“Yeah. But he’ll be paying the price for it. He might win this battle, but he’ll lose the war. Mia has him pussy whipped, and just between you and me, he wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Taking another long swallow of my coffee, I stared out at the shed. I had no idea how to knock the thing down. I guess we’d just grab some gloves and start taking it apart, rusted tin piece by rusted tin piece.
Seeing Mia stomping in towards the house, I finished my coffee before dropping the dirty mug in the sink. I’d deal with that later.
“Nate!” My name echoed through my still almost empty house. I really needed to get some furniture, or at the very least, some floor coverings just to quieten the whole place down.
“Yes dear?” I replied smartly, stepping from the kitchen to meet the wound up little pixie.
“What do you need? Since I’m too female to help, I have to play errand girl. The sexist pig,” she tacked on under her breath. Yep. No doubt about it. Derek was in the dog house. I hoped he was settled in for the night. From the look on Mia’s face, he wasn’t getting out any time soon. “He’s sending me home to get some crap. Can you think of anything you need?”
I wanted to laugh. Right then. Out loud. As she spoke about Derek, her face scrunched up like she’d just sucked on a lemon, but the moment she offered to get me anything, she returned to her cheery, adorable, normal self. It was taking every bit of restraint I had to hold myself together.
“Maybe if you have some spare gloves and a couple of hammers?” I didn’t want to push my luck but they would be bloody useful.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
With a wink she was gone, and Logan and I were left staring after her, completely speechless. I watched her jump up into Derek’s truck and drive away before I dared to venture outside. “Should we go see if Derek still has his balls attached?”
“I heard that!” Derek yelled, clearly annoyed. “Was that fun for you?”
“Actually…”
“You two took off like a bat out of hell then.”
“Hell man. There was no way I was getting in the middle of that. I like my balls exactly where they are, thank you very much.”
“Yeah, Derek. We’re not completely stupid, unlike someone I know.”
“Shut up, assholes. Now, we going to knock this shed down or what?”
“Yep.”
Derek’s snarky attitude was all for show. He might have pissed Mia off but I’d seen them together enough to know it wouldn’t last. A few murmured apologies, a bit of good old fashioned grovelling, a kiss and some hot sweaty make-up sex, well, at least that’s Derek’s side of the story, and all was good.
“Let’s break some shit!”
Four back breaking hours later the shed was nothing more than a pile of rubble in the middle of my yard. Once we’d ripped the sheets of tin off and knocked down the spider webs, it almost fell apart without much help at all.
I was buggered. Completely and utterly stuffed, really. I wanted nothing more than a cold shower and a beer. Or maybe a cold beer while I was in the shower. Despite the grey gloves that’d cover my hands at all times, I’d managed to rip half a fingernail from its bed and take a healthy sized chunk out of my palm. My knees were stiff from where I’d spent time squatting down, attempting to undo the rusted bolts before Mia had appeared with the grinder, taking them off in seconds. That girl was a freaking marvel. She’d figured out not only the problems we’d hit, but also how to fix them before we could even decide to do it. I got why Derek didn’t want her involved, she was his to keep safe, but hell, she knew her way around.
Lying back on the grass, Logan threw his hands over his eyes, probably blocking out the sun that was bearing down on us. “I’m done. Don’t care anymore. Too old and tired for this shit.”
“Oh, what’s wrong? The poor wittle country doctor afraid of doing an honest day’s work?”
That got his attention. Logan popped up, ready for a fight. Then he caught sight of who taunted him.
With a streak of dirt across her pale cheek and a mischievous sparkle in her eye, Mia teased. “You are a cruel, cruel woman, Mia. Dunno how Derek puts up with you.”
“He loves me.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. Don’t you, Derek?”
Poor guy. Another impossible situation for him to try to win. It was like Mia got some perverted pleasure in watching him squirm. Hell, I wasn’t even engaged to him and I thought it was some funny shit.
“Yes, dear.”
