When Scott did step outside Hank’s house, it was with a massive spring in his step. A big, whopping spring. He was on his way to see Cassie, his bank account was going to be cushioned a lot more generously and he had a beautiful woman sort of waiting in the wings. Could life get any cooler right now?
Sure, Hank catching them hadn’t exactly been the best way that could go, but who cares? He’d kissed Hope and she hadn’t pushed him away. Hell, he was rolling with it—banking on it. Whatever it took. The fact she paid him any mind at all was enough of a miracle in itself. A few weeks ago, she wouldn’t have if her life had depended on it.
Now? Well, wearing women down was his specialty and he’d somehow managed to make it work. Hallelujah. He wasn’t questioning it.
He bounced on his heels some, the exhilaration of things going right in this life kicking in full throttle. He hadn’t felt a joy like this in, well, years. Maybe since Cassie was born. Maybe since she spoke her first word. Maybe since she’d first giggled when he’d dubbed her ‘peanut.’
For once in a long time, he was heading on an upward trajectory. Sure, he still was gonna have to grapple with his ex-con status complicating life now that this gig was over, but he had some wiggle room and some steady cash flow for at least a while. He’d find something. He was determined to. Nothing was going to stop him from being the dad Cassie needed now.
He paused at the curb, sliding his phone out of his pocket and checking to see if Luis had responded to his request for pick-up yet. He needed to deposit this check, cash a bit of it (and definitely stop at the florist to get Maggie some goodwill carnations for not reaming him a new one for the whole destroying-part-of-the-roof-because-of-a-big-guy-in-a-bee-costume situation) and be on his way.
His screen was still blank, reflecting back a goofy photo of him and Cassie and, unsurprisingly, no notifications.
“C’mon, Luis,” he mumbled to himself, sighing some. He tucked his phone away, dropping hands to his hips and pacing just a little, at least thankful that the day was nice.
The rhythmic click of heels on pavement tore him away from his thoughts and he turned to watch Hope come down the steps, pulling on that blazer of hers. He grinned a little, the memory of their kiss still alive in the back of his head.
He did have her number, after all, which he was definitely going to be using. How did people even— date these days? Jesus. He was going to have to troubleshoot that, maybe ask Luis for some advice. Maybe Dave, too. Definitely not Kurt.
“You heading out, too?” Scott called, catching her attention. He was trying to pick out whether she was still annoyed about the getting caught by her dad thing. He hoped not. She really didn’t seem like the type that was going to sit through any kind of lecture from anybody— let alone Hank.
To his pleasure, he saw the way her lip quirked up a little in acknowledgment. Not bad.
She strode toward him slowly, gesturing absently with her phone in her hand. “Yeah. I have some loose ends to tie up with everything. A meeting with the board to handle next steps, insurance to figure out whether any of the damage’s going to be covered, our financial advisor to figure out we’re going to deal with salaries and pensions.” She shook her head, a long sigh unfurling. “The worst of it’s over, obviously, but there’s a lot to take care of still. Especially with Hank still recovering.”
He grimaced, listening to the list sympathetically. He hadn’t even thought about all the logistics of the rest of what they’d done. Preventing the tech from going out into the world, let alone to create little super soldier weapons, had been the endgame. He hadn’t even had time to consider what this would mean for the employees and the company’s real future. Unfortunately, this whole mess impacted a lot of lives even when the future of the world wasn’t in the balance anymore.
“All that’s making last night sound like the funner side of things,” he joked, though not meaning it in the slightest. He could forego another potentially life ending situation for himself and his daughter.
“I’ll take this over watching a giant Thomas the Tank come shooting out of a window any day,” she responded in kind, lifting an amused eyebrow.
He smirked some, but cleared his throat, shifting unsurely on his feet. “Hey, about what happened in there—“
She took a couple of brazen steps forward in a way that took him off guard, his eyebrows shooting up as he gauged her close range again, eyes sweeping over her face appraisingly until they settled on her eyes.
“What about it?” She murmured, arms folding slowly.
“Sorry.” He breathed out eventually, a sheepish twitch of his lip. “You know, for Hank catching us. For not trying that downstairs or in literally any where other than in the doorway.”
“He’ll live.” She said, tipping her head ever-so-slightly to watch him, her expression growing more serious. “But I wouldn’t have kissed you like that.”
His own brow slowly knit, a hint of disappointment growing, already drawing a mental slash through the part of his life heading upwards that had anything to do with romance. “No?”
“Mm-hm.” She shook her head definitively.
He laughed lightly, uncomfortably, something to offset the disappointment. He raised a hand to absently rub at the back of his neck. “Well, shit. This is awkward. I’ll just—“
But her fingers came up suddenly, curling around the back of his neck and bringing his lips to hers, an effort that short-circuited his brain and shrank the disappointment down to a dry, inedible grain of rice. While the kiss he’d sprung on her inside had been a soft brush, tentative, a predecessor to something, this kiss was pure fire.
It was like an amalgamation of all the things that had led up to them even getting here; the lingering glances, the slightly wandering hands during a spar, the lip biting, the growing warmth, the flirting he’d barely registered as flirting until the second time her eyes had raked him up and down like she’d wanted to eat him alive. This kiss was a lot more than a ‘I kind of like you’ kiss; this kiss was a ‘I want to see you recreationally outside of my dad’s house in the days to come and kiss you some more,’ and it couldn’t have been more exciting.
His hands dropped to her waist, tips of his fingers lightly folding into the small of her back. He’d match her enthusiasm— hell, he’d match it any day of the week if she let him. Especially if she kept kissing him like this, like she meant it, her soft lips coaxing and intent on tasting him.
A kiss that had begun as a hot, unexpected little follow-up was morphing into a lot more and he was slowly moving into not being able to think straight territory, especially when her fingers dove to play with the hair on the nape of his neck and her teeth plucked teasingly at his bottom lip. His hand slid up between her shoulder blades, pressing and urging her closer, the kiss deepening to a touch too sensual for exactly where they were standing when he heard a horn that he was all too familiar with echoing in the background like a horrible banshee.
A mood-killing, abrupt, never-ending, worst possible time ever addition to this situation. He could have shrank Luis himself.
Hope withdrew from him sharply, something she was a little too practiced at doing this early on. Scott barely had time to relish in the light flush across her cheeks to the way her pretty green eyes had darkened before she was backing away from him and straightening her shoulders, re-entering that no-funny-business mode of hers.
He swallowed thickly, trying to gather some semblance of togetherness, feeling slightly akin to a fish out of water because, wow, she could kiss.
But rather than look too remorseful, or even bashful like she had inside, she offered him an inviting little smile. “That’s how I would have kissed you,” she said, setting the record straight.
Her words had just sunk in, a grin spreading across his face, when he heard the bellow from behind him, “Scotty! You want me to circle the block a few times and come back?”
The hint of proud suggestion in his voice alone made Scott want to crawl into the gutter; he was starting to get why Hope had been so mortified earlier. But thankfully, Hope looked a lot more amused this time.
Scott shot him a look over his shoulder, widening his eyes insistently and trying to communicate to Luis just how much he shouldn’t be talking right now.
Luis’ lips formed an ‘o’ of understanding, despite the grin splitting his face in half, and made a show of rolling the window up, even if his ever-present grin was far from unnoticeable through the closed window.
“Am I keeping you?” Hope asked, bringing him back to the moment.
“We carpool,” he told her, trying to play it off casually. “Definitely planning on investing in some wheels of my own soon.” His brows shot up, getting back to business before he lost this little moment too. “So you’re gonna be pretty busy for the foreseeable future, huh?”
She shrugged. “Until some of the hype dies and we get everything in order.”
“Too busy to, say, be free this Friday for dinner?” He asked tentatively, a certain hopeful gleam in his eyes. He doubted Luis’ van’s horn would have really talked her out of it if she wasn’t already talked out of it, but hey, he was still cautious.
That smile of hers he was beginning to get a little obsessed with came creeping back. “I could make some time at 6.” But she paused, adding hastily. “If you’re not busy with Cassie.”
Something about her even recognizing that made a warm feeling grow in the pit of his stomach, something he couldn’t begin to define, something he also hadn’t felt in years. His lips parted slowly, ready to answer, but then the horn sounded, an unmistakable round two, and Scott’s shoulders physically lifted in cringe. When he glanced over his shoulder again, Luis’ was already mouthing ‘sorry’ and making an apologetic face through the window.
With a sigh, he turned his head to address her finally. She was merely smirking to herself, brow quirked and expectant.
“Do you want me to pick you up?”
“Oh, definitely. Unless you want everyone in a five-mile-radius to know exactly where we are at all times.”
“I think I’m good.” She started walking again, lingering beside her car and unlocking it, leaning against the passenger door and watching him. “Friday,” she repeated, just for confirmation.
He straightened his shoulders, the pep in his step coming back full force. “Friday,” he agreed with a smile.
“See you then, Scott.” She said, rounding her car and getting in with one last coquettish glance in his direction.
Scott watched her drive away from the end of Hank’s driveway, hands on his hips, incredulous as to how he’d pulled this off after all. When he finally made his way over to the van and got in, getting accosted by Luis on how the hell all of that had transpired, his friend got so excited that this blare of the horn was completely and utterly intentional.