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He liked his house. It was quiet. People left him alone. No one stared. “I work.”
“Exactly.” His sister tossed up her hands. “You work, go home and then go to work again. You need to get out.”
“I appreciate the thought, Luciana,” Olivia sputtered as she pressed her thumbnail into her finger. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“It is the perfect idea.” Jaw set, Luciana eyeballed him before turning her stony gaze to Olivia. “You…” she pointed at Olivia, “need someone to rein in your crazy. And you…” she glared at Mateo, “…need to stop hiding in your man cave and spend some time in the civilized world.”
“I’m not hiding.” He couldn’t stop the words, even knowing they were totally futile. If he didn’t do it, Luciana wouldn’t stop bugging him about it. She’d push and she’d push and she’d push until he either spontaneously combusted or gave in. Either way, she’d win.
Luciana crossed her arms. “It’s decided.”
It may be decided, but that didn’t mean he had to like it, and judging by Olivia’s stick-up-her-amazing-ass posture, he wasn’t alone. He shook his head. Despite everything, he was on the same side of an argument with Olivia Sweet. Someone up there really did hold a grudge.
“And it’ll be perfect to have you working together since Olivia will be staying at Dad’s old cabin behind your house.”
Mateo’s stomach dropped to his toes. “What?!”
“Luciana,” Olivia squealed. “I can’t do that.”
After his parents divorced, his dad had built a small cabin/guest house on the back of their property and lived in it while Mateo, Luciana and their mom had lived in the house. It had been vacant since his dad retired to Texas. Still, there was no way he could live half a football field away from Olivia and hold on to what little bit of sanity he still had left when it came to her.
“Everyone in town knows your sisters, Sean and Logan are all shacked up together at your uncle Julian’s old house,” Luciana said. “That place isn’t big enough for five people and the cabin is just sitting empty waiting for you.”
Olivia shook her head, the light-brown waves turning golden in the afternoon sunlight slanting in through The Kitchen Sink’s windows. “I don’t think—”
“And forget about rent. My brother, the hermit, has been renovating the bathroom for the past three months but the only progress he’s made is to yank out the shower. That mean’s you’ll have to trudge across the backyard to use the shower in the main house, so there’s no way we could charge rent. It’s perfect.”
Sharing a bathroom with Olivia. Giving her free rein to come in his house whenever she wanted. His brain immediately conjured an image of her in the barely there, see-through lingerie she’d worn at the hotels they’d stayed at—but instead of a five-star hotel, he imagined her wearing it in his house, his shower, his bed. His cock liked the picture. Liked it enough that Mateo had to shift in his seat to accommodate its thickening length.
“Do I have any say in this?” he grumbled.
True to her bulldozing form, Luciana just shrugged. “Dad left the cabin to me, so I can let whoever I want stay there, and you wouldn’t leave her to wash in the creek out back, would you?”
“Luciana, it’s sweet of you to offer but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” Olivia’s cheeks had turned pink—the same shade they got whenever he had started talking dirty, telling her exactly how he was going to touch her, lick her and fuck her until she came so hard she couldn’t move.
Looked like he wasn’t the only one remembering old times.
He caught a glimpse of his twisted reflection in the metal napkin dispenser on the table. The sight was like having a gallon of ice water dumped over his head. She wasn’t getting turned-on. Olivia was embarrassed because she didn’t know how to say
no to his sister’s offer.
The perverse urge to have her stay in the cabin fifty yards from his back door took hold of him with a steel grip. The pretty Olivia and the beastly him. Having to see the disappointment and revulsion in her eyes every time she looked at him would be just the punishment he needed to pay for the sin he’d committed against his team by living when they’d all died.
“This place comes totally furnished—including a bed—just minus a shower. And have you looked at the rental market in Salvation lately? It’s awful.” Luciana continued her verbal battle. “Anyway, if you don’t say yes, I’ll just keep nagging until I wear you down.”
Looking at Olivia, knowing he’d walked away from her before the explosion and that she’d never want him after, hurt him in a way he couldn’t even begin to describe—even if he had been that sort of touchy-feely bullshit kind of guy. But the pain was good. It was real. As long as he ached, he wouldn’t forget the Marines…the friends…he’d left behind.
He turned toward Oliva, the move bringing his knee into contact with hers. Something sparked in her blue eyes, but she dropped her gaze before he could figure out what. Disgust, no doubt.
“Luciana’s right,” he said. “The cabin is perfect. I’ll even help you move in.”
Ignoring the unspoken question making his sister’s eyebrows arch, he downed the dregs of his lukewarm coffee and hoped like hell he hadn’t just made another life-altering mistake.
Chapter Five
The paper straw wrapper crinkled between Olivia’s fingers as she refolded it for the fifth time in the ten minutes since Luciana had left The Kitchen Sink with her sleepy kids. Like an idiot, she’d stayed behind in the vain hope she could actually work with Mateo the Surly. She’d switched sides in the booth so she sat opposite him and then held an entire brainstorming session for the fundraiser by herself. She’d talked, thrown out ideas, wondered aloud—he’d glared at his coffee mug.
Awkward didn’t even begin to cover it.
