“I never said I’d move in with her, idiot.” Asher plates the eggs.“Leona knows how it is. We’re just having fun. I don’t plan on ever settling down with a wife. Unlike Ethan over there.”
He jerks his chin toward me.
“Oh, hell no, don’t turn this on me.” I lift my hands in surrender.“I don’t think Summer looks at me that way anyway…”
The words taste bitter.
Because they’re not true.
Or maybe they are. I don’t know anymore.
This last week I’ve done everything I can to stay away from her, picked up extra shifts, helped Jude with Kettle, avoided my parents’ranch like the plague. It’s not because I don’t want to see her. God, I miss her. And I’ve never even tasted those sweet cherry lips of hers.
I just need time. Time to be able to look at her and pretend to be the friend she said she wants.
“I thought she liked you,” Calvin says, pouring himself coffee.“Hell, she was staring at you the whole time yesterday at the bar.”
I shrug, trying to shake off the ache in my chest.“Made it clear she just wants to be friends. I’ll respect that.”
Calvin shakes his head.“That look she gave you wasn’t the look a friend gives another friend.”
I shut it down with a firm shake of my head. I’m not letting myself hope again. Not when those words, just a friend, are still bruising me from the inside out.
“What about Grace?” Asher changes the subject, and for once I’m grateful.
“What about her?” I sit at the table.
“Still dating that douchebag?” he asks, a little too angrily.
“It annoys the hell out of me,” I admit,“but he makes her happy.”
“You’re just going to let him date her?” Asher crosses his arms like he’s about to fight me.
“Yes.” I give him a look.“I know you see her as a little sister, but he’s a good kid. Opens doors for her, buys her flowers. Hell, he even took her to one of those romantic chick flicks.” I roll my eyes.“As long as he treats her right, I’ll leave them alone. But the second he screws up, he’ll regret it.”
Asher doesn’t say anything, jaw tight. Before I can ask why he’s so protective, Matt, one of our newer guys, pipes up.
“You talking about your baby sister? Grace?”
I look at him.
“She’s gorgeous,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows.
The table stills, everyone going quiet. Even the clock seems to stop ticking.
Matt looks around.“What?”
I’m about to tell him exactly what I’ll do to him if he ever looks at Grace that way again when Asher beats me to it.
“If you ever so much as look at her again like that, I’ll carve your eyes out with a rusted old spoon,” Asher says calmly.“And then I’ll give your balls the same treatment.”
Matt blanches, raising both hands.“Sorry, man, just appreciating true southern beauty. I mean, at karaoke she…”
“Don’t,” Asher and I growl at the same time.
“Stupid,” Calvin mutters.
The rest of the crew snickers.
