Shivers of rage shot down the back of my neck and my fist balled.Nobodymade accusations like that around here. Nobody dared.
“You’ve got some nerve,” I said through clenched teeth. “Where are you even getting these crazy ideas?”
“How about the restaurant when I saw you talking to Jess on your way out?”
“Oh, for crying out loud. Now I can’t even talk to someone when I’m passing them?”
“It’s thewayyou were talking. You looked like you would have kissed her right there if I hadn’t been watching. And what about volunteering at White Pines, conveniently at the same times she is?”
“I don’t control her schedule. I didn’t even know she was coming.”
“Oh! Then it’s just a coincidence. Sorry, I wasn’t born yesterday. I trusted you, Dusty, and you went behind my back!”
I lunged across the room, my fist cocked and my dander up, but I checked myself just before grabbing him by the collar and throwing a punch that would have left him counting his teeth. Austen flinched, his eyes wide, but he didn’t back down.
“How dare you?” I hissed. “You barge into my office and throw down like this, you’d better have something better than your own insecurities to back it up!”
Austen’s pupils were dilated, his breathing unsteady, but to his credit, he didn’t cower. Nor did he provoke me. Slowly, I lowered my fist.
“You know, I thought you were different. I told you that before, how I was amazed that you would bend over backward to help me out. I said how strange it felt because everyone else I’d known would use the opportunity to take advantage of me. And you say that’s not what you’re doing? Sure doesn’t look that way from where I sit.”
“Then you’re hopeless, and you’ll never understand what it is to be a neighbor in these parts. I gave my word, and Ineverbreak it.”
His jaw muscles trembled, and he twisted his mouth into a seething scowl. “Then you tell me, Dusty. What am I supposed to think when I watch you watching Jess, and I see the look of a starving man? What am I supposed to think when I remember everything you said about who she is and what she wants? You’ve spent years watching her, haven’t you?”
I stepped back and spun my chair around to drop into it spraddle-legged. I leaned over the back of it and scrubbed my face as my blood cooled to a normal temperature. “I’ve known her since we were kids. If anything could have ever happened between Jess and me, it would have already happened.”
“Things change.”
“You’re right. They do. She’s dating you, and that’s that.”
“‘That’s that,’ huh? Spoken like a man who has given up? Or just wants me to think he has.”
I leveled a heavy, exhausted stare at him. “Jealousy isn’t a good look, Conrad. Especially not on the one who came out on top. I told you before I’d help you, and I’ve done nothing against you. My personal feelings don’t matter. I gave my word.”
He crossed his arms and shot one eyebrow up as he stuck his tongue in his cheek. “I’ll be coming to that work party tomorrow.”
I shrugged. “I’m sure they could use you.”
Austen snorted. “You mean to tell me you weren’t planning to use it as a chance to get close to her?”
“Intentionally? Never, not in that way. And it wouldn’t do me any good even if I did try because she doesn’t see me like that. I’ve known her for too long, and it will never be any different.”
“Really. You, the guy who’s so amazing at working with kids, according to her?”
I blinked. “She said that?”
“Sounds to me like you did find a way to get her to see you differently, huh?”
“Look, none of that was my idea. It just happened because Morgan was even more short-handed than I realized.”
Austen narrowed his eyes and frowned. “Okay. You say you didn’t plan any of that, and you’d never go behind my back. Prove it. Don’t show up tomorrow.”
My hackles went up, and I inhaled sharply. I’ll never know how, but I managed to count to three before slowly letting it out, and then I answered with a deadly growl. “I gave Morgan and Cody my word. You don’t just bail on a work party. They’ve already assigned the jobs and bought the materials. Around here, you show up and help someone if you can.”
“I’ll do your jobs, then. You say you don’t want to step on my toes? Don’t.”
I pushed out of my chair, my lip curling as I stalked toward him. Austen couldn’t know how close he was to a good old-fashioned Walker Roundhouse punch to the jaw.