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"Yeah, Andrew is. I don't know Jeremy all that well, so I doubt he was being protective."
"He definitely was. Face it, Eve, everyone loves you."
My pulse sped up. Everyone loved me? He didn't mean to include himself in that statement, for sure. Did I wish he had?
No, of course not. We'd known each other for a matter of days.
At the hardware store, we ran into someone I'd hoped to avoid for the rest of my life.
Quentin Smith walked down the plumbing aisle toward us.
I tried to pretend I didn't notice him, focusing on the tools Val was examining. I even tried to block Val's view of the human disaster striding in our direction. I wasn't tall enough to block Val, though. Rats.
Quentin stopped an arm's length away from me. "Eve."
I pretended I'd just noticed him and pasted on a bland smile. "Quentin."
Val's eyes narrowed, and a muscle ticked in his jaw.
"Good to see you," Quentin said to me, actively ignoring the imposing man beside me. "I wanted to apologize again for the way I acted. I'm sorry. I'd like to come back to work."
Was he strung out on heroin? He couldn't seriously think I'd give him his job back.
"That's not going to happen," I said. "You firebombed that bridge."
"Any bridge can be rebuilt." He inched closer. "Please, Eve. Gimme another chance."
I didn't get the opportunity to tell Quentin to go to hell. Val beat me to it.
He moved between me and Quentin. "Eve said no. Walk away."
The dark tone of his voice implied he might resort to violence to convince Quentin to leave me alone. What happened to not being jealous? Val had sworn he wouldn't act this way.
I laid a hand on Val's arm. "It's okay. I can handle this."
His gaze flicked to me, then back to Quentin.
My former handyman glared at Val. "I'm talking to Eve, not you, Tarzan."
I squeezed between the two men, turning sideways to both of them. "Enough machismo. Val, I can take care of this myself. Quentin, I fired you and that's that. Goodbye."
Without waiting for either of them to speak again, I marched off down the aisle and swung left into the main aisle. I had no clue where I was going. Getting away from the Testosterone Anonymous meeting was my sole purpose.
Val caught up to me in the paint aisle. "Are you all right?"
"Fine. I love it when big, brawny men fight over me while completely ignoring the fact I'm standing right next to them."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have intervened."
A long sigh gusted out of me. "It's okay. Quentin has been a complete asshole to you."
"To you too." Val leaned against the shelves that held gallons of paint. "I won't get in your way again. Should we go back to buying supplies?"
"Yes."
The whole time we were shopping for plumbing stuff, I kept wondering why Val had been so protective of me when Quentin showed up. He'd been overprotective, actually. He despised Quentin, and my former handyman despised him. Quentin's reaction to Val made sense now that I realized Quentin had thought I belonged to him because we'd had sex once. But Val's reaction to Quentin…
He couldn't be jealous. Could he?
