I stopped myself from getting on his nerves too much.

If Echo had come to the desk by herself, there was no doubt he would’ve been more than sweet on her and completely obliging to fix her lock. Since I had brought the issue to his attention, we were met with more resistance as though he couldn’t accept that any part of his building could have a problem.

Harrison and I were never that close, but I knew him well enough from how often he frequented the pub. As long as I served him his favorite ale as soon as I saw him, there wouldn’t be any problems between us. He did, however, grow surly on the nights the pub was busy and he had to wait longer than a few minutes to drink his ale. As a regular, he thought he should be the first one served, not considering that almost everyone in the pub was a regular.

Though Harrison was impatient and became irritable quite easily, I trusted that he would ensure Echo’s safety by reinforcing her lock. He always said that he had a reputation to uphold as the best innkeeper in town. No one ever responded to his claim by mentioning that he was the only innkeeper here.

“Are you ready?” I asked Echo.

“That depends,” she shrugged. “I have no idea where you’re planning on taking me.”

Though she wouldn’t admit that she was willing to go anywhere with me, she still began to follow me outside as I headed for the door to exit the inn.

“That ruins all the fun if there’s no surprise.”

I held open the door for her. As she walked past me, Echo smirked. “Who said I like surprises?”

“Well, I would hate for you to set your expectations too high and then be disappointed.”

“If there’s any chance I would be disappointed then it can’t be that good of a surprise.”

“Or somebody just has impossible standards.” I stopped walking as I reached the driver’s side of my truck. My hand stopped on the handle when I realized Echo was no longer walking to the truck. “Come on. Get in.”

She shook her head, crossing her arms as though they could be used as a reinforcement. “Not until you tell me where you’re taking me.”

“If I’m not mistaken, just last night you told me that you wouldn’t argue with me about getting in the truck anymore. What happened to that?”

This only caused her to roll her eyes at me. “That was for taking me back to the inn late at night. I never agreed to blindly step into your truck and let you take me wherever you please.”

I abandoned my place next to the truck to be within a foot of Echo. This close to her, I could see her eyelashes flutter as she tilted her head back to look up at me. The temptation to lean down and kiss her crept into my thoughts as I stared at her pouty lips.

My voice lowered to show her how serious this was to me. “I don’t know anything about your past experiences, but when a lad who really likes you has a nice afternoon planned for you, being stubborn only prevents you from enjoying it.”

Echo swallowed as though my words caused her mouth to go dry. My proximity to her clearly had an affect on her as I could hear how her heartbeat thrummed rapidly beneath her chest. Almost in a whisper, she said, “You never said that it was a date.”

“Of course I want to take you on a date, Echo. You’re the most beautiful girl to ever step foot in this town.” As soon as I said it, I realized how much it was the truth. In such a short time, I had become enamored with her. Not just for her looks, but for all her little mannerisms that I’ve noticed. The way she appeared to have a million thoughts as she observed her surroundings had me wanting to know every single one of them. “Would you let me try to show you an amazing time?”

Echo seemed too stunned to say anything. By looking into her eyes, I could tell she was still processing all that I had said to her. Even so, she nodded, agreeing to go on a date with me.

I gently took hold of her hand and led her to the passenger’s side of the truck, where I opened the door for her. If I had done that from the beginning and shared with her that I wanted to go on a date, perhaps that would’ve gone a lot smoother.

Something about Echo made me lose all my senses when I was around her. It was likely that there would be more instances where I screwed up with her in the future, but as she climbed into the passenger’s seat, I could at least consider this attempt at asking her out as a small success. My only hope was for the date to go ten times better. If I made any more blunders with her on our date, I may just have to quit my stable job at the pub so I wouldn’t have to face her.