“Ready to run yet?” he asked as he pulled her chair closer to his.
He might be a monster at war, but he was gentle with her, and truthfully, she loved that contrast.
She reminded him, “I’m not a runner, remember?”
His smile was wicked and handsome in the gray dawn light that filtered through the window.
Simply he said, “We’ll see about that.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Drake Avenue,” Destiny murmured, turning right onto the street Dodger had said his crew was working on today.
She followed the traffic up the winding road and saw the firstroad work aheadsigns.
Over the next hill, she could see the boom truck. There were orange cones along the street guiding traffic to the right, and a man in a neon green vest stood there with a sign that said stop on one side, and slow on the other. He was talking into a handheld walkie-talkie.
The line of cars ahead of her were stopped to let oncoming traffic pass on a narrow open lane of road. There were two cars in front of her, and Destiny craned her neck to see if she recognized any of the work crew ahead. Two were throwing limbs into a woodchipper that was pulled by a truck, and a couple more were clearing limbs under a man working high above them.
She knew the guy in the bucket on the end of the crane arm was Dodger just from the way he carried himself. He wore a neon vest over his clothes, and a hard hat as he trimmed the limbs away from power lines. He leaned over and yelled something down to one of his crew, and while he was on a little break, she rolled her window down and did her best to whistle a cat call.
His frost blue eyes jerked directly to her, and the bright white smile that consumed his face was plain as day, even all the way over here.
He said something else to the guy on the ground and gestured to her car, and the guy got on the radio.
The man in front of them turned the sign in his hands toslowand directed the first car in their line to go on. When shegot to him though, he stopped her and gestured for her to roll down her passenger side window.
She did, and he said, “Are you Dodger’s lady?”
The butterflies were back in her chest.Be. Cool.“Yes,” she answered shyly. “I brought him some lunch.”
He looked at the bag of food sitting in the back seat. “What did you get him?”
She giggled. “Why? Are you hungry?”
“I’m always hungry. Just seeing if it’s better than what I brought.” Dodger’s co-worker was an easy talker. “He’ll be off in fifteen. He wants you to pull off over there,” the guy said, pointing to the shoulder of the road that widened up ahead.
“You got it. Great work boys,” she called as she eased forward.
“Next time, bring me something!” the guy called as she rolled up her window.
A giggle escaped her as she eased her car over to the widened shoulder. From here, she had the perfect view of Dodger working. He was confident and had clearly done this job for a while. His team below him moved like a well-oiled machine and needed little direction. Any direction they did get came from Dodger. He wasn’t even wearing a safety harness or anything. Just some sunglasses to protect his eyes from the woodchips spraying from his chainsaw. It was ten degrees outside, and cloudy, but he was out here in a t-shirt under his vest, his tanned muscles moving and flexing with everything he did.
Yep, she was staring.
Slowly, she lifted her camera up and took a picture of him, then sent it to her mom.
So hot, her mom texted back immediately.
She laughed and shook her head. There she was.
Destiny certainly wouldn’t be sending her dad anything about Dodger for a while. He had been pissed when he’d foundout he’d ghosted Destiny, and Dad wasn’t super forgiving by nature. She was going to have to smooth that out later. For now, she just wanted to spend time with Dodger.
A quick glance at the clock, and relief flooded her. She still had three hours before she needed to be back to the school for crossing guard duties. Soon, when she started her substituting position, she wouldn’t have as much free time to bring him lunch.
Good Lord that man was fine.
The boom was lowering and he hopped the last fifteen feet out of the bucket. No one even batted an eye or worried about him breaking a leg. The way he landed was wild. There was almost no impact, and he started walking toward her immediately. He yelled something at his work crew over his shoulder, but they were already preparing for another guy to take Dodger’s spot. He must’ve been human, because they were definitely strapping him into a safety harness.
