I guess he didn’t get my prior assertions that I’m not his problem to fix, because he seems both irritated by and fixated on my concerns.
“How long have you been standing there?” I ask, trying not to look at him directly, given less than an hour ago I was getting off to the scent of him while visions of his and Jackal’s naked torsos danced through my mind.
“Out here? About five minutes. Watching you from back there?” He points over to his house. “About fifteen, wondering what the fuck you were doing.”
I look at the car. “I’m testing the laws of physics or spatial awareness or something, and I’m utterly failing.” I point to all the debris on the driveway. “I thought this would all fit in two trips to the dump.”
Garrett has the audacity to snort at that.
I shrug. “So, I got carried away. It’s all garbage. Doesn’t matter if I end up having to leave it out here while I go to work.”
“Looks like you barely left anything in there.”
I roll my eyes, but my chest warms unexpectedly. His grumpiness is weirdly comforting.
Jackal saunters across the road with his hands in his pockets. He’s dressed in heavy black cargo pants with a metal chain dipping from his belt loop to his pocket. He’s wearing a thick, lined, denim jacket.
No leather.
“Thought I’d find you out here,” he says to Garrett.
“She thought she could fit all that in two trips to the dump,” Garrett recaps helpfully.
Jackal rolls his eyes. “I’ll go get the truck.”
“Good idea,” Garrett says.
“Wait. What? Why?” I ask.
Garrett chuckles. “You got anymore ‘W’ words you want to share?”
Jackal grabs the keys from his pocket and spins the key ring on his finger. “Because my truck is bigger than your car, and we got nothing better to do.”
I raise an eyebrow, but my resistance to the two of them is thawing. They’ve helped me with my fence, my gutters, the cameras, my uncle, and my car. A small voice tells me it’s too good to be true, but the louder one tells me they just want to be good neighbors. “You guys are the busy enforcers, always off doing something rough and ready.”
“Yeah, well,” Garrett says. “The rough and ready thing we need to do right now is help you shift some junk.”
11
SHADE
It’s hard to know where to look as I struggle to rein in my feelings about what is happening right now.
It’s everything and nothing.
They’re smiling as Isla helps Kai manhandle a piece of furniture out of the house that he could easily manage on his own.
As I toss a lamp stand into the truck, I watch the two of them out of the corner of my eye. Both got great smiles. Kai’s only a couple of years older than Isla, so they fit.
Together.
I’ve often thought that Kai and I have gotten away with being in a relationship together for as long as we have because when people look at the two of us, they don’t see the possibilities.
I’m older, gnarled. I know I’m not the happiest fella.
But Kai. He’s fucking goodness. Falls in love easy.
And he’s easy to fall in love with.
