"I was visiting a friend."
I snort. "At the bar?"
"As a matter of fact."
"7.33," Connie interrupts.
I exhale heavily. I know she's not going to do this, but I ask anyway. "I forgot my wallet. Can you put it on a tab?"
Connie raises her eyebrows and I roll my eyes hard. Of course not.
Brick Wall sets a ten dollar bill on the counter. "My treat."
"No, no, no," I protest. "I'll go grab my wallet."
Brick Wall sucks coffee loudly through a straw. "It's seven bucks. You need to learn to accept help."
"Excuse me?" My voice goes up an octave as I whirl around to face him. "You don't even know me."
"I know you obviously have a problem accepting help from people."
"I do not have a problem accepting –" I pause, distracted by the fact that he's drinking this disgusting concoction that bears little resemblance to actual coffee. "You really shouldn't just pour hot coffee over ice. It's all watered down. What kind of guy drinks iced coffee, anyhow?"
He leans close, speaking to me low in his throat. “One who’s real secure in his manhood."
My breath hitches in my throat and heat surges through my body, settling in my face. Good Lord, if I were wearing a dress, I’d have to check to make sure my panties didn’t just fall right off.
"Here's your change," Connie interrupts.
“You’re not buying anything for me," I protest, even as Connie hands me the bags.
“Don’t worry. You can buy me another coffee sometime to make up for the one you spilled.”
I groan. "I did not spill – you know what? Sure. I'm late and I have to go. Thanks for the juice boxes. And the wet t-shirt."
"The wet t-shirt was my pleasure," he calls.
I stop short with my bags in my hands, but I don't turn around. It takes all of the self-control I have to ignore the crude comment.
Outside, I put the bags on the floor of the passenger side of the car, ticking off my checklist in my head. I can dash back to the bakery and grab a new shirt, then run over to the school, and then race back to the bakery for another hour until Chloe gets out of school and –
I turn around… right into Brick Wall again.
God, he’s solid.
When he catches my forearm, heat floods my body. Clearly, the fact that I’m having this kind of a reaction to a total brute makes me think it's the universe’s way of telling me I need to get out and date. Or, hell, just get laid. How long has it been again? I stopped keeping track of my celibacy in terms of months a long time ago. I’m obviously way too hard up if a guy like this is having such an effect on my body. I must be totally desperate.
“Are you following me? Is this like a Ted Bundy thing or something? You spill coffee on a girl and follow her out to her car so you can bring her to your remote mountain cabin and chop her into pieces with an axe?”
“You got me. Now my dastardly plan is ruined. How did you know I have a remote mountain cabin?”
"The lack of basic social skills gives it away," I huff, pushing around him to get to the other side of the car. “You clearly don’t get much interaction with other members of the human race.”
"Seems like you could learn some social skills yourself, lady."
I pause with the driver's side door open. "Stop calling me shit like that. Lady is even worse than woman."
"So you're saying you're not a lady either, then." The corners of his mouth turn up underneath his beard, and so help me, the only thing I can think of in this moment is how absolutely infuriating I find this guy I've know for all of two seconds… and how that rough beard would feel between my legs.
Oh, God. There's something terribly wrong with me.
I can feel my face flush hot.
I have to get out of here.
"Look." I steady my voice. Don't look at his lips. Or think about what he could do with those rough hands. "You ruined my shirt. Now I have to go back to my shop for a new one, making me later than I already am. So as enjoyable as this experience has been, I have to go."
Opening the driver’s side door, I slide into the seat and start the car.
“Well if you just needed a new shirt, all you had to do was ask."
A shirt lands on my lap before I can close the car door.
A shirt that smells like guy, like leather and the outdoors and some kind of aftershave and I don’t know what else, but my breath hitches in my throat.
When I look up, Brick Wall is turning to leave, completely bare-chested.
He’s definitely a brick wall of muscles rippling, beautiful muscles.
He might be smiling but I can’t tell. For some reason, I think that annoys me even more.
I ball up the shirt and throw it back at him. “I’ll take a pass on the sweaty t-shirt, caveman,” I yell.
“Suit yourself, woman."
I think I hear him chuckling as I close my car door and pull away. When I glance in my rearview mirror, he’s walking down the sidewalk bare-chested as if that’s totally normal behavior.
Somehow, I get the impression he doesn’t give a shit about normal behavior.
4
Killian