“Why are you so late? I thought you were finishing at midnight?”
I’ve zoned out. I come back to find Tam’s dark stare has intensified, and I’m not ready for it.
I deflect by opening the door and stepping out, bringing myself to his level. It’s easier to handle being around him when he’s not towering over me. Forreasons. Dirty reasons I’m too tired to contemplate without embarrassing myself. “Busy night.”
“Are you okay?”
“Me?”
Tam cocks his head. “There’s no one else here, son.”
“Rudy’s here.”
“He’s taking a piss up your car.”
I shoot a glance down.
Tam laughs. “Made you look.”
“Very funny.”
“I thought so.” Tam twinkles that droll grin at me again. “Are you working tonight?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Is it?”
“Bhodi, you’re knackered.” He states it like the fact it is. “Go to bed. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“That a promise?” Yeah. Because for all we haven’t kissed again, and for all we’ve sworn to befriends, I’m never too tired to flirt with this dude. Or ogle him as he leans into my car toretrieve the keys I’ve forgotten, shut the window and click the lock before straightening to tuck the keys into my hand.
The whole thing lasts less than thirty seconds, but it does something to me, and I’m smiling by the time he meets my gaze again.
Tam frowns. “What?”
“Nothing. Just delirious.”
“Over what?”
You.“Nothing a friend wants to hear about.”
“Says who?”
Tam leans closer as he speaks, a shift that’s hard to read as subconscious or deliberate.
Either way, it’s a struggle to not react. To step back, towards the side gate I need to slip through to reach my bed. “Saysme. But I have chicken and…something, I was going to cook later if you’re interested?”
Tam’s frown evaporates, replaced by the subtle lift his whole face gets every time I offer him food. The same contentment I feel every time he cooks for me. “I’m interested.”
“All right. Come by about six?”
It’s when he stops working. I’ve noticed this on the evenings I’m at home. How my day is punctuated by Rudy screaming around the garden and Tam growling into his phone at his brother. I try not to listen, and they haven’t talked about me sincethatnight, but even if I’m dead asleep, I still know Tam’s done for the day the second I open my eyes.
We part ways. I don’t know where he goes because I don’t let myself watch. I traipse myself to the front door of the annex and jam the key in the lock.
I almost trip over the package on the step.
