My stomach sank. “I was quitting anyway.”
“Great! I’ll put your check in the mail.”
I stared at him. Outside, lightning forked across the sky.
KC walked through the open door.
Barber let out a little shriek while Jester lost his shit laughing.
My heart swooped. KC looked good and his broad shoulders filled the doorway perfectly. I could almost feel the way he’d touched me. How he’d held me down and fucked me. Was it only four days ago?
My dick took a swift and merciless interest in my surroundings, which I didn’t need. I was still furious at Barber, and we hadn’t finished our discussion, not really. Somehow, even though he’d been the one keeping me from my dreams, he was making me feel like the asshole for wanting to go do something better.
“Heeeey.” KC glanced between me and Barber, whose chest was heaving from all the yelling he’d been doing. “Pa said to tell you that your phone is dead. He has been texting you about dinner tonight. Also, the shouting is bothering his customers, and he says to tell you that Oli is right. He can quit if he wants. And any sane person would quit if he worked for a boss who was shouting loud enough to be heard through a wall.”
“Hey!” Barber’s mouth fell open.
“They’re Pa’s words, not mine!” KC held up his hands, and I’d never seen him looking so apologetic.
I rushed past Barber and KC, scraping my back against the doorframe to wriggle through. The heat radiating off KC’s body was fantastic, especially when the cool rain splashed me. I shivered, despite the fact that it was the tail end of summer.
“You can’t quit!” Barber called.
I flipped him off, and Barber started after me, but KC put himself between us with his hands out. “I’ll talk to him.”
KC came running after me, and I was both mortified and grateful.
“Don’t you have a game?” Water cascaded over my face and I wiped it out of my eyes. My shirt was already soaked, and KC was wearing one of those white muscle shirts he loved, and it was plastered to his beautiful body. I couldn’t keep my eyes off his chest, and when I glanced back up at him, he had a smug grin that made me want to drop to my knees.
And slap him.
After Barber acting all self-entitled, that was the last thing I needed.
“My game is later.”
“Right. At seven. I knew that.” I shivered and crossed my arms over my stomach.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” He followed me along the sidewalk, apparently not caring about the downpour even a little bit. He probably practiced in the rain, though, so perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. Football was an all-weather sport.
“I was trying to quit, and Barber thinks he can tell me I’m not allowed. How messed up is that?”
“And then he kicked you out?” KC grinned. “That sounds like him.”
I groaned and hunched my shoulders against a strong gust of wind that drove cold rain into my face. “How does he always make me act like an idiot?”
KC shrugged and ran a hand over my back. I leaned against his side as relief washed through me. The simple touch made everything feel so much better.
“Pa says it’s the Barber Effect.” He popped a kiss on the top of my head, which had my feet trying to send me onto my ass. I was grateful when he wrapped a strong arm around me. “It happens to Pa, and he’s the most levelheaded person I know.”
“Well, at least I’m in good company. Barber’s never acted this way with me. But, I guess I usually am running support for whatever pops into his head when I’m at work. I don’t think we’ve ever fought.”
KC stopped walking, so my feet slowed down all on their own. He grabbed my hands in both of his, and I loved the warmth and the way he seemed as if he was waiting for me to say something smart. “What’s going on? For real.”
The smile he flashed was sweet and melted my insides into a happy puddle.
My cheeks heated until they felt like they were going to burn off. “I have a chance to work with Ren. He said I could be an apprentice in his shop if I put in the work to improve and get my tattooing skills up to snuff. I want to prove to him that I’m not scared of hard work. He asked me to quit my job so I could focus, I guess. It makes sense.”
KC nodded, but a seriousness settled on his features I’d never really seen in the past. “Is that what you want?”
