“I’m trying to treat you like a human being who’s doing the best you can, just like the rest of us are.”
“Why?”
“Because, like you said, I rent your gatehouse. I’m one of June’s teachers. We’ll see each other regularly. I’m the closest thing you have when you hit the wrong wall and take down the barn, and—”
That’s it.
I straighten and glare at him. “Let’s get one thingcrystalclear. You knownothingabout who I am and what I’m capable of if you’re judging me on what you saw on that television show. Understood?”
He blinks fast and takes a half step back. “I—”
“You think I’m a worthless airhead who doesn’t know the difference between an impact driver and a roof shingle.”
He visibly gulps, then casts a covert glance at my sledgehammer.
“Yes, Idoknow what that’s technically called, too,” I inform him, “but I call it the hand of justice, and I can swing it like a mofo.”
If he takes one more step back, he’ll fall into the hay trough, and you know what?
I’m freaking here for it.
“Did you—” He stops and clears his throat. “Did you just saymofo?”
“She knows words. Hallelujah. Shealsoknows how to screw your front door shut, rewire your truck engine, and poke holes in just the right spot in your roof to make you want to move out.”
He licks his lips, goes one more half step back, and catches himself before he topples.
Dammit.
More dammit?
I think his pupils are dilating. And—oh, fuck me.
There isdefinitemovement under the fly of his jeans.
Yay!my vagina cheers.He likes us feisty!
She issoin time-out.
Ihatebeing cranky like this. But he just brings it out—no.
Wait.
You know what?
He pushed me to this.
Screw all thisI need to be nicestuff.
I wasniceto Dean, and where did that get me?
Here.
It got me here. So Flint canfreaking deal with it.
“Maybe we start over,” he says. “I may have made some assumptions I shouldn’t have made. Would be a lot easier if we can clear the air and get along.”
“Because you want to buttermeup to let you use the ranch as an escape for wayward teenagers.”
