She was so lost in her routine that she didn’t pay any attention to me in line, but when she finished serving the couple ahead of me, her eyes locked with mine and her perfectly pink lips parted in a silent “oh” of surprise.
That little mouth did things to me. And made me want to do a whole lot of things to her.
“Good morning, Carly,” I said, stepping up to take my place at the counter. I towered over her petite frame. I probably had a good seven or eight inches on her. My body was hard lines and muscles, and it would fit perfectly with her lush curves and feminine shape.
We’d be a perfect fit. There was no doubt about it. Something about her told me she’d know just what to do to make me a very happy man.
“Morning, Nick,” she replied, smiling up at me. A hand absently went to tuck a flyaway strand around her ear and I noted the row of triple piercings. I couldn’t help but wonder what else she might have pierced…
“Settling in at Aaron’s?”
“Yeah,” I grinned. “He’s a pretty chill guy, but you know that already.”
On the way back to the museum the day before, Aaron had cleared the confusion regarding his and Carly’s affectionate nicknames with each other. He’d assured me that they were—and always had been—strictly friends. I didn’t know why it mattered, I’d have been interested in her either way—but knowing that Aaron wasn’t going to get in my way or fuck up my chances was a huge relief.
“Yeah. He’s one of the best. I’m glad he finally got some sense knocked into him and hired out some help in the shop. That was probably Gemma’s doing, though. She’s done wonders for straightening him out.” She laughed and took a step to the left, spreading her arms over the display case that was undoubtedly picked over but still managed to be brimming with delicious options. “What can I get for you?”
I couldn’t tell her what I really wanted—her on a silver platter—so I settled for a lemon bar and the biggest cup of joe she could get for me. “Anything else?” She asked, handing over the small pastry bag and the cup of coffee.
There was a line of people behind me and I didn’t want to make any new enemies by taking up their time chatting it up with her. No matter how much I wanted to. “No, ma’am, this’ll get me through till lunch. Thanks.”
She rang me up and when she passed over the receipt, she added, “You know, we’re open for lunch too. In case you need a pick me up.”
I’ll be damned. Rosen was right.
“See you this afternoon then,” I replied, grinning at her as I turned away and strode past the rest of the line to the doors, feeling her eyes on my backside the entire way.
“Aha. I called it,” Aaron boomed, walking into the hangar. “Gemma owes me ten bucks.”
I laughed. “Do I even wanna know?”
He shook his head, grinning like a fool. “She bet me ten bucks that I was wrong about you and Carly. I told her you two were gonna hook up.”
“Hate to break it to you, but we haven’t,” I replied, laughing at his blunt statement.
He pointed to the coffee cup. “Matter of time. You’re already hooked.”
“Or I just like her coffee.” I couldn’t keep a straight face so my denial was completely inefficient.
Aaron just laughed. “Whatever you say, man.”
“I haven’t even met this woman of yours and she’s already betting against me? Damn. That’s cold.” I shook my head in mock disbelief as I sipped at my coffee.
Aaron crossed the hangar to the desk where he had blueprints, mock-ups, and pictures sprawled across the top of all his works in progress. I set my cup to the side and went to join him. I’d started by doing a full inspection of the F-4 and had compiled a list of everything that was and wasn’t working. Aaron stopped busting my balls about Carly long enough to talk shop and it took very little before we were lost in work.
The hours passed by in a blur and the only thing that stopped us from plowing on for the rest of the afternoon was the sound of our stomachs rumbling louder than the engines of the planes taking off every half an hour as Aaron’s team of pilots took up small tour groups.
Aaron dropped the wrench in his hands onto the drop cloth we had laid down to catch all the parts and pieces we were working with. He wiped his grease coated hands on the thighs of his coveralls and glanced over at me with an appraising stare. “You ready to break for lunch?”
I nodded and wiped a bead of sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. “Yeah.”