What was it about this woman that made me feel such intense feelings?
“You look like you’re about to fall asleep,” she said after a while.
I smiled. “Maybe I am. Possibly, this could be what’s wrong with my other place. The bed. I’m used to sleeping on absolute shit. I’ve done nothing but toss and turn all night for months. I’ve tried two different beds. Multiple pillows. The couch. The hammock outside. But this? I think I could totally go to sleep right now.”
She said something that I didn’t quite catch, and for the first time in months, I was able to sleep the whole night through.
I woke up with my foreman poking me in the chest, and a concerned-looking Sunny looking on.
“When I told you that you needed to come down here, I kind of figured I’d get a call back,” my foreman quipped.
I sighed. “It was one of the owners. She was here checking out a few things. We sat here and talked. Then I lay down… and now I’m waking up.”
My foreman, Jackson, grinned. “So that text I got last night about surveillance? That’s what it was about?”
“That’s it,” I confirmed. “Get on that for me, will you? Show KD around when he gets here.”
I sat up stiffly, and remembered that just because I’d slept like a baby, didn’t mean that all of my aches and pains that came with the uncomfortable bed didn’t make themselves known.
“Ow, fuck,” I grumbled, rubbing my back.
Sunny laughed as he walked away. “Gettin’ old.”
“Fuckin’ there, no getting’ about it. I am old,” I added.
At least, I felt like it anyway.
CHAPTER 7
Gangsta AF. But I still need cuddles.
-T-shirt
ETIENNE
“Why do we always end up at this place?” Ellen mumbled as she walked to the bar counter and ordered herself a drink.
I ignored Ellen’s comment, and instead focused on the girl across the room that held my attention any time she was within a square mile of me.
She was wearing those goddamn boots again.
They were cowboy boots with bright-red sequins and glitter. Absolutely impractical, except she really knew how to work them.
They made her calves look fantastic, and the shorts.
Goddamn, her shorts were fuckin’ amazing. They did the best things for her ass.
And my god, what an ass she had.
Her tits? Nonexistent.
But her ass? That thing made up for her lack of boobs.
Not that I’d ever considered myself a tit man. Tits were tits.
It was always the ass for me.
And man, she knew how the hell to work that ass.
I had a feeling that her…
“Dude, wipe your chin.”
I looked over at Cassius.
“What?”
He pointed at his chin and grinned. “Right there. You have a little spot. Drool.”
I flipped him off, then went back to looking at Matilda.
“If you want her, just go get her,” KD suggested.
Like it was that easy.
I didn’t have the luxury of spare time right now. And generally, when you had a girl that you liked, and you were trying to tie her to you, you tried to spend some time with her.
The only time I had to spend with Matilda was at the jobsite when I was going over shit that needed going over. Then I was gone, leaving Ellen to handle all other business.
Seriously, the last thing I had was time.
Additionally, I was fairly sure that she’d shoot me down, point blank, if I tried to ask her out.
I’d gotten the feeling over the last week since I’d found her camping at the vet clinic that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me.
I’m not sure where she showered.
But what I did notice—after putting up all the cameras on every available square inch of the place—was that she wasn’t showering there.
Where she was going, I didn’t know. But I had a feeling that she was being safe about it.
“I can’t just go get her,” I grumbled. “She hates my guts.”
“You could always try,” Wake muttered. “What’s the worst that can happen? She tells you no?”
Well, when he put it like that…
“Well, you’re right,” I admitted. “But…”
I trailed off when I saw Ellen make her way back toward us.
It wouldn’t do for her to hear what we were talking about.
It was bad enough to hear it during the day. When I was trying to unwind after work…
“Okay, I’m back,” Ellen said as she set her beer down directly next to me. “Here’s the plan for tomorrow…”
I ignored her, instead focusing on the song that Matilda had chosen off the jukebox.
“Old Town Road” by Little Nas.
I snorted out a laugh and covered it by taking a sip of my beer.
“This is the bomb,” Ellen bobbed her head to the beat.
I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Matilda picked it.”
The words that were being formed on her lips died away and she scowled.
“I have to go,” Ellen mumbled. “Are we still on for early coffee in the morning? To talk about our plans?”