I swatted at his hand, stepped back swiftly, and covered my blush with my palm. One, because the plain cotton bra and panties I wore could never be called sexy, and two, because I’d specifically picked out my skirt because it was my prettiest. At least I thought it was. It was obvious it was just as boring and prudish as the rest. It stung my feelings just a little that he called it ugly, though.

“Damn, I didn’t mean it’s, like, ugly. It’s just too long.” He attempted to apologize and failed miserably. He sighed. “Okay, let’s try this again. Look, I’m Finn. That’s my place.” He pointed back at the garage. “And I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be walking around out here by yourself. This isn’t the best neighborhood. How about you come on back inside and I’ll tell everyone to chill with the smoke.”

Honestly, at that point, all I wanted was to go home, but the idea of going back inside and getting Amanda to take me home did appeal to me. However, there was no way I was going to be the prissy pastor’s daughter crashing their party.

“No, don’t do that. I don’t want those people in there thinking I’m a brat. I’ll be fine. I’m just going to walk home. “

He lifted both his arms, then ran his hands across his face roughly. His shirt came up and I got a small peek of the skin just above his jeans. I turned my head quickly and looked away.

“Look, come back with me. I’ll grab my mom’s keys and take you home real quick. Deal?”

“No, I don’t think—”

“Please, Faith, just let me do this.” He cut me off. “I’ll feel like shit if you’re found on the side of the road in the morning.”

The blue of his eyes seemed to glow in the darkness around us as he silently cut me with his expression. His aggravation was apparent. He had the ability to make me feel like a small child being chastised. As if I didn’t get enough of that at home.

Dogs barked unmercifully, and in the distance, a car alarm began to ring out. I looked over to my right and three strange men stood on their front porch and stared over at Finn and me. One wore a creepy smile that made his gold tooth visible.

What had I been thinking? No way did I want to end up missing or murdered on the side of an abandoned road. Finn wasn’t safe, but I didn’t think he’d harm me physically.

“Fine. Thank you,” I said as I stepped around him and started to walk back to his driveway. “Could you please tell Amanda you’re taking me home?”

“Will do.” He smiled sarcastically.

He was hard to feel out. Either he was being friendly or he was annoyed by me. I was pretty good with people, but I didn’t like how off center he made me feel. Especially since the more I looked at him and the more he spoke to me, the nicer looking he got. He was more of a gentleman than he let on. The ladies at church would probably disagree, but only a nice guy would care about whether or not I made it out of this side of town alive.

I stood alone in his driveway for a minute while he ran inside to get his keys and let Amanda know what was happening. I hated leaving her there like that, but that was her scene, not mine. Actually, I didn’t really have a scene, unless you included church. Church was definitely my scene. Not that it was my choice.

Inside the garage, I could hear his friends complaining that he was leaving. I couldn’t hear his response, but I felt awful for taking him away from his little gathering. I could still smell the pungent odor of that stuff they were smoking. I assumed it was marijuana, which only made me want to go home even more.

“All ready to go?” Finn asked as he came out of the garage swinging his keys around his finger.

I followed him over to an older white Jeep Cherokee. He opened the door for me, which was also unexpected, and I got in. He ran around to the other side and got in before cranking up the engine. The atmosphere around us lightened the farther away from his neighborhood we got.

At first we were quiet, not really knowing what to say to each other. It wasn’t like we had anything in common. We were from totally different worlds.

“Thanks for the ride,” I finally said to break the ice.

He looked over at me and grinned. His light irises glistened from under dark lashes. I was really beginning to like his eyes and I was seriously starting to enjoy his knowing grins a little more than I should have.

“No worries. We don’t want a pretty thing like you getting kidnapped.” He looked back at the road as if he didn’t just give me the biggest compliment.

I couldn’t remember anyone ever calling me pretty before. It made me feel funny. I can’t say that I hated it. Actually, I kind of loved it. I could remember my mom telling me I looked nice once, and memories of my dad calling me his princess when I was a toddler still lingered, but now that I was older and feeling pretty really mattered, no one ever said it.