But it’s the first time in a couple years that anything remotely romantic has crossed my mind.
It’s like Ziggy Barnes is good for me.
She’s helping me remember that the world exists beyond rugby and grief.
“Don’t smirk like that,” she says. “I’m only cooking for you because you’re saving me from Naked Tuesdays.”
Yep.
My cock is officially dead from a case of over-bonering.
That’s what thinking about Ziggy naked all day on any given Tuesday is doing for me.
“Happy to be of service,” I say.
I think.
There’s a definite lack of blood flow to my thinking brain happening right now. And that’s before she slides a pat of butter into a hot skillet, making the entire kitchen smell like buttery heaven now too.
She eyes me, then cracks up again. “You’re more trouble than I thought you’d be.”
If I’m half as good for her recovery from her friend breakup as she’s been for me feeling somewhat normal in my own house again…
“You’re welcome.”
17
Ziggy
By Wednesday night,I’m so flipping tired I could fall asleep on a bed of rocks.
You wouldn’t think a desk job was so demanding, but beingonaround new people all day has me drained.
I used to do this all day, often using language skills where I have proficiency but still had to concentrate to get it right, and yet now, simply smiling for strangers wears me out.
Maybe it’s because I was never considering that any one of those strangers could be my new best friend. I could be my professional best without wondering if I was saying something that would mark me off the list of consideration for being worthy of a lunch date.
That isn’t the case in the Pounders’ home office, where I have to overcome both being the owner’s daughter and also not knowing anything about rugby or the team.
Maybe this is why Abby Nora doesn’t consider me afriend anymore. Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to the things that mattered to her, even when I thought I was.
Dad bought the team five years ago, and I know basically nothing about it. I can defend myself all I want with excuses about Dad having interests in various businesses all over Copper Valley and it being hard to keep up sometimes, but I didn’t make an effort either.
It’s a sports team.
This is theoretically fun.
Though walking around painters and other contractors who are putting a shiny new finish on the office isn’t the greatest.
The paint fumes are annoying me and the baby.
And now I’m the persnickety spoiled pity hire who’s moaning to herself about the working conditions.
I sigh and drop my head to my steering wheel as soon as I put my little SUV in park in the driveway next to Holt’s Jeep.
Time to get inside.
Let Jessica out if Holt hasn’t.
