That made me chuckle a little. “Figures.”
“Listen, I appreciate the ride and I’m sorry you got stuck with me. After I saw you at the bar, I thought I had a pretty good read on the kind of guy you are. So when Louise mentioned you, I egged her on a little bit. I wanted a shot at being alone with you and thought I could indulge her at the same time.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
She folded her hands in her lap and I hoped she was done. She wasn’t.
“But really, who hurt you?”
“No one.”
She laughed. “Come on, Josiah. We both know that’s not true. Emotionally unavailable men aren’t born that way.”
“What made you like emotionally unavailable men so much?”
“Touché.”
Thankfully, she left it at that. I didn’t really want to know.
I drove her across town to her grandma’s house. Florence lived down a gravel road that gave my shocks a workout. I stopped in front of the house, put the truck in park, and waited for her to get out.
“Thanks again for the ride.”
“No problem.”
“I won’t try to give you my number because I don’t think you’ll take it. But if you change your mind, the offer’s on the table.”
I grunted a noncommittal reply.
“Have a good day, Josiah.”
“You too.”
She got out and I waited until she opened the front door before I turned the truck around and left. My mom had drilled that into me.
Marlene, not my biological mother. If there’d been anything that woman had wanted to teach me, she hadn’t stuck around long enough to do it.
I headed back through town, fully intending to go home. I was done working for the day. There wasn’t any reason to go back to the remodel.
As for Audrey, I didn’t know what I was so worried about. She wasn’t my girlfriend. Why did I care if she’d seen me with Aida? We hadn’t been doing anything.
Audrey wasn’t my problem.
Except that was a big-ass lie.
She was very much my problem.
A sense of hard resolve poured through me. It was time I stopped lying to myself. That wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I turned toward Audrey’s house, not quite sure what I was going to do. I didn’t have a plan. I just knew I needed to see her.
Now.
CHAPTER 19
Audrey
“Icing on the cake, Max.”
I paced around the kitchen, opening and closing cupboards and taking things out of the fridge. I didn’t know what I was doing but I couldn’t seem to slow down long enough to figure it out.
Max watched and I wasn’t sure if he looked concerned or just confused.
“Of course there’s someone else. Why wouldn’t there be? You’d think he would have told me he had a girlfriend.” I got a jar of pickles out of the fridge. No idea why. “Although maybe she’s not his girlfriend. Maybe there are a lot of someone elses. She could be one of many.”
I put the pickles back.
“He probably has a bunch of girls. That could be why he didn’t kiss me last night. He thinks of me as a friend and he doesn’t sleep with his friends, just girls like that.” I gestured vaguely toward the house next door. “I don’t know what that means. She’s probably fine. And he probably doesn’t even think of me as a friend. I’m just the weirdo next door.”
I’d been very stern with myself today. I was not going to think about Josiah Haven. Nothing had happened between us, and my little crush had been silly. Totally misplaced. I didn’t like him at all. I’d been inadvertently hypnotized by the power of his surly brow furrow.
He was completely wrong for me.
It didn’t matter that he’d helped me give a squirrel a funeral or that he’d found Max when he’d gone missing and helped me wash him off. And the whole thing with Colin at the bar? He’d probably do that for anybody. It didn’t make me special, and it certainly hadn’t turned my interest into a full-blown crush.
“Who wants a guy like him anyway?” I got out a pan. “He doesn’t like anyone. Who needs that kind of negativity in their life?”
Max cocked his head to the side.
I rolled my eyes, like he’d called me out on a lie. “I know he’s not that bad. He’s just very serious and yes, I realize I actually like that about him. Come on, Max, I’m trying to make this situation okay. Help a girl out, here.”
He wagged his tail.
“I know you like him too.” I stomped my foot. “No, not too. I don’t like him. That’s what I’m trying to say. I can think he’s mysterious and interesting and oh my gosh, so gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean I like him. Because obviously he doesn’t like me.”
My phone rang, startling me. I sighed as I dug through my purse to find it. It was probably my mother.
Exactly what I needed right now.
I pulled out my phone and it didn’t hit me that it wasn’t my mom’s number until I’d already swiped to answer. It said restricted.
“Hello, this is Audrey.”
Nothing.
“Hello?”
Max watched me curiously.
I sighed. It was probably one of those robo-caller things and it hadn’t clicked over to the telemarketer who was about to try to sell me something stupid. It was the third or fourth time I’d gotten a call like that in the last week.
So annoying.
“Sorry, no thanks.”
There was sound, almost like a click, but no voice. I looked at my phone and the call had disconnected.
I put the phone down and looked at the counter. For some reason, I’d pulled out a package of frozen chicken, a box of spaghetti noodles, a frying pan, a can of vegetable soup, and a spatula.
“What am I even doing?”
Max didn’t have an answer any more than I did. With a deep breath to calm down, I started putting things away. I didn’t feel much like cooking, but I was hungry, so I got out a few things that actually made sense together and started throwing together a meal.
While my dinner cooked, I fed Max. Like usual, he inhaled his food, then happily trotted into the living room to curl up on the couch.
I’d stopped ranting but I couldn’t stop thinking about seeing Josiah with that girl. It had felt like a punch to the stomach. I couldn’t decide what was worse, the way he’d walked out so abruptly last night or seeing a woman practically pressed against him, touching his face.
I couldn’t be mad. I didn’t have any claim on him. But it still made my stomach hurt.
Maybe I wasn’t hungry after all.
The rumble of a vehicle came from outside. Max jumped off the couch and stood by the front door, tail wagging furiously.
I turned off the stove right as someone started pounding on my door. Hard.
“Audrey?” came Josiah’s muffled voice.
What was he doing here?
Max let out a happy bark.
I opened the door and Josiah stood there, looking like a storm about to break.
And all the mixed-up feelings I had about him coalesced into a tight ball of mad.
“What are you doing here?”
He came in.
“Excuse me.” I crossed my arms. “I didn’t invite you inside.”
“I’m coming in anyway.” He shut the door behind him.
“Rude.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be rude. I just need to talk to you.”
“Oh, I see. Now you need to talk?” I was about to start word vomiting and I knew it. But I couldn’t seem to stop. “Last night you just took off. We could have talked then. But no, just right out the door without a word.”
He took a step closer. “Audrey.”
“I don’t know why you want to talk to me anyway.” I was really going off the rails, gesturing wildly with my arms. “You obviously had someone else to keep you busy. She’s probably more your type, anyway. I’m not tall and blond and super skinny. My mom is, but don’t even get me started on how much I look like my dad. Lucky me.”
He took another step. “Audrey.”