But my daydreams had been full of him.
I’d seen him since, too. Just a handful of times when I’d been in town visiting my parents. He always caught my eye, made my stomach tingle a little.
And now he’d seen me naked.
Great. I’m sure I’d looked positively alluring while I was falling on my face and flailing around in the bathtub, half drowning.
Awesome first impression, Audrey.
I sighed again and went back to the bathroom to clean up the mess and brush out my tangled hair. So much for a relaxing hot bath. Maybe next time I’d barricade the door to make sure no one came in. Max clearly wasn’t going to help in that department.
CHAPTER 8
Josiah
I stalked out of the house and back to my truck feeling like an idiot. Talk about awkward. I’d gone in full of righteous indignation at the apparent squatters in my house, only to find a naked girl in the bathroom.
A hot naked girl.
I adjusted myself in my jeans.
Dumbass. I should have known better than to barge in when I heard the water running. But it had pissed me off. There was some random asshole in my house—with a dog—and they were taking a bath?
Except it wasn’t a squatter and I’d looked like a jackass.
I got in my truck and dug out my phone to call Annika.
“Hey,” she answered. “I kind of have my hands full, but what’s up?”
“Did you rent the two-bedroom to someone?”
“I sure did.” Her voice was annoyingly cheerful. “Quick, right? Did you call to thank me? Because if you did, I don’t know why you sound angry.”
“Were you going to tell me the place was occupied?”
“Sorry, I just hadn’t yet. Wait, why?”
“I just went over there and barged in on some girl because I thought she was a squatter.”
My sister burst out laughing. I ground my teeth together in frustration.
“I’m sorry.” She took a gasping breath. “Oh my gosh, that’s not funny but I can’t stop laughing.”
“You’re right, it’s not funny. She was in the bath.”
That earned me a renewed bout of hysterical laughter.
“That poor girl. I really shouldn’t laugh. You must have scared the crap out of her.”
The image of her falling, face first, into the tub was burned into my memory. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry. She came out of nowhere asking to rent it and wanted it as soon as possible. I only gave her the keys a few hours ago and then I had to get home to the kids.”
“And you say I’m the one who lacks communication skills.”
“Well, you do. Did you apologize to Audrey?”
Somehow it didn’t surprise me that her name was Audrey. She’d looked like an Audrey. Not when she was falling into the bathtub. Then she’d just looked like a lot of smooth skin and a very nice ass. But when she’d come out afterwards.
In fact, she’d looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place her.
“You know, the tenant,” Annika said when I didn’t answer. “Her name is Audrey Young. She’s from Pinecrest.”
“Yes, I apologized.” I paused. Had I apologized? “Sort of.”
“You should probably go back over there and tell her you’re sorry. Just, you know, knock first like a normal person.”
“I’m not going back over there.”
She sighed. “Sure, leave it to me to do damage control.”
“You’re better at it than I am.”
“True. Although if you didn’t barge in on our tenants, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
“You say that as if I’ve done it before.”
“Haven’t you?”
“No.”
“Huh. Seems like something you’d do.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks.”
She laughed. “Okay, I gotta go. I’ll call Audrey tomorrow and make sure she knows we’re not crazy people who won’t respect her space.”
I grunted in acknowledgment.
“Bye, big brother.”
“Bye.”
I ended the call and tossed the phone on the other seat. Great way to end the week.
Oh well. She’d get over it.
She wasn’t my problem.
I started up my truck and drove home, and when I went to sleep later that night, I closed my eyes to visions of a hot brunette falling into a bathtub.
I was not going over there.
My attention kept wavering from the work I was supposed to be doing—pulling up a layer of ugly old linoleum from the kitchen floor—to the house next door.
She’d fallen pretty hard. Had she gotten hurt?
She had seemed okay afterward, but you didn’t always feel blunt trauma immediately. Adrenaline and everything. What if she’d hit her head? Had she woken up this morning?
Damn it. She wasn’t my problem.
Like the cabinets, the linoleum had been glued down with an obscene amount of adhesive. I was on my hands and knees with a crowbar, pulling up chunks of disintegrating particle board along with the flooring. Small chunks. Every time I thought I’d be able to peel back the linoleum, it would break off, bringing a piece of particle board with it.
This was going to take an eternity.
The only good news in this disaster was that the subfloor underneath it all still looked decent.
I didn’t know why whoever had done the work originally had such a hard-on for construction glue. Unfortunately for me, I was the guy who had to deal with it.
This was my problem. Not Audrey.
It was weird that I remembered her name. I generally wasn’t good with names. Like the latest girl Aunt Louise had tried to foist on me. No idea what her name was. Not that I cared. It was just odd that the name Audrey rang so clearly in my memory after only hearing it once or twice.
I ripped up another section, swearing under my breath when the particle board split. Complaining wasn’t going to help—I had to suck it up and get it done—but nothing was going to stop the litany of curse words coming out of my mouth.
Sweat beaded on my forehead and I lost track of time as I settled into a rhythm, ripping up the godforsaken floor piece by piece. It was slow and tedious work, but also oddly calming. My mind was clear, my arms and back flexing, my muscles hot and tense with effort.
After a while, I looked up. I’d made it about halfway across the length of the kitchen. Not bad. It looked like a bomb had gone off, with chunks of flooring scattered everywhere—not to mention all the dust—but I’d made good progress.
I decided to clear out the debris before I got to work on the rest. I loaded up an armful of linoleum and broken particle board and took it out to the dumpster.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a black and brown dog appeared. He ran a circle around me as I dropped my load on the ground, then stopped, looking up at me with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and his tail wagging so hard it made half his body wiggle.
He’d seemed similarly excited to see me last night, just before I’d walked in on his owner.
“Not much of a guard dog, are you?” I picked up a chunk of flooring and tossed it into the dumpster.
“Max!” Audrey came running after her dog, dressed in a tank top and a pair of cut-offs that showed off her legs.
Nice legs. Not skinny, exactly, but firm.
I tore my eyes away. Looking at her skin was going to remind me of what she’d looked like naked.
“Hi.” She flashed me a friendly smile. “Sorry about Max. He thinks everyone is his best friend.”
“I can see that.”
“I guess we didn’t have a chance to actually meet before.” She held out her hand. “I’m Audrey Young.”
I took her hand in mine. Her skin was soft, her grip firm. “Josiah Haven.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry, that sounded weird. I just mean I remember you. From high school.”
My brow furrowed. Was that why she seemed familiar?
“Oh, no, I didn’t go to Tilikum,” she said, as if I’d asked a question. “I went to Pinecrest but I was a cheerleader and we played you guys in sports a lot. So I remember you and your brothers.”
A cheerleader? No surprise. She still had that bubbly, happy girl thing going on, like at any moment she might do a cartwheel and end with her arms in the air, wiggling her fingers.
Bubbly girls were not my thing, no matter what they looked like naked.