He curses, ducking away, his cell clattering to the floor. Then, before I run away and join the revered yogis on the Himalayas, he straightens and looks right at me through the gap on the shelf. “Candy? What are you doing?”
I open my mouth and just stare back, unable to come up with something. “Hi.” Creepy. You’re being creepy, Candy. “I was just dusting here. Sorry.”
He nods, lifts his cell phone and grunts. It looks cracked.
Oh man. “I’m so sorry. I’ll pay to get it fixed.”
“I don’t think it’s broken.” He gives me a crooked grin, dark lashes sweeping low. “Hey…about Saturday.”
I bite my lip, trying not to laugh knowing Joel was asking him about it, because it’s not even funny. They’re both concerned whether I had a good time, when all I can think is that I want to get them hot and naked with me in a locked room, do wicked things to both of them—and that my heart always beats faster when they’re around.
And they don’t even know.
“Did you have a good time?” He’s observing me from under those thick lashes.
“Like, we didn’t scare you off, did we? J and I…” He tilts his head to the side, his grin fainter this time. “We like doing stuff together.”
A slow burn starts in the pit of my belly, spreading. “You do?”
“It’s new for us, too. Never tried with anyone else before. Any other girl.”
Holy crap. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Okay, Candy, filter on mouth, ASAP. “I mean, yeah.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I had a good time.” And now is the perfect time to confess to writing for years now a serial about them and me, together, trying every sex position possible for humans, but… I can’t. “Honest.”
“Great. That’s fucking awesome.” His grin widens.
I wait, hoping he’ll invite me over for a repeat, ask me if I’d like to touch second base tonight, or even third, but he’s just staring at this cell.
Why can’t I just come out and say the things I yearn for? I could do it right now. Tell him, you know what, Jet, I’ve been pining for you and Joel since I was eighteen, so please invite me over again.
And then I hear Donna’s voice as she enters the shop and sigh.
Maybe later. Or never. After all, I wasn’t invited over to their place for a repeat performance, so what does it matter?
I never thought I’d find myself falling for them so hard, body and soul. And I mean, hell, I’m not sure what they want from me, and we haven’t even had sex yet!
So unfair.
***
Despite the regret sitting heavy on my chest all day, I manage to tune out thoughts of Joel and Jethro enough to work. Monday means more customers, and it’s a welcome distraction.
For lunch, Jethro offers to run and get us all three burgers from a small joint down the street, but I hardly see him during lunch break. He inhaled his burger in three seconds flat and vanished somewhere inside the shop, doing God knows what.
I go in search for him much later, with a customer who’s looking for adult coloring books. That’s in Jet’s section of the shop. Funny how Donna and I immediately gave that section to him without even knowing he’s an artist.
I find him talking into his phone, a weird expression on his face. He’s tapping his hand on his thigh, a bit too fast, his breathing kind of ragged.
We’re not supposed to receive phone calls during work, and he knows it, but he looks so pale and rattled I say nothing and take the customer to the art shelves myself, showing her our latest arrivals and our bestsellers, like Magical Jungle and Calm the Fuck Down.
That’s what I need today. Maybe I should get one for myself.
“You call me,” I hear him say as I explain to the customer she can also order books we don’t have in stock and that they’ll be here in a matter of days. “Call me if that happens again, you hear me, mate?”