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I was grinning widely at her as she jabbered, and by the time she was finished, I could tell that she was nervous.
Why was she nervous?
“I actually didn’t know that you lived here, exactly,” she said. “I was meeting with the property manager’s daughter when she showed me this place. I saw your bike and thought it was yours, but honestly, I’m not all that good with bikes. I can’t tell this one from that one.”
She pointed to my bike. Then the Ninja sports bike that Hayes, another buddy of mine that was also on the SWAT team with me, owned.
They couldn’t be more different from each other.
“Then I came over again last night, I guess sometime after you got done with whatever you were doing,” she continued. “Your truck was here, and your bike was gone. And since I’d seen that yesterday morning, I knew that you were the one that lived here.” She paused for a deep breath. “I swear I’m not a stalker.”
At that, I couldn’t help but grin.
“I never said that you were,” I told her. “You got anything else in your car that you need help with?”
She licked her lips, and her eyes danced down my body.
It was then that I realized I was shirtless, it was pretty damn nippy outside, and she was staring at me like two friends shouldn’t stare at each other.
My nipples were hard as fuck due to the chill in the air, and I swear to God she was staring so hard that I almost moved forward just so she could touch.
But she blinked, turned her head to the side, and stared at my ear as she said, “No, I don’t have anything else. I was just bringing over what was left in my car. I brought some of the stuff from my old room yesterday.”
I glanced behind her into the duplex beyond.
It was empty except for like three bags, a stack of blankets, and about a gazillion Walmart bags.
“I need to buy a trash can,” she said. “And a washer and dryer.”
I grinned at her.
“I’d offer you the use of my washer and dryer,” I said. “But I don’t own one. I just take all my shit to my mom and she still does it for me.”
She blinked.
Then blinked again, much more slowly.
Then started to laugh.
“That’s funny,” she admitted. “And I’ll be doing that until I can afford to get one.”
“What?” I asked. “Taking it to my mom?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Funny,” she said. “But no, taking it over to my parents’ place. I’ll just have to be super careful about when I go.”
I frowned. “Why?”
She scrunched up her nose in disgust.
“My parents are very, what you would call, randy,” she said. “I swear to God, I walked in there last night after dropping off a load of crap here, and they were making out in the kitchen. My dad almost had my mom’s shirt halfway off, and I nearly had to bleach my eyes.”
I started to chuckle as I gestured for her to follow me over to my place.
“Come make coffee,” I said. “And let me get dressed.”
She swallowed hard and then nodded but switched directions halfway through cutting between our yard to run down to her car.
She started closing doors and stopped before closing the last one, leaning over into her seat and reaching to the back floorboard.
My eyes were so focused on her ass that I didn’t realize that Derek, her brother, had jogged up until he was nearly right on top of me.
I cleared my throat and looked away from his sister’s ass, but that wasn’t enough. He’d still caught me.
His eyes narrowed on me just as Rowen straightened up from her car.
“Oh, hey, Derek,” Rowen said, sounding surprised. “Did you just get back from your run?”
Derek rolled his eyes.
“No, I’m just getting started,” he panted, dripping sweat so badly that it looked as if he’d just stepped out of a pool rather than gone for a run.
I would know.
I often looked like that after I worked out in Texas, too.
It was just impossible to stay cool.
“Oh.” Rowen eyed him. “Are you sure?”
Derek popped his earbud back into his ear and said, “Have fun in San Antonio.”
Rowen pulled the box of donuts from her seat and tucked them under her arm like one would a baby, then closed the door to her car before bleeping the locks.
Derek stopped in his forward propulsion, eyeing the donuts.
“You brought donuts?” he asked.
She turned her body away from his and started up the path to my place.
“I would’ve offered you one,” she said. “But you were a dick so…”
Derek cursed as she walked all the way inside my place, acting as if she’d been there a hundred times before.
“If I’d have known she had donuts,” Derek said. “I would’ve been nicer to her.”
