Luke’s face seemed to turn even redder as his eyes flitted around.
“But… here.” He set a bowl and spoon from the dish rack on the table along with one pint of the ice cream before putting the second container in the freezer section of the minifridge. “Help yourself to a snack. I’ll just…” He motioned at the curtain again.
“Okay.” I nodded.
“Okay,” he whispered back. Then he disappeared behind the curtain to change out of his wet clothes.
My heart was still thumping erratically for some reason, and my eyes remained glued to the curtain. The rustle of clothes and hiss of a zipper made me blink and squint as if that would somehow give me X-ray vision.
Why did I care? I didn’t. But, well… I needed him to get dry and warm. Obviously.
You don’t need to watch a curtain in order for that to happen.
I quickly scrambled up to spoon out the ice cream. Luke Williams was a grown man. He could get warm and dry on his own. It had nothing to do with me.
Except, of course, that I could hear every movement of fabric and body parts. I swallowed and focused on the ice cream, determinedly putting my eyes elsewhere in the room…
Which was when I saw the calendar.
What was it he’d babbled about the night before? Me carrying his sheep? I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but there was an entire calendar of images just like that tacked to one of the cabinets. I darted a look at the closed curtain and leafed through the calendar quickly. One half-naked, oily-chested man after another posed with adorable baby cows, andtiny chicks, and puppies, and pygmy goats, and… oh,fuck. Sheep.
Damn if Mr. May didn’t look like a buffer, shinier, muscly-er… me.
Had Luke thought about…?
I mean, it wasn’t possible he’d ever…
I adjusted my pants, squeezing my dick a little harder than necessary in warning, and kept my eyes on my ice cream bowl so I wouldn’t think about Luke and any potential sexy thoughts.
That’s when he started babbling again.
“Probably seems silly to spend so much time working on a place like this, but why be miserable if you don’t have to? Might be a long while before the roof gets fixed. You’ve gotta take joy where you can get it, right? Oh, and speaking of the roof,doyou know anyone who does slate? It’s gonna be a while before I can afford it, but it’ll be good to know how much that’ll run me.”
My eyes had snuck back to the moving lumps behind the curtain when Luke’s phone squawked from the counter next to my elbow.
Luke poked his head out of the gap in the curtains and caught me spooning a clump of ice cream into my mouth.
“Shoot! I forgot my mom was supposed to call. You can ignore that.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, reaching for the phone and noticing it was a video call from his mom. I was grateful for the distraction. “I’ll grab it.”
“Wait—” Luke started to say, but I’d already slid my finger to accept.
“Oh my gosh, Lukey! FaceTime actually worked! And you… Oh. You’re not Luke.”
“No, ma’am,” I agreed, smiling at her kind face. She had Luke’s eyes and the same little crease Luke had on his nose that deepened when he got flustered.
“But youarea tall drink of gorgeous,” she said with a grin. “What might your name be?”
“Er. I’m…” I glanced over at Luke to see what he wanted me to say, when I noticed he had the bottom of the curtain wrapped around his groin andabsolutely nothing else on.
Suddenly, it was broiling hot in the tiny trailer.
I blinked at him, forgetting for a long, embarrassing moment that his mother was waiting for my answer. When she cleared her throat, I snapped back to attention. “I’m…Webb Sunday?” I said, squeaking it out like a question. “Webb Sunday. Luke’s neighbor.”
“Oh, yes! Webb! I’m so excited that I finally get to meet one of you boys! I’ve heard so much about you and your brothers.”
I glanced over at Luke in surprise. He’d mentioned me to his mom? Me?
