“Mine too,” I admit.
She casts a dirty look at the door. “Why can’t they mind their own business?”
“I feel like you just went from having one older brother to four,” I admit, laughing nervously.
Riley rolls her eyes. “They’re just nosy. That’s all.”
I smile.
Riley catches the look on my face and arches an eyebrow. “What?”
“Did you put on lipstick?”
Her mouth opens and closes and the rest of her face turns an even deeper shade of red. “I may be a mechanic, but I’m also a woman and women wear lipstick. There’s nothing weird about it.”
“I didn’t say it was weird.” I step forward. Riley’s eyelashes flutter as I hover over her and stare at her lips. My voice drops an octave. “I like it.”
She swallows audibly.
My lips quirk upward. “I like your hair too.” I take my free hand and brush one of the long tresses in front of her face. “Especially these two pieces here.”
Her breath thickens.
I lean in closer, feeling the charge in the air as I shorten the distance between our bodies. “Have I mentioned that I like you a lot, Riley Carter?”
Chapter Thirty-Five
RILEY
I like you too.
Four words.
Easy enough to say.
And I’m about to let them loose when Nat backs off and produces a bouquet of red roses from behind his back.
Shock ricochets through me and I stare at the flowers and then at Nat. “Are these… for me?”
“Yes.” He clears his throat. “I wasn’t sure if you’d prefer a more practical gift, but I wanted to get you flowers at least once.”
My heart melts, seeps through the cracks of my ribs and forms back into a whole at his feet. “Nat, they’re beautiful. Thank you.”
“Do you like them? Really?” He rubs the back of his neck, studying me.
“Yes, I do,” I say sincerely. “No one’s ever bought me flowers before.”
“Never?”
“Guys tend to assume that, because I’m a mechanic, I won’t like flowers, but I love them. Especially roses.” I lean my nose into the flowers and inhale. It smells amazing.
A relieved grins spreads on his face. That smile makes him even more gorgeous.
“I’m glad you like them.”
“I do,” I say, staring intently into his green eyes. “I like them a lot.”
His expression sobers and he looks at me with a question in his gaze, but before I can tell him thatyes, I’m talking about him and not the flowers, the door bursts open.
