Dammit.
I squeezed my eyes closed, focusing on the breath and repeating a self-soothing mantra until it no longer felt like a rope was tightening around my throat.
It wasover.
I wouldn’t have to worry again for another month.
I needed to shift out of that mindset and get my head back in the game.
Everything was fine.
There were no scary guys to think about.
I had some beautiful new plants I needed to check on.
Everything was okay.
“Right, bud?” I asked Ernest, glancing into the backseat. He didn’t bother to open an eye, let alone try to offer me any comfort. That complete and utter peace he felt, though, was like a balm to me too. If anything terrible had actually happened, he would have been freaked out too.
But it was just a little mild inconvenience and scare.
And it wasover.
Sucking in one final breath, I turned off the engine, grabbed my purse and coffee, then climbed out to coax Ernest out of the backseat. It was a task that took fifteen minutes and that sweat I’d wiped away was back in force by the time I finally made it into the plant shop.
I didn’t keep the air on very high at night, knowing all the plants were tropical and preferred to be on the warmer side, so there was no real relief from being indoors until I cranked the air up and stood under a vent, fanning cool air up under my shirt.
“Hot,” Traeger declared, coming in from the back with two cups of iced coffee in his hands, checking me out.
“Yeah, maybe in the literal sense,” I agreed.
“In both definitions of the word,” he insisted.
I knew perfectly well I was a mess.
I had on overalls so worn that the blue was mostly white at the knees and around the clasps. My hair was partially covered by a bandana because I’d stress-sweated through my shower the night before, and my hair looked limp and greasy.
“Oh, please,” I said with an eye roll as I chugged the last of my from-home coffee so I could start on Traeg’s superior one.
“I mean it! Overalls with only a sports bra underneath? Hot.”
My eyes went round as my hand shot down to the open sides of the overalls, feeling only a swatch of material and then bare belly skin.
“Oh my God.”
“You didn’t mean to do that, did you?”
“No! I definitely meant to put a shirt on.”
“Well, you didn’t. And it’s a good look. I never even realized you had boobs before,” he admitted.
With a helpless whimper, I moved into the bathroom to check out my reflection.
Sure enough, all I had on under the overalls was a bright yellow sports bra, the kind I wore in a never-ending attempt to stave off the dreaded boob sweat.
And while I wasn’t exactly super blessed in the boob department, what I did have was pretty on display right then.
Great.
