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I helped her resituate her dress, her tugging down the skirt while I pulled up the front and blindly reached around her neck so I could hook the clasp.

Our noses brushed, and her lips were a mere inch away.

Took every ounce of willpower I had to stop myself from kissing her.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured instead.

Her head barely shook. “I’m not.”

I caressed my thumb along the contour of her cheek. “Want you to know that was the best thing that has ever happened to me, Lena.”

I wanted to keep going. Confess everything.

But Regan hollering from the front stopped me in my tracks.

“Yo, Trev, you guys about ready?”

“Fuck,” I grunted, feeling like slime. A fucking sleazebag sneaking around.

“Yup!” I shouted back like I was completely innocent.

I gave Elena a look of apology. “We need to go. I’m going to go talk to him.”

“I just need to grab a couple things,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll meet you out front.”

Her nod was soft. Too soft. As soft as her lips.

And fuck me, I was the shittiest fuckbag that ever existed because all I could think about was that I should have kissed her while I had the chance.

I forced myself out of the breakroom and into the storage room, roughing two flustered hands through my hair like it might be enough to wipe the evidence of my transgression from my flesh, but there would be no undoing it from my soul.

And I was the selfish prick who wanted to keep it there.

Tattoo it as true as the images that littered my flesh.

I took the hall and strode out into the main area of the store like nothing had happened.

Regan stood right inside, the door propped open with the heel of his boot. His red hair stuck up all over the place, as raucous as his grin. “Dude, what’s taking so long? Was worried you fell down the toilet.”

I fell down some kind of hole, that was for sure.

“Wanted to make sure everything was cleaned up tonight so Elena doesn’t have to worry about it before opening tomorrow morning.”

How easily the lies tumbled from my tongue. I mean, we had actually cleaned up before shit had gone down, but it had no bearing on why it’d taken so long.

Why time had warped.

Honestly, for me, it’d felt like it stopped.

Clearly, not for Regan and the rest.

“No worries. You need any help?”

“Nope. We’re finished. Elena is grabbing a couple things, and we’ll be ready to go.”

My boots thudded on the worn floor as I strode through the store toward the door. Regan stepped out onto the porch area, and I followed.