And ladies did not fantasize about soulless men who made a career out of making themselves disposable.
“So what happened?” Will asked from behind her. She turned, expecting him to still be half-naked just to annoy her. Thankfully, he’d thrown on jeans and an old college T-shirt. Unfortunately, neither did much to hide the body beneath it.
Think of James. James is fit. James is sexy. James is—
“Oh, you know, I just went off-roading on a bunch of spikes,” she snapped to distract herself. Fighting with Will was vastly preferable to thinking about his really delicious-looking shoulders.
“Probably just a nail or something,” Will said, ignoring her bitchiness as he knelt to look at the front left wheel. “You got a spare?”
“Of course I have a spare.”
Actually, Brynn had no idea if she had a spare. But her car was only a year old and was pricey as hell. Surely that meant they threw in one of the extra wheel things, right?
Will gave her a look that said he knew exactly what she was thinking as he popped the trunk and began rummaging around.
“You golf?” he said, pushing aside her teal golf bag.
“Taking lessons,” she muttered. “I belong to a group.”
“Of course you do,” he said, finding a hidden compartment and pulling out the spare tire.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” he said, as he swung the tire out and rolled it to the front of the car, “that everyone I met at your birthday party belonged to some club of some sort.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with cultivating my interests.”
He paused in the process of setting up some sort of tools. “Do you ever listen to yourself? Cultivating your interests? Is that really what you want your life to be about?”
Brynn felt her temper rising.“You’re seriously lecturing me on how to live my life? You, who hasn’t been in the same place longer than a couple years? You, who has no idea what it’s like to maintain a steady job? You, whose longest relationship was determined by how long it took you to figure out the color of her sheets…” She broke off, running out of breath.
Will was looking up at her with a cocked eyebrow. “Oh, I’m sorry, Ms. Dalton. Here I thought you wanted me to help you out.”
Think of the mayor’s daughter. Think of your career. Think of the big picture…
“Right,” she grumbled. “Sorry. Please commence with the man-moves.”
He snorted at her grudging apology, but returned to swapping out her tires. She told herself to watch what he was doing so she could learn how to do it herself. Not that she had any interest in being Ms. Do-It-All-Herself, but she sure as hell wouldn’t be asking him for a favor in the future.
But she couldn’t concentrate on what he was doing. Her mind kept going back to his barb about her clubs and hobbies. Is that really what you want your life to be about?…
There was nothing wrong with her life. And she didn’t understand why he’d said “clubs” with such disdain. Lots of women were in a book club. And a knitting club. And a yoga club…and…okay, maybe most women weren’t in all of those clubs like Brynn was, but how was she to remain balanced if she didn’t dabble?
Plus this way, if she had a falling-out with one group, she’d have the other ones to fall back on.
See? It was just good sense.
“So what’s so important?” he asked, maneuvering the spare tire into place with ease.
“What?” she asked, distracted by her internal moping.
“What’s the big hurry that you couldn’t wait for Triple A? Must be important if you resorted to knocking on my door.”
Seconds ago, Brynn had thought her reasoning completely sound. But for some reason now, when faced with Will sitting on the hot, hard pavement wrestling with her dirty tire, it felt a bit…shallow.
“Just an important client,” she said, striving for confident nonchalance. He was sweating, and it made his dark blond hair curl just the slightest bit and his shirt stick to his torso. It should have looked messy and unkempt. It did look messy and unkempt. It also looked…good. Really good.
“I didn’t know there was a such thing as an important client in orthodontics.”