“What am I, a child?” Zachary shook his head. “Dick pic. I’m insulted.”
“Yeah, you’re a real gentleman, Z,” Theo said.
“I didn’t say I was a gentleman.”
“All of you.” I pointed to each of them. “Stay away from her.”
Theo’s brow furrowed. “What did I do?”
I let out a frustrated breath. Apparently going out for a beer had been a bad idea.
“No one’s trying anything with her,” Luke said. “It’s just fun to mess with you.”
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t try anything with her,” Zachary said. “Why is the new girl off limits?”
I leveled him with a glare.
“Oh, she’s your girl.”
“She’s not my girl.”
“So she’s your girl but she doesn’t know it yet.” Zachary grinned again. “Nice.”
“She’s. Not. My. Girl.”
“Apparently he doesn’t know it yet,” Theo said.
“She’s—”
“Why not?” Luke asked before I could finish. “I’m not saying you should marry her or something, but she obviously likes you for some reason. Why not take her out?”
“She likes him?” Zachary’s voice was full of skepticism. “Then yeah, dude, you should definitely take her out. You don’t know when you’ll get a chance like that again.”
“He does have a point,” Theo said.
“Why are we talking about this?” I asked. “You guys are as bad as Aunt Louise.”
“Hey.” Zachary held up a hand. “Aunt Louise is a Tilikum treasure. Don’t you talk bad about her.”
“You just like her because she bakes you cookies and never tries to set you up with random girls,” Theo said.
“Aunt Louise tries to set you up with random girls?”
“Yeah, all the time,” Theo said.
Zachary turned to Luke. “You too?”
“Yeah, but it’s never a good thing,” Luke said. “Trust me.”
“Why doesn’t she try to set me up with random girls? I feel so left out.”
“Don’t,” I said. “Luke’s right, it’s never good.”
“She wore me down a few months ago and I agreed to a date with someone she claimed was perfect for me,” Theo said. “Turns out the girl was twenty and two years ago she was one of my students. Aunt Louise neglected to mention that. When I called her out, she claimed she thought the girl was older because she seemed mature. The whole thing was mortifying.”
Zachary winced. “Yeah, that’s a little much, even for me.”
“The last Aunt Louise date I went on turned out to be Jill,” Luke said.
“Your crazy ex-girlfriend, Jill?” Theo asked. “Damn.”
“Yeah. That went over well. Never again.”
“Okay, maybe I am lucky to only get cookies from Aunt Louise,” Zachary said. “The last thing I need is for someone to set me up with an ex-girlfriend.”
I sipped my beer while the conversation turned from Aunt Louise’s lack of matchmaking skills to Luke’s latest car restoration punctuated by commentary on the karaoke song choices. At least they weren’t talking about Audrey anymore.
Not that it kept her out of my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about that moment when I’d almost kissed her. She’d been right there, giving me every indication she wanted me to. Hand on my chest, chin lifted, lips parted. And I’d have been lying if I’d said I didn’t want it too.
So why hadn’t I done it? Was I really so convinced I was too much of a grumpy bastard to even date her?
That was a lie too.
Granted, I was too much of a grumpy bastard to date a sweet thing like her. That was true enough. But it wasn’t what was stopping me.
Temporary, she’d said. Tilikum was temporary.
Audrey wasn’t the first woman in my life to feel that way. And I wasn’t letting it happen again.
CHAPTER 18
Josiah
I held the door steady while Dad put in the first screw to attach the door to the hinges. Hanging doors always took longer than it should. There were small adjustments to make and nothing was ever truly square, especially in an older house.
We were going with two-panel shaker doors, painted white. Simple and clean. And they were a hell of a lot better than the cheap hollow core doors that had been in here when we’d bought it.
The house still looked empty and unfinished, but it was coming along.