Like I need him to remind me.
She comes down the hall with a laundry basket on her hip looking all cute with her hair pulled up on her head in her signature bun. My eyes gaze down to her legs. She’s changed into a pair of shorts and another fucking pair of socks that slide down her calves a bit further with every step she takes. Goddamn it.
“Is it cool if I do my laundry?”
I press the phone between my ear and shoulder. “You don’t need to ask my permission, babe,” I say with a shit eating grin to piss off Ezra and remind him that if he doesn’t treat his girl right, there are other men who will. Like me.
“Watch it, Holden,” Ezra growls on the other end of the line.
“Don’t you have work to do? What do you want anyway?”
“Make sure Conleigh gets that key made today and then get lost. I have a surprise for her and don’t want your furry mug around to kill the mood.”
“Don’t dis the beard, man. Your girlfriend seems to appreciate it. She told me this morning how she wished you’d grow one.” I laugh as I feel daggers shooting across the kitchen at me as she tosses her clothes in the washer.
“Yeah, sure. Just be gone when I get home tonight.” He hangs up and I can’t help but watch as Conleigh tugs on one of those fucking socks.
She suddenly leans up as though she could feel me watching her. She blushes, and I rub my beard. “Thanks for helping me today. I am sure you had better things to do besides lug me and all my crap around.”
“That’s what friends are for, right?”
“Right,” her voice comes out in a high-pitched squeak. She smiles and goes to the fridge.
“About the job, my offer still stands. You can start tomorrow. I will text you the details later.”
“Okay. Thanks. Ezra won’t mind, I’m sure. I do need a job. Damn it, I still haven’t told him I was fired, and I forgot to call my advisor. Shit.”
“So, I guess whenever you want to go I will run you to the hardware store and get that spare key made.”
“You would think I would have remembered but after falling on my ass and missing my class, I guess I forgot. I promise you this won’t be a habit. I’m going to look at cars tomorrow.”
“I really don’t mind being seen with you in my truck. It’s good for the rep,” I tease.
“Maybe for yours, but I don’t need to be known as another notch on your bedpost.”
“Ouch.”
“You know what I mean.” She rolls her eyes and continues poking around in the fridge.
“Yeah.” I let out a sigh. “I’ll be down in the shop. Just whenever you want to go…you know what, I’ll leave my keys on the counter you can drive yourself.”
“You sure?”
“You can’t hurt Tank.”
“Wait…you named your truck Tank?”
“Yup,” I call out over my shoulder.
I don’t want to be another notch on your bedpost. Her words echo in my head as I stomp my way downstairs to my shop. I don’t need this shit, especially from her. She thinks I don’t see the way her eyes smile at me. The way goosebumps pebble across her skin when I touch her or hell, how I see the way her pulse spikes because her chest rises faster and faster. She’s attracted to me. It scares her. Fuck, it scares me too, because I thought I had accepted she was Ezra’s girl. We’ve both kept our distance since the first night we met. Because Bailey saw me first.
Taking my aggression out the only way I know how, I grab my hammer and crowbar.
Board by board, I tear the old pallets apart
, trying to shove Conleigh fucking Meyers out of my head. It was easy to do when she wasn’t living here. Now I am surrounded by her constantly prancing around in her fucking socks. I swing the hammer, knocking a board loose. The next one is stubborn, and I need the crowbar to pry the damn thing off. An image of her upstairs bending over to put her clothes in the dryer flashes in my head and I have to fight the urge to go up and catch a glimpse of her again.
Aggravated, I wipe the sweat from my brow with an old shirt laying on a nearby workbench. I need to finish up the chest for Waylon’s baby.