Why did that bother him so damn much?
* * * *
Her muscles protesting every movement, Josie hefted one side of the new mattress up into the air so she and Evan could set it down directly on top of the box spring. They’d finished painting the walls and then assembled the new bedframe, a simple Shaker style stained a medium walnut. Evan had also purchased a large matching dresser and two side tables, and Josie had chosen a few throw rugs to add warmth to the newly refinished hardwood floors. All in all, the room was really coming together.
“I could have done this. You need to be careful or you’re going to hurt yourself,” Evan warned, shifting the mattress an inch to the left.
Josie reached for the freshly laundered fitted sheet, purchased brand new during their trip into Ocala earlier in the week. “You’re sweet to be worried but I’m fine. It wasn’t that heavy.”
His eyebrow arched and an evil smile spread across his handsome face. “You think I’m worried about you? I’m just concerned about who would help me out around here if something happened to you. I’d have to do all this work myself.”
Grabbing one of the matching throw pillows, she lobbed it in the air so it bounced off his head. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
Evan snorted and began to tuck his side of the sheets under the mattress. “You can pretend but I’m seriously worried. I’m thinking I might have to invest in getting you a weekly massage or something. Maybe even wrap you in bubble wrap when you’re off duty. You’ve made yourself indispensable.”
She couldn’t help the warmth she felt at being so appreciated but it was tempered with the knowledge that she couldn’t stay long. At any given time, she might have to grab her meager belongings and get out of town. Each night in her lonely hotel room, she watched the news and scoured the papers for any mention of herself, but so far she’d been lucky. She hoped that luck would hold out at least until she’d earned enough money to move on.
“I think I’ll turn down the bubble wrap but say yes to the massage. I will admit my muscles and joints are not happy about this new level of activity. On the bright side, my clothes are beginning to get loose. I think I’ve lost a few pounds, probably from sweating.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks as his appreciative gaze swept her head to toe. She’d never been skinny and she wasn’t fat either, but rarely had she been on the receiving end of such male enjoyment.
She could easily get used to it.
Evan had been the perfect gentleman but he also had been warm, friendly, and appreciative. He was the nicest man she’d met in a very long time and it sucked that she had to keep her distance from him. In another time and place they might have become close friends. Maybe even more.
“You don’t really have any weight to lose so I’ll make sure you eat a big piece of pie or cake tonight for dessert.”
She tossed the comforter on the bed and began to spread it over the sheets. “I’m not missing any meals, believe me. I’ve never been much for dieting or working out. I’ll probably die young choking on a piece of chocolate while I trip over a pillow and blanket.”
Or by those killers that are after me. Stop! Don’t think about that.
“I’ve seen worse ways to go.”
Both Evan and Josie were on all fours on the bed, pulling and tugging at the comforter to smooth out any wrinkles. She tucked the bottom corner down so it laid flat before reaching over the side to grab the bed pillows on the floor. When she looked up, Evan was right there just inches from her face, looking as surprised as she felt.
Their gazes locked and for a moment she was lost in his eyes, just the color of well-washed blue denim. Reminding herself to breathe, she exhaled slowly and sat back on her heels to put some distance between them. She couldn’t allow her attraction to Evan to override her common sense. Any relationship she might start wasn’t going anywhere. There was a good chance she’d end up dead or in prison and she wouldn’t drag someone as nice as he was into the mess that had become her life.
“So,” she said, the words sounding way too loud in the silence. “Pillows.”
She held up the king-sized pillows as if they were trophies. Sometimes, especially when she was nervous, she couldn’t help but act like a total dork.
If he thought she was a big goof he was too polite to say so. He reached for the pillows and tucked them at the headboard. “Thank you. I think the bed looks good. You were right, this all goes together.”
Her palms were sweaty and a flush of warmth crawled up her chest, making her shift uncomfortably on the mattress.
Shit, she was on a bed with a gorgeous guy. That hadn’t happened in a while.
Move. For the love of God, move.
Jumping up and almost tripping over her own feet, she tried to act casual as if she was simply perusing the room. “It looks good. Really good. Yep, it looks good.”
I am such an idiot.
She wasn’t talking about him, or at least she didn’t want him to think she was talking about him. But he did look good. Very good. It took every ounce of strength she had not to reach out and brush that growth of whiskers on his square jaw or let her fingers trail down the muscles of his arm.
Stop drooling, Josie. It’s not polite to pant.
Evan was smiling at her, still kneeling on the bed looking rumpled and sexy. It wasn’t fair that men looked good sweaty and dirty and then add in the bed… Dammit, why didn’t he get off?
No! No getting off! Remove any images of employer getting off from brain. Dammit, I need a lobotomy and big glass of wine.
“I’d say everything looks good,” Evan agreed, finally climbing off the bed much to her relief. “Thanks to you, of course. What do you say I buy you dinner? We’ll celebrate finishing a room.”
Under any other circumstances, she’d have argued but getting out of this bedroom was priority number one. She heard herself quickly agreeing as she backed out into the hallway.
She was pretty sure Evan was laughing at her when she collided with the door frame, banging her head and almost seeing stars. She laughed it off and bolted down the stairs and into the kitchen where the cooler resided.
She needed a cool drink and ice. Lots and lots of ice.
Chapter Six
After he’d dropped Lisa at her motel later that evening, Evan twisted the top off of a beer and stretched out on his new bed. There was still the faint aroma of new paint in the air but it had lessened quite a bit since the afternoon, thanks to the open windows and a few strategically placed fans. He had a window air conditioner in the bedroom but tonight he’d sleep with the windows open to get rid of the last of the fumes.
He stared at the blank wall and kicked off his shoes, his eyelids already heavy. He was dog-tired after all the work they’d done today and Lisa hadn’t complained at all. He was working her like a rented mule and he could tell that her muscles ached with practically every movement, but not one negative word passed her lips.
And pretty lips they were, too.
His employee was quite attractive and he would have had to be blind not to notice. They’d had a moment on this bed earlier today and it had clearly freaked her out. She’d scrambled off the bed as if it was on fire, almost bolting for the door she was in such a hurry to put some distance between them. He, on the other hand, had enjoyed their nearness very much. She looked cute, she smelled good, and she made him laugh. It was a trifecta of attractiveness and he wasn’t immune, but it didn’t look like she was feeling positive about anything happening between them.
Evan was a typical man when it came to relationships, or at least he’d always thought he was. He liked women. He liked sex. So when the two of them combined he was a pretty happy guy. He wouldn’t mind if something more intimate than friendship began between him and Lisa but he wasn’t looking for a commitment. He didn’t even know where he’d be or what he’d be doing six months from now, so it wasn’t a good idea to start something up and Lisa was in the same boat.
It had cr
ossed his mind a few times this week that their friendship was ripe to take the next step but he hadn’t pushed the subject, not even when they’d ended up inches from one another on this mattress. He didn’t want her to think she had to…put out…to keep her job. Not in the least. His desire to spend more time with her was separate from the work. If she said no, he’d respect it.
But he’d be disappointed. He liked her more than any woman in recent memory, but then part of the reason he liked her was because she was so intelligent. He didn’t have a job and nothing on the horizon. He was aimless and the only reason he got up in the morning was to clean out this piece of crap house for his family. That wasn’t exactly a recipe for making a woman fall for him. If she had a lick of common sense, she’d stay three feet away at all times.
His chirping phone on the bedside table pulled him from his thoughts. Reaching for it, he checked the screen, hoping it wasn’t his former partner Marisa. She’d been bombarding him with calls and texts lately trying to convince him to return to the Marshal Service, despite the fact that he’d be on desk duty.
Seth Reilly. Old Army buddy and sheriff of Harper, Montana.
“Hey Seth. Haven’t heard from you in awhile. How’s Presley and the kids?”
When Evan had been a marshal he’d hidden Presley in witness protection with Seth. Now they were happily married with two kids and their lives were complete chaos.
“They’re good. Bennett is doing T-ball this summer and it’s a hoot to watch. Presley even talked me into volunteering to help coach the team. Imagine twenty little kids with the attention span of a gnat. One needs to go potty, one wants to know if he can have a snack, and another just wants his mommy. I’m outnumbered and overwhelmed.”
Seth wasn’t fooling anybody.
“You love it,” Evan pronounced. “Don’t even try and deny it. So to what do I owe the honor of a call? Is anything wrong?”
“No, as I said, everything is good. All good.” Seth sighed heavily and Evan now had an inkling of what this was all about. “Marisa called me.”
It was Evan’s turn to sigh. “I had a feeling about that. Let me guess…she wants you to convince me to go back to the Marshal Service. She wants you to tell me being tied to a desk is better than cleaning up an old house and bumming around Florida. Did I miss anything?”
Seth whistled in response. “Only the part about how you weren’t very bright to quit your job without a plan. Can I assume that this is not the first you’ve heard from her? Has she roped in other unsuspecting friends to do her dirty work?”
This must be one of her newer ideas. She was getting desperate.
“You’re the first, actually, but I doubt you’ll be the last. I’m sure by now she’s called any and all of my friends and family.”
“She’s worried about you,” Seth said after a small silence.
It was sweet but Evan was fine. Confused and unsure, but fine. He simply needed time to figure things out.
“Are you worried about me?”
There was one thing Evan knew for sure and it was that Seth Reilly was as honest as the day was long. He’d tell the truth no matter what.
“A little.” Seth groaned and Evan hated himself for putting one of his best friends on the spot. Men didn’t like to talk about their damn feelings and now Seth had to do just that. “Dammit, it’s just that you’ve always seemed to know what you were doing and where you were going. Now you’re just drifting and it has us a little spooked. It’s not like you.”
Evan wasn’t sure he could explain this but he’d try. “That’s the whole point, my friend. All my life I’ve done what was expected of me, what was planned. I went into the Army Rangers and then into law enforcement. I worked hard, dedicated myself and climbed the ladder. Mom and Dad beamed with pride. Then I got shot that day and everything changed. Suddenly I wasn’t on the fast track to anywhere but a desk job managing ambitious assholes that were just like me. I couldn’t face it, so I retired and took the sheriff’s job.”
“You hated it,” Seth stated flatly before Evan could continue. “Don’t deny it because we could all see it. I don’t remember the last time I saw you really happy.”
Words hadn’t been invented yet that could describe the misery Evan had been in while doing that job. It had been a clusterfuck from beginning to end and the day he’d quit had been the happiest in memory. But he did feel sorry for whatever bastard they’d roped into doing it after he left.
“I did hate it,” Evan conceded, not wanting to admit to his friend how bad things had become. “That town had many problems and I’m glad to see the back of it, frankly. But I didn’t want to just jump back into something blindly. For the first time in my damn life, I’m actually taking time for me and figuring out what I want to do. Not what my parents want me to do or what my superiors want me to do, or even what my friends and co-workers think I should do. This is about me. The fact is, even when I was happy as a marshal I wasn’t really happy.”
“Are you happy now?”
Evan didn’t answer the question immediately, wanting to take his time and think about the truth of the answer.
“I’m happier than I’ve been in over a year and I think I could be even happier in the future. For the first time in a long time I have the hope of being truly happy. I don’t think you know how huge that is, Seth. Shit, you’re always happy now.”
His friend chuckled before lowering his voice, apparently not wanting anyone to overhear. “I’m not happy every minute of the day. Presley made spaghetti again tonight for dinner. That’s the fourth time in two weeks. It tasted funny. Do you think she’s trying to poison me?”
Presley would do many things but poisoning Seth wasn’t one of them. “No, I don’t. I think she’s probably overwhelmed by having two kids underfoot all day and then her third grown kid comes home asking what she’s made for dinner. Order a pizza, bro, and give her the night off.”
A string of choked coughs came through the phone that might have been laughter as well. “You’ve got a point. She is busy and I probably need to be more sensitive to how hard she works. She even helps out at the station once in awhile when I’m between office help.”
Seth went through secretaries like a hot knife through butter. Some didn’t even last the entire day, disappearing at lunchtime, never to be heard from again.
“See? She’s probably exhausted and is tired of figuring out what’s for dinner. I remember my mom telling my dad the same thing. She didn’t mind cooking but deciding what to fix was always a quandary.”
“I appreciate the advice, although you’ve never been married so I’m not sure if I should be listening. Let’s get back to you. How are things at the house? Have you made any progress?”
“I have, actually. We finished the bedroom today. It turned out amazing.”
“We? Did you finally hire someone to do that dirty, thankless job?”
An image of Lisa flashed through Evan’s mind and he found himself smiling for no particular reason.
“I did. She’s a hard worker and doing a great job. I wish I could clone her a dozen times over.”
“She? You’re making some poor girl shovel out that mess? You’re a real hard ass, Davis. Does she get lunch and coffee breaks? A day off? I saw on the news that it’s ninety degrees down there with some kind of inhuman humidity that would turn most people into a sponge. That can’t be healthy.”
Wincing, Evan realized that Seth had a point. He’d worked Lisa six days in a row and she deserved a day off, time to rest. She probably hadn’t complained because she obviously needed the money, but that didn’t mean he could work her into an early grave.
“I’m giving her the day off tomorrow and I do give her breaks and lunches. I’m lucky to have her, honestly. She’s smart and funny and she really knows how to pick out paint.”
Shit, now he was babbling like a fucking idiot. He’d said too much and Seth would pounce on this like a mouse on Swiss cheese.
“Is she now?” Seth drawl
ed, amusement in his tone. “She sounds like a regular paragon of virtue. Tell me, Davis, what does she look like? I bet she’s good-looking too.”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“He’s pleading the fifth, folks.” The sounds of laughter filled Evan’s ear. “That is an answer, asshole. She must be something else. I think we have our answer as to why you’re hanging out down there. It’s a woman.”
Evan sat up in the bed, suddenly irritated with his old friend. He didn’t need this bullshit in his already confused existence. “It’s not a woman. I’m taking some time. I told you.”
“I bet she–”
“Leave it,” Evan growled, putting an end to the subject. “Lisa is off-limits as a topic. Pick something else.”
He’d never had a problem talking about women with Seth before, so he wasn’t sure what this rush of protectiveness was all about. He’d only known Lisa for a week but he wasn’t ready to share her with anyone. He wanted her all to himself, if only for a little while longer.
“I don’t have anything else. Just keep in touch and don’t be a damn stranger, okay? When you get that house cleaned out why don’t you plan a visit up here? I’ll get all the guys together and we’ll have a cookout or something. Hell, I think I can even get Jason, Jared, and Logan here.”
He did miss his friends, even though he didn’t miss the job. “Sounds like a plan. Listen, I didn’t mean to—”
“Shut the hell up,” Seth interrupted with a laugh. “You don’t owe me any apologies. I was sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. End of story.”
“I appreciate the call though. If Marisa contacts you again tell her to deal directly with me. I’m more than a little pissed off that she went behind my back. She knows how I feel about this.”
“If I hear from her I’ll tell her, but between you and me I’m hoping I’m off her call sheet, if you know what I mean. I’ve got to get going. Presley’s trying to bathe the kids and Bennett has taken to streaking around the house naked and soapy. I better give her a hand.”
Justice Reborn (Cowboy Justice Association Book 8) Page 4
