Page 14 of Spark

Hattie turned at the mention of her name. “Hmm?”

Shay nudged him and tilted her head toward the woman in question. And, Jesus, she actually winked. Fucking hell.

He cleared his throat, because it had been damned tight all day, especially when Hattie was in the room or pressed up beside him on the couch.

“You want a ride home?” he said, voice sounding a lot harsher than he’d intended, but that was because he wanted her so much, and yeah, it came through loud and clear whenever he spoke to her.

Her lips parted, forming an O. “You don’t have to do that.”

Oh, cool, she didn’t want to get back in his truck with him. “Going to the garage, sweetness. Breakdown job. It’s no trouble.” What else could he say with Shay watching them, her gaze ping-ponging between them both, a look of pleasure on her face that made Dex shift from foot to foot and caused the back of his neck to get hot and prickly?

Hattie flushed when he called her sweetness. Shit. He hadn’t meant to. It just kind of slipped out.

Her hands dropped to the skirt of her dress and she curled her fingers in the fabric. “Okay, yes…thank you. That’d be great.”

Ten minutes later, they’d said their goodbyes, were loaded up with leftovers and gifts, and were back in Dex’s truck, heading toward the garage.

“Did you have a nice time?” Hattie asked, making small talk when the silence started to drag on again.

He glanced at her.

“The other night”—she licked her lower lip—“you said how much you weren’t into Christmas. I thought a couple of times today you looked like you were actually enjoying yourself.”

Dex thought about it again and still couldn’t believe that’s exactly what had happened. He’d found himself laughing with everyone more than once. “Yeah, I guess I was.”

“The kids seemed to like you,” she added, a small sugar-sweet smile curling her lips.

He couldn’t help it; he smiled as well. “They’re great kids.”

“They are,” she said.

They didn’t say much the rest of the way, not until they were close to the garage.

“I’m fine to wait while you do your job first. I hate to think of anyone waiting a second longer than they have to, especially on Christmas Day.”

“You sure?”

She nodded.

There was a car parked out front when they drove into the garage, and a woman climbed out looking stressed, a small child in her arms. Dex introduced himself, and she seemed to relax when she saw Hattie as well.

Not surprising since his size made him more than a little intimidating. Plus, she was a woman on her own with a kid.

“Right, um, shall I just wait in the truck?” Hattie said.

“You mind sticking around?” he said and glanced at the other woman chewing her lip and bouncing her daughter on her hip back over by her car. “I wouldn’t usually ask, but she could probably do with someone to talk to.”

“Oh…yeah, of course,” she said and immediately walked over and introduced herself.

Dex got the keys for her car, drove it inside, and got to work.

It was an easy fix but took a little bit of mucking around, and the whole time he worked he was painfully aware of Hattie. Her voice, her laughter as she worked at easing the other woman’s worries.

When he was finally done, he walked over to join them, and his blood pressure spiked at the way Hattie watched him, the way her gaze moved over him from head to toe and back.

He wanted her so bad his fingers tingled from the memory of touching her. Gut tight from the way it knotted when he was around her. He had so much hunger riding him for the beautiful woman in a red dress only a few feet away that he couldn’t think about anything else.

Hattie didn’t want that, though. He needed to get that through his thick skull. He needed to try and forget about her.