She smiles, despite my grumpiness, and I can’t help but to think back to when she said she liked that side of me. “Gee, Noah, it’s nice to see you too.”
Shit. I’m being an ass.
“I’m sorry. I’m happy to see you. I truly am. It’s just ...” I hitch my thumb over my shoulder toward the chicken coop. “Tootsie is still escaping, and the wedding is in three days.”
She screws her face up. “That is a bit of a problem.”
Itisa problem. The last thing I need is to have my chicken running around and causing havoc everywhere.
I need to figure this out, and I need to figure it outnow.
“Can I help?” she asks, and I fucking love that she wants to step in and try to fix it.
I shake my head. “No. This is my thing. I need to handle this.”
I realize then there’s a van in the parking lot just behind her, and a bunch of dudes are unloading what looks like instruments.
“What’s going on there?” I ask, nodding toward them.
She follows my gaze. “Oh, that? The band wanted to practice in the space, to make sure they get the acoustics right or whatever. Is that okay?”
I shrug. “Yeah. Whatever. It’s no big deal.”
She smiles softly, then closes the gap between us, pressing up to her toes and kissing me quickly.
It’s reckless, considering it’s daylight, we’re out in the open, and there are all kinds of people around, but fuck, I am so glad to feel her lips on mine. It’s exactly what I was missing today.
I give her a look that saysWhat was that for?and she knows exactly what I’m asking without me voicing it.
“Wanted to,” she says simply with a lift of her shoulder. She flashes me a grin that has me a little weak in the knees, though I’d never admit that out loud. She motions toward where the band is still unloading. “I’m going to go make sure they get settled in okay. I’ll come back later?”
Translation:Do you want me to come back later?
I nod. “Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
I’m rewarded with another smile.
She wiggles her fingers and saunters back over to the barn, and I watch her go every step of the way.
Which is exactly how I don’t miss every single one of those fucks ogling her.
I get it. She’s a gorgeous woman. But she’smygorgeous woman.
No, Noah. Not yours. Not really. But you want her to be.
I tape that thought shut inside a box in my mind, then get to work on the chicken coop.
It takes me a while to sort out, but in the very back corner, I find the slightest flaw in my design. I shoveled away too much dirt in one spot by a few inches and didn’t tamp down the fencing tight enough. It’s just enough space for Tootsie to burrow herself in and pop free.
“I got you now,” I say to the chicken, then get on with fixing it.
All the while, my eyes drift back to the barn and the guys still hovering around Odette.
She laughs at something one of them says, but I can tell from here that she doesn’t really find what they say funny. It’s the kind of polite laugh you give an unfunny comedian at an open mic night. Just enough not to hurt her feelings.
But these chucklefucks don’t realize that. They think they have her. They think she’s hanging on every word of theirs. And I know this because one of them reaches out and grabs her arm, squeezing it.
He touched her.He fucking touched her.
