One side of his mouth lifted. “It’s the taste that counts.”
Why did those seemingly innocent words slide into her belly, making her want to squirm on her stool?
“All right, I guess we should go work on that broken fence,” Cody said, finally stepping away from Harper.
“I’ll see you around.” Kayden bumped her shoulder, and that small touch did so much more than it should have.
Yep, she was screwed.
“What’s goingon with you and Tilly?”
Kayden paused from nailing a part of the broken fence back into place. “Nothing. We’re friends and colleagues.”
A damn lie. He hadn’t been able to sleep these last few nights because memories of touching her, kissing her, had haunted him.
“Really?” Cody asked with an annoying, shit-eating grin on his face. “Do you always kiss friends slash colleagues?”
What the fuck? “Who told you that?”
“No one. I’m a nosy prick and heard the women talking when I was in the study.”
“So you were eavesdropping.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, we kissed.”
“So why haven’t you texted or called or visited since?”
“Tilly told Harper that?”
“She did.” Cody drove a nail into the wood. Some of the humor left his features as he gave Kayden a pointed look.
“You got something to say about that?”
Cody turned. “She’s already got a lot going on with moving back to this town and dealing with narrow-minded locals.”
“I know she does. What does that have to do with me?”
“You don’t date.”
Kayden shot his brother a frown. It was true, he didn’t date. But Tilly was starting to make him reconsider.
“You also don’t trust,” Cody added.
This time, he straightened. “I trustyou.”
“Because we’re family and you’ve known me since the day I was born. Can you really tell me you’ve let everything with her father go?”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. He wanted to lie, but what would that do? “I’m trying to.”
Cody nodded slowly, like he’d already known the answer. “Just…try not to hurt her. She’s become good friends with Harper.”
He would never set out to hurt Tilly. Fuck, even the thought of it made him want to kick his own ass. But people rarely planned to hurt those they cared about. So instead of giving his brother an answer, he nodded.
They worked on fixing the fence for another half hour before his phone rang, Jake’s number on the screen.
“I’m gonna take this.” He stepped away from his brother to answer the call. “Jake, how you doing?”
The other man had woken up the day after he’d been shot, and Kayden had visited him a couple of time since then. Tilly’s words had been running through his head…about Jake having no family here. About him being alone.
“I’m okay. Stronger every day. I just wanted to call and say thanks for the supplies. They were from you, right? The food and drinks and puzzles that were left and signed ‘boss.’”
