Page 107 of Falling for the Playboy Pilot

“Watch it, Pickle.”

“Or what? You’ll punch me too? Go ahead. Add me to your list of people you’ve pushed away. But before you do, let me tell you something. That girl is the best thing that’s happened to you since I’ve known you. And you just threw it away over a fucking toothbrush. And I do not appreciate you screwing up what I’m trying to get going with Laser. Quit being a dick. You’re making all of us look bad.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know you’ve been walking around here like you actually give a shit about something other than flying for the first time in years. I know you’ve been smiling more. Hell, you even laughed at Gilbert’s stupid joke yesterday. When’s the last time you did that?”

I turned away from him, but he wasn’t done.

“And I know that right now, you’re miserable. More miserable than you’ve been in a long time. So tell me, how’s that working out for you? This whole ‘keep everyone at arm’s length’ strategy?”

“It’s working fine,” I lied.

“Right. That’s why you’re standing here looking like someone ripped your heart out and stomped on it.”

I whirled around to face him. “I don’t have a heart to rip out. That’s the whole fucking point.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” He shook his head and left me alone.

I went back to work. While I was doing my best to be pissed, Max showed up. It wouldn’t leave me alone.

I stared at the cat and sighed. “Fine. I’ll take you home. You tear up my couch, shit in my shoe, or fuck up my blinds, I’m tossing your ass out.”

I didn’t know how in the hell to take care of a cat, but once the season really kicked off, the place was going to be wild. I didn’t want it to get run over or ignored.

I scooped him into my arms and carried him to my truck. There was a pet store in town where I would go find supplies.

Nearly two hundred dollars later, I had everything the employee told me I needed for a cat.

“You’re an expensive houseguest,” I muttered.

I carried Max into the cabin and watched him immediately start exploring every corner like he owned the place.

“You hike your leg and you’re done,” I warned.

I unpacked all the supplies I’d bought: food bowls, litter box, scratching post, toys, bed, enough cat food to feed a small army.

“Alright, buddy,” I said, filling the food bowl. “This is your new setup. Don’t make me regret this.”

Max ignored me completely, too busy investigating the space under my couch. I set up the litter box in the bathroom and put his bed near the window where the afternoon sun streamed in. The scratching post went in the corner, though I had a feeling my furniture was still doomed.

When I finished arranging everything, I grabbed a beer from the fridge and headed out to the porch. It was the kind of view that usually helped clear my head, but tonight it just made me think about how Janna had looked at it yesterday morning.

I took a long pull from my beer and settled into the wooden chair.

Max padded out onto the porch and hopped into my lap. At first, I just sat there. It felt so strange. But Max seemed to understand he had been adopted and that was that. His purr was loud and echoed around the area. I was used to silence. The irony wasn’t lost on me—I’d just adopted a cat while pushing away the one person who actually mattered to me.

“You think I’m an idiot too, don’t you?” I asked him, scratching behind his ears.

He just purred louder, like he was agreeing with me. I took another swig of beer and stared out at the sky. Janna was probably telling Cheryl what a complete asshole I was. She wouldn’t be wrong.

The thing was, I knew exactly what I was doing when I blew up at her this morning. I’d been looking for an excuse, waiting for her to give me a reason to push her away. And she handed it to me on a silver platter with that innocent comment about a fucking toothbrush.

But sitting here now, with nothing but the mountain air and my own twisted thoughts for company, I couldn’t shake the look on her face when I told her I regretted everything.

It wasn’t true and I think part of her knew that. Two nights of me holding her said otherwise. I couldn’t say one thing and do another. I couldn’t hold her and make her feel like my queen and then push her away the next second.

I’d wanted to hurt her. I’d wanted to make sure she walked away and never looked back. Mission accomplished.