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“Copy,” she replied, and I swore the word came out strained, like she’d said it through her teeth.
“Alright, boys,” I said, clapping my hands to regain everyone’s attention. “Let’s wrap this up and make sure y’all get your friend Jimmy in on the joke before he has a coronary.”
They all agreed, then offered apologies one by one as they filed out of the basement with a mix of sheepish grins and embarrassed shrugs.
“Unbelievable,” Shep muttered when we were the last two in the cellar. “This is just… What’s wrong with a good ol’ fashioned bachelor party? Are we that old?”
“When you ask questions like that,” I said as I patted his shoulder on the way to the stairs, “I’m thinkin’ that means you are.”
19/
paisley
I was in the break room, pouring myself yet another cup of coffee, when Adam walked in, fresh off the call at the barn. He raised an eyebrow from the doorway, and I had the sudden urge to kick him.
For a few reasons, in fact.
“Ya know, they say too much coffee ain’t good for ya,” he drawled with a smirk.
“Really? Well, if I didn’t drink so much coffee, I wouldn’t get through my to-do list,” I retorted.
I brought my mug to my lips, inhaling deeply just to spite him. Then I took a sip of the hot liquid as if to prove my point, humming as if it was the best cup of coffee I’d ever had instead of one of the worst.
But the joke was on me because when I looked up, the heat in his gaze as he watched me was ten times hotter than the coffee.
“Maybe you could stand to be a little less busy, Paisley. There are more important things in life than work,” he said, almost serious now, as he strode deeper into the room.
“Ha! You’re one to talk. Actually… You know what? For someone who supposedly cares so much about his job, you sure weren’t very good at it today.”
“Excuse me?” he asked, stepping even closer, his brown eyes narrowing in confusion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I could feel my frustration bubbling up, and I knew I had to let it out. “You! Entering that cellar without waiting for backup like some kind of Rambo cowboy? And then, when Hope was tryin’ to raise you on the radio, you didn’t answer her. I nearly had a heart attack, Adam!”
“Wait, you were worried about me?” he asked, a hint of surprise in his voice as he moved closer, so close that his pine and cinnamon scent replaced the smell of fresh coffee in my nostrils.
“I was worried about your momma worryin’ about you.”
It was childish, but it was also true.
“Did you just make a ‘your momma’ joke?”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. She’d be devastated if anythin’ happened to you, and you know it.”
“Fine.” This time, when he came closer, he put his hands on either side of me and leaned against the counter, bracketing me in with his strong arms and broad chest.
“Fine,” I repeated.
It took all of my strength to ignore the sudden awareness of his proximity, and it occurred to me that holding a hot cup of coffee between us was a disaster waiting to happen. I didn’t trust myself not to dump it all over us both if he said or did anything that caused my hands to lose their ability to function.
Unfortunately, it took my last shreds of strength to keep my hand steady as I twisted to put my coffee down. So when he leaned even more into my space, I didn’t have a shield against the spark of mischief in his eyes.
“I’m not askin’ about how my momma would feel,” he went on. “Come on now, how would you feel if somethin’ happened to me?”
“Upset,” I admitted, my voice barely more than a whisper. “I’d be upset. Satisfied?”
“Just ‘upset’?”
I tipped up my chin. “Don’t push it.”
