We’re standing super close—as close as we can be without touching. His bare chest calls to me, and I want to bury my face in it. Breathe him in and more.
So much more.
Tanner clears his throat.
Damn. I’d forgotten he was there. I take a breath, but it turns into a tic I’ve lived with since I was five years old. A choking sound that’s almost a hiccup. Like I’m drowning.
It’s nothing. But Kai doesn’t like it. He ignores Tanner and smothers me in a stare that makes my knees weak. “Okay?”
“Yup.” I am. Truly. That we’ve made it this far without me having a disaster morning is a small miracle. But the fact that he’s the first person inyearsto stop and ask me that question does something to me I can’t explain.
Kai holds my gaze a moment longer. Then he turns back to Tanner. “Did you talk to Molly?”
The strange tension lifts. Tanner blows out a noisy breath, and his big hands curl into fists. “Yeah. Me and Joss talked about it already.”
“I could’ve helped her, man. I’m not so caught up in my own shit that I’d let some creep lay hands on her.”
“She knows that.” Tanner’s gaze darts to me. “Maybe she figured Joss wouldn’t toss him out by the scruff of his neck.”
I hold my hands up. “I never touched him.”
“Shame.”
I share a smirk with Tanner before my attention drifts back to Kai. He catches me looking. A flare of heat passes between us, but the sputtering egg pan cuts it short.
Kai moves closer to Tanner. “Why’s she such a douche magnet?” he wonders. “It ain’t fuckin’ fair.”
Tanner sighs. “I know it. At least she brings them to the bar, though. I’d be old and grey if she was meeting up with these pricks somewhere else.”
I slide plates of eggs and bacon across the counter to Tanner and Kai. “She’s sexually frustrated.”
They both cringe.
I roll my eyes. “What? She’s not a kid, and you two are like angry bears around her. Maybe the nice guys don’t want to come into a moody gay bar and fight you.”
“It’s not a gay bar,” Tanner huffs. “It’s whatever folk need it to be.”
It’s his only argument. I smirk and pass him a knife and fork, but he doesn’t start eating. Neither does Kai and I realize they’re waiting for me.
Bless.
We eat breakfast, then Kai disappears to take a shower, and I’m alone with Tanner again.
His dark gaze seems deeper, but I ignore it. If he wants to know what’s up, he’ll have to ask.
He doesn’t. “We have staff interviews all day. None of them are back to back, but if you need to take a break, let me know.”
“I’m good.”
“It’s okay if you aren’t. I can do them by myself. I just don’t want to employ someone you don’t like.”
“Doesn’t matter if I like them, does it? I’ll be gone soon enough. Build a team for the long term.”
“I plan on it—” Tanner cuts off as Kai’s bedroom door closes. “—but I trust your judgement. If you think someone’s no good, I’ll believe you.”
“Okay.” I don’t know what else to say, and my brain feels suddenly clogged. Some days I can’t stop talking. Others, I get so sapped by life, I got nothing.
Right now, that’s how it is. Computer saysno.
