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Maybe I should have kept them apart for my own safety. Hell… my own sanity.
Nate looks up as I walk in and the second his eyes land on my wet hair and dripping body, he smothers a grin. Jesse and Jackson though, they don’t have the same self-control. They howl in laughter and I let out an annoyed huff.
Nate sucker punches them both and they walk away, rubbing their arms as he starts pulling off his dry shirt.
I walk over to him and before he reaches out to hold me, he peels the wet shirt from my body, wrings out my hair and slides his warm dry one over my head. I curl my hair up into a bun, pissed off that I bothered going to the effort to wash it this morning, and step out of my wet shoes.
Only then Nate finally wraps me in his arms.
I let out a satisfied sigh. This is what I’ve been looking for all day.
“How are you feeling?” he murmurs as I feel two wet circles appear on the front of Nate’s dry shirt where my wet bra begins to soak through.
I close my eyes as I listen to his words rumble through his strong chest. “Better now,” I tell him. “I need a new couch though. Brylee and Tyson screwed on it all night.”
“Ugh,” he grunts in disgust. “What was she thinking? Does she know he’s seen more action than Jesse’s toilet seat?”
“By the ashamed look on her face, I’d dare say she does,” I grumble. “Have you got much work done?”
“Not enough,” he says with a sigh. “I think I’m going to have to hire someone. I can’t keep forcing the boys to help me out all the time. They have their own shit going on.”
“Yeah, but you know they love it. Any excuse to be around the great Nate Ryder.”
He rolls his eyes. “Shut up.” He lets out a breath. “I got another two projects this week and I told them I won’t be able to get to it until the Miura is done and they still want to use me. They want to wait.”
I grin up at the guy who’s about to dominate the car industry, so damn proud of him. “You really need a whole team, don’t you?”
“If work keeps coming in like this, then yeah. Jackson said he knows a few guys who might be interested from Haven Falls.”
I scrunch up my face. “Really?”
“Just because it’s a bit rougher than here doesn’t mean they’re bad guys. Jackson and Kaylah are from Haven Falls, remember? They’re not bad.”
“Kaylah isn’t,” I scoff. “I’m starting to have second thoughts about Jackson.”
Jackson’s voice calls out through the shop. “I heard that, fucker.”
“You were meant to, dipshit,” I call back.
Nate squeezes me, stealing back my attention. “I thought you’d use the day to study.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Nah, I’d rather be here. My house is a mess and smells like vomit,” I tell him. “I don’t think I’ll go back for a few hours. Brooke organized a cleaner and I want to make sure it’s done before I have to look at it again.”
“Good plan,” he says.
I look up at those dark, inviting eyes that I love so much. “Speaking of my studies,” I tell him. His brows pull down as he waits for me to continue. “I’m going to cut back a few classes.”
“What?” he grunts. “Are you joking?”
“No, I’ve been seriously thinking about it. I have no life anymore. I go to class, go home, study, and go to bed. Then I get up and do it all over again. I’m exhausting myself and it’s only a few weeks in. I still have seven years of this shit and I’ll never make it if I keep going,” I explain. “I think I was just excited about finally being here. This way, I can focus more on the topic I’m actually doing, rather than rushing through it so I can get to the next thing, it will be better in the long run. Besides, I kind of miss seeing you all the time.”
“I see you every night,” he grins.
“It’s not enough.”
Nate’s lips come down on mine. “Do you have any idea how fucking happy that makes me?”
I can’t help but kiss him back. “I’m hoping it means I get some extra special attention tonight.”
“You bet your sweet ass it does.”
Boyish laughter and cheering cuts through Nate’s shop and has me spinning in his arms, looking for the two man-children that we let loose around here, but when the laughter comes again, I realize they’re outside.
“What the hell are they doing?” I ask as Nate takes my hand and leads me towards the door of his shop.
“Who fucking knows?” he groans, clearly knowing that with these two boys, they could be up to just about anything. I mean, it’s pouring with rain outside. There’s literally nothing for them to be doing out there.
