AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Cassidy, that’s terrific news, isn’t it?” Ester points her cheeky smile in my direction.
“Um—”
“I can knock out the inspection as we go,” Declan adds. “Keep things moving forward.”
“Sounds great.” I force a smile, certain it looks like some kid who’s just been told she has to say thank you for the homemade bunny suit she got for Christmas and try it on. How the hell am I going to get a damn thing done if the man is distracting me every second of the day?
I’d have better luck facing off with the giant spider hiding out in my bar than resisting Declan Maxwell when he’s nonstop in my orbit.
4
DECLAN
“I think we got lucky man,” Micah Ericson—friend, roommate, fellow volunteer firefighter, and owner of Ericson Fire Sprinklers—says as he steps down from his ladder and moves it to the corner of the room. We’ve spent the morning removing ceiling panels, crossing our fingers that we wouldn’t need to replace much drywall at the end of this.
Though the sprinkler system is ancient, the ceiling brackets are in solid shape. We just have to be careful not to fuck them up tearing out the old system or installing the new. I’m taking every precaution we can to keep Cassidy’s grand opening on schedule.
I look behind me toward the door, not for the first or even fifth time today. The curvy beauty that continually haunts my dreams handed over a key when I last saw her at Ester’s three days ago. She’s been on a mission to avoid me, and to my fucking dismay, she’s been pretty successful. But with her grand opening only a few days away and her bookshelves still empty, I’m surprised she hasn’t been around today.
“Earth to Declan,” Micah says, holding a glove up like he plans to throw it at me. “I need a five-eighths wrench.”
I fish one out of the tool box and hand it over.
“You’re really hung up on her, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to marry her, man.” It’s not the first time I’ve spoken those words, and Micah isn’t the only one to hear them. I’ve known this to be fact since the moment I laid eyes on Cassidy. She’s the one. She’s the reason no one else has ever worked out or that my soul has never felt stirred by another woman.
I’ve been waiting for her.
“Well, while you’re planning your wedding, can you hand me that hammer?”
The next couple of hours are filled with clanging and banging as we remove the old sprinkler system from the ceiling. That was the easy part. The trickier part is cutting into the drywall to remove the actual sprinkler heads. I don’t have a fucking clue who installed these the dumbass way, but the workload just got a bit heavier.
When everything finally falls silent, there’s a cloud of dust in the air and a film on every surface we didn’t manage to cover.
The stillness is interrupted by the aggressive growl of my stomach. “I’ll buy if you fly,” I say to Micah.
“Jax is having a double cheeseburger deal today,” Micah says, rubbing away the sweat and dust from his forehead. He grins at me. “He’s calling it heart attack on a plate.”
I fish a couple of twenties out of my wallet and hand them over. It’s possible Cassidy may not even make an appearance today, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss it if she does stop by. “No pickles on mine.”
“Got it.” Micah slips the cash into his pocket. “I’ll be back soon.”
I make quick work of cleaning up the place best I can. We covered the bar, bookshelves, and other furniture. But the floor is a mess. I don’t want Cassidy to panic when she sees it. I’m rinsing out the mop in its big yellow bucket when I hear the door.
“Did you remember the no pickles part?” I call out.
“What kind of heathen doesn’t like pickles?” It’s Cassidy’s sweet voice that reaches across the room and tempts me to turn around. My heart pounds in my chest at the sight of her. My cock twitches against my zipper, that killer smile reminding me of a very dirty dream I had just this morning. Apparently rubbing one out in the shower wasn’t enough to calm me down.
With Cassidy James, I suspect I’ll never be able to get enough.
I’ll always want more.
“If people would just leave cucumbers alone instead of torturing them, the world would be a better place.” I hope like hell that my voice doesn’t tremble and give away my nerves as I approach her. I might be sure as hell about this woman and the place she has in my future, but that doesn’t mean my nerves aren’t fucking fried from thinking about her all the damn time.
“Only heathens eat pickles without the pickling part.” She flashes me a grin I can only label as flirtatious. It’s a rare drop of her guard. A tell that gives her away, no matter how briefly she leaves it on display. Cassidy wants this too. So, what’s holding her back?
I’m not sure how we end up toe-to-toe. Only that the mop bucket has been abandoned.
