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Shit. She can’t get a job! A job meant her going out. Meeting people, possibly my people. A job meant roots and strings. Suddenly, what was supposed to be a simple business transaction felt really fucking complicated. Liar, that stubborn voice whispered, it started to be complicated the moment you fell head over ass for her with one look. I felt like growling.
“A job. You know, to pay for things?” she sassed, and my eye twitched.
“What things?” What could she want that I wouldn’t be able to give her?
“Hey, March!” Luke’s voice called out, and I heard the door to the sheriff’s SUV shut. His heavy boots moved closer toward us, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Sunny. She is mine, not his! I knew how stupid it sounded in my head. I was a grown man, not a petulant child.
“Hey, Sheriff,” I murmured, keeping my eyes on Sunny.
“You didn’t tell me you were going to have such a pretty houseguest. How is it that you two know one another again? Miss Castro didn’t share,” he inquired, more than likely to tell my brothers and cousins.
“I think a better question is how is it you brought her home?” I avoided answering his question by serving him one of my own.
My gaze sliced toward him, and he looked like he wanted to laugh. I’d known the asshole since grade school. He was best friends with one of my cousins and was always around the ranch and family get-togethers.
“He saw me walking home and offered me a ride back,” Sunny shared, and my jaw clenched. Why didn’t she ask me for a ride? I was the one she was going to marry in less than twenty-four hours. “Thanks again for the ride, Sheriff.”
“Luke,” he corrected, and something in my gut tightened. I didn’t like him trying to be that familiar with Sunny. She was mine, not his. “Have a good night, you two.” He tipped his head and waved goodbye. Before he made it to SUV, he turned and called Sunny’s name just as I walked toward her and stood next to her. We both turned to look at him. “The card I gave you has my personal cell on it. Use that number if you ever need anything, okay?”
I was surprised my jaw didn’t crack with how hard it clenched. The asshole was playing with fire. But the real kicker was the fact Sunny nodded, waved goodbye, and made her way into the house.
All without sparing me one damn look.
My hands clenched into tight fists. My short nails embedded themselves into the rough calloused flesh of my palms. I stood there long after Luke drove away and Sunny had walked into the house. I needed to keep my cool. When I stepped inside, the most incredible scent wafted into my nose.
“Sunny?” I called and saw her head pop out of the fridge. Her eyes caught mine, and I snapped. “What the hell was that?” If she was surprised by my outburst, she didn’t show it.
“What the hell was what?” she asked calmly. Too calmly. The woman sauntered toward the stove, her hips swaying this way and that. Almost like they were purposely trying to hypnotize me. “March?” she called my name, and I couldn’t control all the blood traveling south when I was around her.
“You going to town?” I asked carefully. We were about six feet apart, with her back to me, as she cooked god only knew what, but fuck, it made my mouth water.
“I needed to find a job,” she shared like it was no big deal. And maybe if I’d tried to talk to her the last seventy-two hours, really talk, she would have told me. Instead, I’d avoided her.
“Why? I can support the two of us,” I pointed out. It seemed there were a lot of details we should have talked about.
“I never asked you to support me. And just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” She was stirring what looked like some kind of beef in a pan. “And it’s not like we really talked about what happens after.”
“After?”
“We get married tomorrow.” She glanced at me over her shoulder. “I mean, come on, March, it’s not like we’ve talked that much about anything.” Her eyes dropped, and she turned again. Cooking and acting like I wasn’t standing there. “You’ve been avoiding me,” she pointed out, and even though we both knew that was true, she had put a brick wall between us first.
“What do you wanna talk about?” I asked.
“Do you really want to make a life with someone? Or is this deal for your benefit only?”
“What’s that supposed to—" I started to clip, but she shook her head.
“Do I look stupid?” she challenged me, her attitude clear as day. Attitude I had never liked or appreciated, but fuck me, I was sick in the head when it came to Sunny.
I didn’t just like it, I loved it.
“Could you stop answering questions with questions and be clear with me,” she pleaded gently.
Her beautiful dark brown eyes locked with mine for a moment, and I felt like a goddamn goldfish in a bowl. Being watched so damn closely, I could swear she could see right through me. I must have taken too long to answer because she scoffed and turned around. I missed her eyes immediately.
“That’s what I thought,” she murmured under her breath. Sunny’s attention returned to whatever she was cooking while I just stood there, like a lump on a log, waiting. For what I wasn’t sure. Say something, you idiot! That voice perked up, and when I opened my mouth, she turned.
“Can you grab us some bowls?” I cleared my throat and forced myself to shuffle my booted feet toward a kitchen cabinet.
