A tall and well-made male body leaned against the counter on Lore’s right. His brown eyes sparkled in the usual mirth she was lucky enough to see every Sunday, only this time they were directed at the scrunchie-wearing postal worker. “Well then, tell me what happened to the three-hundred-dollar headphones I mailed my cousin last Christmas? Those sure as hell didn’t get where they were going.”
“Kieran!” Lore smiled, placing her hand on his arm in equal parts thanks and warning. A second body, this one larger with dark skin and eyes a contrasting hazel, leveled their gaze on the postal worker. “Yeah, Kier, those were some nice headphones, but I’m sure if you were helping us then, ma’am, you could have located them.”
“Nolan.” What were they playing at?
“Absolutely, sir,” Nineties-hair Postal-service Lady said with a fierce nod. Thank goodness there weren’t any people behind Lore in line. There would have been a riot by that point. “I take pride in my job, and I know if I send this out, it’s either gonna get lost or it will be sent back. I’ve been living here for a few years now”—as opposed to Lore residing there her entire life, but of course this woman knew the area better—“and I know there is no such storage facility in the zip code she is sending this package to. There is nothin’ out there.”
“It’s all that’s out there,” Lore muttered.
“Well, then it’s no longer your responsibility,” Nolan spoke over Lore, leaning in toward the postal worker, his perfectly white teeth sparkling in a gleaming smile. “You have illustrated the dangers of sending this package to this particular zip code quite clearly. She understands, even if she is ignoring your warning.”
“Mail at your own risk, Lore,” Kieran chided, looking appropriately like a parent scolding a child.
The woman wasn’t satisfied. “Yeah, but she’ll come back and be all annoyed—”
“I assure you, if that happens, we will rein the little hussy back and even bring her in ourselves.” Kieran dropped his voice conspiratorially. “Just so you can say ‘I told you so.’”
The woman glanced at Lore, considering the tempting offer before switching back to the charming men. “You two will be there?”
“Absolutely,” Nolan agreed.
“Just to laugh in her face.” Kieran was having too much fun with this.
“Hmm, it’s tempting…”
“Is this legal?” Lore asked, not able to keep quiet any longer. Kieran pinched her side in reprimand beneath the counter.
“As long as you two come back, I guess I can handle it.” She slapped her hands on the counter, decision to accommodate Lore made. “All right, gimme the package.”
“Thank you,” Lore said through gritted teeth.
“You’re welcome.”
* * * *
“To laugh in her face?” Lore pinched Kieran on the arm once outside the post office and out of sight of the devilish postal worker of the neon-green scrunchie.
“Don’t fuck with post office workers, Lore,” Kieran warned, grabbing her hand before she could pull away. “Seriously, if you listen to nothing else I tell you ever again, just listen to this. Do not fuck with the post office. They will eat you alive.”
“And you’ll never get your mail again,” Nolan added helpfully.
“Or it will be in really shitty places.”
“Like on top of the roof of your house.”
“Or in a pile of dog crap.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a bad one.”
Lore couldn’t help but laugh at their back-and-forth banter. “Okay, now I get it.”
“Get what?” Nolan asked.
“How you two are together.” She pointed rapidly from one to the other. “How you fit. You’re both complete and total geeks.”
“What? That is just—I prefer the term overachieving enthusiast,” Kieran stuttered, placing his palm on his chest.
“Call it whatever you like; you’re both still geeks.” Geeks who made her smile and laugh as they made fools of themselves to help her out.
“And what are you?” Nolan asked, his voice too low and sultry to hint of anything good.
“Normal, average, boring woman.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” Kieran chided, this time his scolding more playful than she was prepared to handle. The reality of the two men together and staring at her in a way she’d only fantasized about was a tad overwhelming. “I can see past your boring, khaki-wearing facade.”
“Do I even dare to ask what you see?”
Nolan kissed her hand, his full lips like silky pillows on her skin. “Come to dinner with us, and I’ll tell you.”
It was too much; they were too much. Seeing them together and wanting them at the same time with the new voracity she had come to associate with these men alone, wouldn’t allow her to remain in control of her emotions. She would let go around them, become the person she feared becoming. “Sorry, but I must now go and harass a woman at the DMV. Any advice?”
“Don’t—”
“Don’t fuck with the DMV?” She cut Kieran off, his smile lighting an unfamiliar flame inside her belly. “Sage advice.”
“Take it to heart.”
“The DMV won’t take all day. Just come to dinner with us,” Nolan reasoned, ever the resourceful lawyer. “What are you so afraid of? Is it embarrassing for you to be seen with two guys who are dating each other?”
“What?” she asked, reasonably insulted at the stupid question. “How can you even ask me that?”
Kieran entwined his fingers with Nolan’s. “You’d be surprised how many people can pretend our relationship doesn’t bother them when just faced with one-half of the whole picture.”
“That’s disgusting; no, of course it doesn’t bother me. In fact it—”
“It what?” Nolan asked as she caught herself. “No, no, you can’t back out now. It what?”
She glared at him for a second before conceding his point. To deny them what she had originally intended would express fear. She couldn’t afford that weakness, even if revealing this fact betrayed another type of weakness entirely. “I actually find seeing two men together quite stimulating.” She didn’t give them the chance to respond, just turned around and dashed off to her car, yelling over her shoulder, “Thanks for your help. Good-bye.”
“So you’re afraid of us overstimulating you?” Kieran shouted after her. She could hear the damn smile in his voice. “Is that it?”
“Good-bye, Kieran. Good-bye, Nolan.”
“Until next time, beautiful.” Nolan calling her beautiful would circle her mind through her entire DMV appointment.
* * * *
“Cocksucker!” Nolan chucked the useless wrench onto the dusty blacktop, the metal tool clanging and clattering as it skidded along the concrete. He’d been working the damn nuts on the tires for so long his hand had gone numb. They’d have to call a tow.
“In this situation it would be more appropriate to say nut sucker.”
Nolan looked up at Kieran from his crouched position with a scowl. “You’re not helping.”
Kieran held up his hands in innocence, his ass firmly planted atop the trunk and out of Nolan’s way. However, if he had successfully managed to remove the fucking tire, then the position would have ended up being a problem. It was like Kieran knew he wouldn’t be able to fix it on his own. “You’re the one who claims to know a thing or two about cars.”
“I never said that.” Nolan grunted, his knees aching as he stood to lean against the car.
“Really?” Kieran crossed his arms, his eyebrow arched in a look that usually meant trouble for the unfortunate soul it was directed at. “Because I could have sworn it was implied in the ’let me handle this’ you imparted before ordering me to stay in the vehicle.”
Okay, maybe Nolan deserved the eyebrow and the attitude, but he had said that with good reason. “Do you know anything about changing a flat tire?”
“No.” Kieran shrugged as if it didn’t matter.
“
Then why are you complaining?”
“Just making a point.”
Nolan tried, but Kieran’s smile was too enigmatic to stay mad at. He let himself laugh at the preposterous yet charming Kieran logic and inserted his body between his boyfriend’s legs, his hands framing Kieran’s thighs. “You’re lucky you look sexy as fuck sitting on top of my car, or I swear I would beat the shit out of you.” Nolan kissed Kieran quickly before turning back to the problematic tire with a grunt. “God made you hot for survival.”
“Amen, my brother.” Kieran nodded sympathetically.
“Shut up.”
Nolan slumped on the ground again. His ass hit the hot-as-hell pavement; then he rested his elbows on his knees. It was just their luck they’d get a flat tire on the most barren road in town on the hottest day of summer…and the air-conditioning in the car wasn’t working. Of course. Nolan sighed, admitting defeat and pulling his cell phone out to call a tow. He pointedly avoided Kieran’s lack of an I-told-you-so look. The fact that Kieran was so understanding when all Nolan wanted was a fight was sort of irritating…and wonderful and shit. Man, did the guy have any flaws?
Before he could find the number for the roadside assistance in his cell contacts, a small black car that had been approaching for the last few minutes pulled up behind them. The lights flashed in acknowledgment of their predicament for a second before the engine was killed and the driver’s side door opened.
The first thing he saw was the long, black hair nearly free of its usual tight binding. All that held the silky mass together was a thin band at the base of her neck, but the rest of the long strands were flying free, unrestrained by their normal braid or bun. Her mouth was quirked in a small smile as she rested her arm atop the car door, and her blue eyes, once she’d removed the large sunglasses, were glinting in mirth as they took in Kieran on top of the car and Nolan slumped on the ground next to it. And it happened again. That tight signal in the center of his chest, the hard-to-breathe, rumbling-stomach, squinty-eyed feeling. As if the woman were too bright to look at. That was what Nolan felt as she walked toward them, hands on her hips and hair streaming around her face in the hot wind. He’d only ever felt it with one person before and still felt it every day when he looked at Kieran.
Nolan looked at Kieran, needing to see if his ever-perceptive lover had noticed what had probably been a slack-jawed stare. To Nolan’s surprise and growing delight, what he saw was an equally doofy, slack-jawed smile. Seemed as though he wasn’t the only man stranded on the side of the road enduring more than just an innocent crush for their mysterious Lore.
The woman didn’t say anything for the first moment. She took in their precarious position, her gaze moving from the blown tire to the spare laying on the pavement, waiting to be installed. Her lips pursed, and she walked back to her car. Nolan nearly cried out for her to come back when she opened her trunk and removed the one thing Nolan had been missing from his tools and desperately needed when changing a tire. He could have sobbed in relief.
Lore held up the jack with a know-it-all smirk that Nolan could have fallen in love with on the spot. “Need some help?”
“A knight to rescue us damsels in distress,” Kieran said, hopping off the car to greet her. “Where are you coming from, sexy?”
She set the jack on the ground. “Just driving around looking for some damsels to save.”
“Ah, normal Thursday evening activity,” Nolan said sarcastically, apprehensive about her car skills but worried a woman would end up out-tire-changing him, and still desperate enough to beg her for help. It was a complicated mix of emotions.
“C’mon.” Lore nudged his arm with her elbow and winked. “I’ve changed a tire or two in my time.”
“Is that so?” Nolan asked, leaning back on his arms before remembering the pavement was burning hot and removing them, a wince making his face scrunch up. “Please, impress me.”
Her eyes lit up, yet her kind and understanding facial expression remained unchanged. Lord, he wanted to see what she looked like when she let go. The woman was ensconced in layer after layer of self-control. “Challenge accepted, Mr. Roscoe.”
It was with great humility and thanks that Nolan crouched next to Lore and acted as her assistant, handing her tools when she asked for them, and watching in wonder as she deftly switched out the blown tire for the spare. She did it all in under fifteen minutes. The woman should have been on a professional pit crew.
Nolan also couldn’t help but notice that Kieran never offered to help, not once. Nolan did however catch on to Kieran’s purpose as he looked over his shoulder and spotted Kieran staring with smug satisfaction at not only his bent-over ass, but Lore’s. Well, Nolan couldn’t blame him. He probably would have done the same thing.
“Am I victorious?” Lore asked, wiping her dirty hands on her jean shorts and standing.
“Well, the tire is changed, so I would assume so.”
“No, I mean did I impress you?”
“Yes,” Nolan said slowly, scratching his stubble. “But you’ve also landed yourself in a bit of trouble.”
She frowned, betraying her disappointment in his lack of praise. It was sort of adorable. “Why is that?”
“Because, I’m more than impressed. I’m intrigued.”
“Seconded,” Kieran finally chimed in, sidling up alongside her and throwing his arm over her petite shoulders. “Let us cook you dinner as a thanks. Maybe you both can change all the tires on my car as well. I’ll just stand back and watch.”
She swallowed heavily, then smiled politely, skirting out from under Kieran’s arm before backing away toward her car. She was nervous. Was it Kieran’s touch that made her nervous or his proximity? “Thank you, but I can’t. I’m glad I could help. Don’t drive around on the spare for too long.”
“Yes, I’m not completely helpless when it comes to cars.” Nolan rolled his eyes at the crack, picking up her jack, then handing it back to her. She raised her eyebrows and stared at the thing pointedly. He ignored it. “You sure you don’t want to get some chow with us? There’s an insanely good food truck nearby.”
“Sounds tempting, but I really can’t.” She placed the jack in the trunk before shutting it, then settled herself behind the wheel. “Rescuing you damsels has made me late for an appointment.”
“Well, we hope to run into you again soon,” Kieran said, wrapping his arm around Nolan’s waist and tugging him back to their own car. She waved at them with a small smile and pulled back onto the road.
“Why didn’t you try to get her to come over?” Nolan asked Kieran, slipping his own arm around Kieran’s waist. “I know you were looking at her ass.”
“She’s the type of girl who avoids relationships, friendly or otherwise. You can’t just force a dinner—and what I’m assuming is floating around your horny head—on the woman without getting to know her better. Oh, and you wish you had my view instead of getting schooled in tire changing.”
“I am not embarrassed that a woman knows more about cars than I do. I’m embarrassed that Lore saw me looking—”
“Like an ignorant, useless excuse for a man? You’re pathetic.”
“You’re an ass.”
“I love you.”
“Love you too.”
* * * *
Woman, you need to put your human disguise on and come out to celebr8 w/ us!
Kathy was far too persistent in her endeavor to include Lore in all the things she most decidedly did not want to be included in. Was it so hard for this woman to accept that three separate celebrations regarding the lawsuit victory were unnecessary? Really, Lore understood why Kathy felt the need to spread the joy she felt. Kathy was, after all, one of the main reasons Lore had set out on her mission to catch the asshole red-handed in the first place.
But now that it was over, she wanted to forget the whole ordeal had ever happened. The conniving and planning just reminded Lore of what she had the potential to become. She was happy for Kathy’s newfound freedom; she r
eally was. But Lore thought it best she leave the celebrating to those who didn’t need to put a disguise on in order to act human, as Kathy seemed to think Lore was required to do in order to merely mingle.
She switched the phone to Do Not Disturb and popped it back into her purse, turning to the list she’d begun to write. She loved lists almost as much as she loved spreadsheets. Creating and checking off the items one by one was the most satisfying feeling.
“Well, hello there, pretty lady.” The deep tonality of Kieran’s voice made her heart skip a beat.
She hadn’t seen Kieran and Nolan since the flat-tire incident the week before, something she had taken an immense amount of pleasure in, and of course they looked just as handsome as they had sitting on top of a car or sweaty and filthy on the side of the road. She had especially liked the filthy part.
“Mr. McDowell, Mr. Roscoe. How are you both?”
“Lore, if you don’t drop that formal shit, we’re gonna have a problem in our next class,” Kieran joked, acknowledging her use of the formal as her own particular brand of sarcasm.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help it.” She gestured to the seats across from her. “Would you like to join me? I promise to try and not be so formal.”
“You sure?” Kieran narrowed his eyes as he and his boyfriend sat. “I realize we can only ask so much of you before you combust.”
“You know, you’re not the first person to think me capable of spontaneous combustion.”
“Who was the first?” Nolan asked, his arresting eyes focusing on her, eyes that had been turned down in embarrassment as she had shown him step-by-step how to change a tire the week before. It had been adorable and somewhat enlightening, seeing him in a guise other than his confident-lawyer role.
“College roommate.”
“Wow, I can’t picture you all wide-eyed and eager to learn in college,” Kieran remarked, crossing his legs and arms, his head tilted as he stared at her as if he were trying to construct the image of her younger self right there. “Were you all wild and crazy? Did you stay in a dorm?”
“Yes, I lived in the dorms. My mother thought it would be good for me, spending time with peers and attempting to be social.” And it didn’t hurt that she would no longer have to look at her daughter—a constant reminder of her husband. “And, no, I was not wild and crazy…at first.” Lore would never know what made her admit to that little fact. But something about seeing the men together once more put her at ease while simultaneously keeping her on her toes. She hadn’t realized it until the moment they sat down and trained their eyes on her, but Lore was lonely. She wanted to have a conversation. And she wanted to have one with them more than anybody else. Seeing them randomly the past couple of weeks and getting only teases of interaction with them had left her wanting more.
A New Resolution Page 5
