- Doug
- Migraine inducing
- Smart ass mouth
- Too damn young
- Will push all buttons
- Might lose job—see line one
- Can’t stop thinking about her
Seven and seven for each. A fucking draw.
“I thought these lists were supposed to make shit better, not worse,” I muttered to myself, taking a sip of beer. Even that seemed to taste funny. Clearly, I shouldn’t be doing any of this shit right now because I was a mess.
The sound of a diesel engine caught my attention, and Inoticed a bright light coming down the caliche road leading toward my cabin. It was going too fast, too reckless given the weather, but they didn’t slow. They came to a screeching halt, headlights streaming through the window.
Whoever it was, better have a damn good explanation for pulling straight up and not using the carport. Given the season, my grass may have been dead right now, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care how it looked.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
I jerked my head toward the entrance when their fist thudded loudly against the wooden door.
“Bishop!” Lennox called, and for a split second, relief flooded my system. But then it dried up like the fucking desert as she said, “Open this fucking door, you coward!”
What was she doing out here in the middle of a thunderstorm? I hurried out of my seat, reaching my door in five steps before ripping it open.
Lennox stood in the pouring rain, looking like she’d just fallen in the ocean and drug herself back up to land. The small awning was hardly offering protection from the storm, but she didn’t care. Her eyes narrowed to thin slits, but the startling icy blue color was glowing with undiluted fury.
She pushed past me, tracking in mud and soaking my floor with the water dripping from her clothes. And then she stood in the middle of my living room, arms crossed and not giving a fuck.
I checked outside, seeing her truck still running, and a bright ass light bar across the top was focused on the door. “Uh, your truck is?—”
“I don’t give a shit about the truck, you stupid prick!” she yelled.
“Alright,” I said, slowly closing the door. I’d learned early on that pushing Lennox’s buttons was all fun and games until she reached the point of no return. Once that happened… It was best to mind your balls because she would absolutely try busting them. “Mind telling me what you do give a shit about then?”
She let out a frustrated growl before storming over and jabbing her finger in the middle of my chest. “You! I give a shit aboutyou.Maybe that makes me the fucking fool in this scenario, but here we are. Here I am, making the big gesture, laying it all out on the line for your old ass.”
“Woah, woah,” I said, placing my hands on her shoulder. She promptly shrugged them off, and I held them up in a promise not to touch her if that wasn’t what she wanted. “Slow down, killer?—”
“Don’t call me that,” she hissed.
“Alright, Lennox… What’s going on here? I don’t understand what’s happening.”
Lennox snorted. “Of course you don’t. You’re completely oblivious to everything and everyone around you—living in your own world.”
I rolled my shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension tightening my muscles. I didn’t know if I’d ever seen her this mad before, and I’d held her back from getting into a shit ton of fights over the years. Whatever this was—whatever I’d done—it surpassed anything I’d experienced.
For all her teasing, Lennox wasn’t ever inherently rude or insulting to others. She could be passive-aggressive as hell sometimes, but I felt so out of my depth with this wave of anger.
“Lennox—”
“Why did you leave this morning?” she asked, jutting her chin out in a show of strength. One that might have worked if I didn’t know her so damn well. It wobbled slightly, and she was clenching her jaw so hard I thought it might pop. When I didn’t answer her quickly enough, she repeated her question, accenting each word with a sharp jab. “Why. Did. You. Leave?”
I rubbed at my chest. “I—I had work. I just?—”
