“Huh.” I nodded, fighting the urge to bite my bottom lip.
I wondered when he’d catch on that I hadn’t stopped mixing in glitter. It was softer than the kind I’d originally used. He was on the fourth gallon and kept coming by for more.
“Still working on that kitchen?” He opened his mouth, but I cut him off before Onyx made a sound. “Or are you ready to listen to me about living room colors?” I asked with a little more attitude than I ever gave anyone.
There was something about Onyx Trejo that brought it out of me.
Maybe it was the fact I knew he’d never see me the way I had him. I still remember growing up and going to school with hisyounger sisters and seeing him show up to things. Onyx Trejo was always larger than life. Even as a teenager, I remembered how he’d walk into a room and dominate it. Every girl, and even some guys, would turn and swoon at how handsome he was.
He was this older seriously hot guy who had always been really nice. But a couple of months ago, I’d discovered that his charm was nothing but a smoke show.
Something to make people believe he was this really great guy when… I shook my head. No matter the fact that Onyx saw me as too big to date or as his type, it didn’t take away the fact he was a good guy.
He just wasn’t for me.
No matter how much I wanted him or how my heart turned all mushy around him.
“Actually.” He leaned his narrow hip against his truck, settling his huge body next to mine. “I think that would be a good idea.”
“Oh?” Shit! Had he called my bluff? “So, you’re done painting the kitchen?” I cleared my throat. There was something in his gaze as it locked with mine before it dropped to my mouth again and back to my eyes that made me want to press my thighs together for some relief.
“Yeah. Maybe you wanna come over? I have hot chocolate mix there. You can look at the living space and the natural light that comes in and decide something for me.”
“A hunter green,” I blurted, and his eyes widened.
He had no idea he’d bought my childhood home. He was clueless about the invisible string that pulled us together because he now lived and owned the very place I had loved so much until my parents split up and my dad had run off to Los Angeles and hooked up with some actress. I saw my dad on tabloid covers more than in real life.
“Hunter green?” he repeated.
“It would be perfect,” I stupidly doubled down.
“And how would you know that?” He stepped forward, moving closer to me until he could reach me. His hand rose, and the tips of his fingers held my chin up. “You spying on me, snowflake?”
“Don’t call me that.” I frowned, shaking my head away from his gentle grip.
“Why? I think it suits you.”
“Why?” I croaked. “Why would you think anyone, much less a woman, would want to be called snowflake.”
“Candy, I didn’t mean it in a bad way, baby. I just?—“
“I should go,” I cut him off. Then, because I couldn’t help myself from trying to get that big, beautiful house that kept so many of my best memories just right, I repeated, “Hunter green. But order the Benajmin Moore one. Semi-gloss,” I said, thinking about the life Onyx would breathe into the place. I could see it so clearly in my head. Him with little dark-haired kids running around and being the best dad one day. That of course would mean he’d meet someone, and I’d have to watch from afar, but even as emotion clogged my throat, I added, “It will last longer, and the shade is better than the rest of the other brands. Uncle Russ will get it all mixed up for you. He’s at the store.”
“But will he add your special concoctions into it?”
“The living room shouldn’t have glitter,” I said before I could stop myself. We both froze, and that’s when I saw it.
Onyx Trejo smiled. Brightly. Easily. He knew. Not only that, but a smile directed at you after going over eighteen months without sex, it would mess up anyone, And, man, did it do things to my insides I had no business feeling. I doubted a nun would blame me for getting all warm achy and fuzzy.
“I’ll see you!” I waved and turned around, hurrying the hell out of there, and went straight to my studio apartment, where Itook out my battery-operated boyfriend and relaxed before my shift at the coffee shop.
All while thinking about a man I had no business fantasizing over.
2
onyx
Watchingher run away from me fucking killed.
