No matter how much they’d tried, and he’d admit that he hadn’t been trying very hard, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Before Zoe, he used to think the best way a woman could wake him up was with a stack of homemade pancakes, bacon, toast, and the works. Now, he looked forward to waking up to the smell of burnt coffee and Pop-Tarts that Zoe shoved at him as she demanded for him to hurry up or starve. She usually gave him about sixty seconds before she attacked, forcing him to swallow the thick, hot coffee down in one gulp and devour the burnt pop tarts in one bite. He still wasn’t sure how she was burning them since he’d checked the settings on the toaster a dozen times by now.
Zoe was, without a doubt, the best lover he’d ever had or probably ever would have. A month ago, that thought scared the hell out of him, but now, he realized it was okay. Zoe would be his last and best great fling before he found his perfect wife. Not that he considered her anything more than his bed buddy, but he’d decided last night after the hallway incident that he’d keep their little arrangement until he found his wife.
It would be stupid not to. Zoe was available, great in bed, never got demanding, didn’t pout when he spent time with the guys and did her own thing so that she wasn’t constantly underfoot. He was going to keep her for a while, he’d decided this morning after she woke him up at three in the morning and demanded that he do that thing that she loved with his tongue, which he happily obliged her with. Granted, she was a sneaky little thing, Trevor thought with a chuckle.
She was so damn cute when she thought that she was pulling something over on him. Like not mentioning giving Toby away and thinking he’d just forgotten that the damn dog was still around. She still hadn’t realized that they’d both adopted the dog.
About six weeks ago, they’d gone from leaving their doors unlocked to propping them open at night, he added an extra deadbolt to the front door of course, so that Toby could come and go as he pleased. While Zoe had all the sissy toys for the dog in her apartment, he had, in his opinion and really that’s all that mattered, all the man stuff.
Every now and then, he’d catch her sending the dog a mischievous little smile and knew she really thought that she’d gotten away with breaking one of his rules. Since he’d decided to keep the dog, this little break in their agreement didn’t really count. Of course, when their little arrangement was over, a.k.a. when he decided he’d found his wife and Zoe moved out, he was keeping the dog. He could just imagine how that was going to go over, but really, the dog needed a man in his life.
“What’s so funny?” Hank demanded.
“Nothing,” Trevor said, hoping the man would just go away and bother someone else.
“Look, I’ve offered to find someone else, but she wants to meet you. I guess she met you through a friend last year and was hoping to see you again. Can you please come out with us tonight?” the man begged, which was really embarrassing. “I’ll even pay. Please, Trevor, you don’t know how long I’ve waited to take this girl out. If you could just-”
“Fine,” Trevor snapped, anything to get the man to shut the hell up. Plus, a free meal was a free meal. No Bradford in his right goddamn mind would pass on a free meal.
“Thanks, man. You’re a lifesaver,” Hank said, further embarrassing himself.
“Uh-huh,” Trevor said absently as he returned his focus back to getting the floor down before the weekend.
“Hey, did they call an ambulance?” someone yelled. Since it had nothing to do with him, he ignored it.
“No, she went back to the office with Jared,” Hank said as he finally got his ass back in gear and returned to work.
Now that got his attention. “What are you talking about?” Trevor asked even as he continued to nail down the floorboards.
“That tenant of yours,” Hank said, shrugging. “About an hour ago, she fell outside. Mark said it looked like she slipped on some ice, but I thought it kind of looked like she’d passed out.”
He looked up to glare at the man. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that she was hurt?” Trevor demanded, grabbing another nail and driving it into the floor with too much force.
Hank frowned. “Why would I? She was fine and Jared’s looking after her.”
Trevor opened his mouth to tell him that he should have been told, but just barely stopped himself. As far as the guys were concerned, Zoe was just his neighbor and part-time employee, which is exactly how he wanted it. Whenever he saw Zoe at work, he gave her a barely-there nod and that was it. He never acknowledged her in any other way. When he went into the office, he kept it professional and Zoe did the same.
They hardly went out in public together and if they did, they acted like acquaintances and nothing more. At first, he’d been a little nervous that Zoe wouldn’t be able to go through with it. He’d been pleasantly surprised when he realized that she was more than capable of keeping their personal business private. She never hounded him like his old girlfriends had, never texted him all fucking day, which he truly appreciated, and only called to ask him what he’d forgotten to add to her shopping lists.
“I don’t think she was fine,” John added as he carried in two-by-fours and joined the conversation. “It looked like she passed out. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but she just left the office in tears.”
“She was crying?” Trevor forced himself to ask as he fought back the urge to drop everything and run after her since he had a pretty good idea what one of the problems was, but he forced himself to remain on his knees and grab another board and another nail.
“Yeah. As soon as she was able to get that piece of shit car of hers going, she was out of here,” John said, stacking a pile of wood near him.
“I see,” Trevor murmured, forcing himself to stay right where he was when everything in him screamed to go after her.
“I hope she’s alright,” Rick, an all-around decent guy and someone he suspected had a crush on Zoe, said.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Trevor forced out, not wanting to encourage the guy, especially before he was done with Zoe.
Chapter 21
“Zoe?” Trevor said as he shut the front door behind him.
Seconds later, Toby came running out of Zoe’s apartment to greet him, carrying that damn pink princess toy that Trevor hid a half-dozen times by now, but the damn dog still managed to find it.
“Hey, buddy,” Trevor said, shifting the grocery bags in his other hand so that he could reach down and pet the dog. “Where’s our girl?”
