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He studied me for a moment, then dropped his head with a disheartened, bitter smirk.
“Right. Okay. Got it. I just thought after the other day, you would…” He shook his head. “Maybe we were wrong about something. Maybe you’ve got less Silver Point left in you than I thought.”
He stormed out before I could get in another word, which was probably for the best because I didn’t know what to do with that one. He could blame my attitude on my time away in California if he wanted to. I didn’t really care what he thought about me anyway, right? I knew the truth.
As I huffed through the rest of my day until it was time to leave and go to the printers alone, I kept reminding myself of that very important fact. I not only knew the truth about myself, but I knew the truth about him, too. I knew all too well the games he played with women, and he might have thought I was stupid enough to fall for it. But I wasn’t. Okay, maybe I almost did for a split second…but I snapped out of it just in time. That counted for something.
While waiting in line at the printers, none of those reminders kept my mind from wandering to the last place I wanted it to go.
I was transported for a moment. I could hear the birds chirping, feel the cool breeze from the water cut through the impending summer’s heat, and see the sweat glistening across his tan skin. His hazel brown eyes looked like dripping molasses, and those lips…He had plump, kissable lips for miles. They were more than enough to tempt any woman who laid eyes on them.
“Ma’am? Can I help you? Ma’am?” A shrill, nasally voice cut through my time-traveling fantasy.
“Oh, yes,” I jumped, marching towards the impatient-looking woman behind the checkout counter.
I could tell by her tone and the look on her face that she had called out to me more than once before she finally reached me.
I needed to get a grip.
11
KEITH
It was another long, hot afternoon working at the marina alongside the crew. I was spreading myself too thin between the jobs I oversaw with our construction business, the fire station, and this whale of a project. There was a reason I initially decided I didn’t have enough time to take the whole thing on, and I was wearing down quickly with the reminder of that.
“Want some cold water?” Lana asked from across the room.
I looked up to see her crystal blue eyes studying me with concern.
“Yeah, sure,” I replied, wiping the sweat from my brow.
She went over to the cooler and pulled out an ice-cold bottle, then walked up to hand it to me. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should take a break?”
“No, I’m fine,” I insisted, stopping to chug down a few big gulps. I let out a sighing grunt and wiped my hand across my dripping-wet lips. “Besides, we’re about to dig into one of my favorite parts.”
My eyes cut over to the buckets of paint sitting in the corner of the nearly finished interior. We had planned to paint the inside before the flooring went down so we didn’t have to worry so much about potential spills or accidental messes.
“I’d hardly call painting fun,” she huffed. “Remind me again why we’re not just paying someone to do this?”
“I realize you have buckets of money you’re all too willing to throw at this place every chance you get, but I’m trying to be financially cautious here. You save your money for the upkeep. There’s no use paying someone to do something we’re perfectly capable of doing ourselves.”
“Says the guy who looks like he’s about to pass out from heat stroke,” she chuckled as we walked over to the stacked cans of paint.
I grabbed a flat-edged screwdriver and pried off one of the lids. My face scrunched up at the sight of a shockingly dark charcoal gray.
“What the hell is this?” I scoffed. “They must have screwed up our order.”
“No, that looks right to me,” Lana said, peering over my shoulder.
“For what? The trim?”
“Noooo, for the walls,” she replied in a condescending tone, as if I was the idiot for pointing out that a color like that obviously didn’t belong on the walls of a country lakeside marina.
Before I could object, we were interrupted by Derek and Melody walking in. Their smiles faded when they saw the tense look on my face.
“What’s going on here?” my brother asked, his eyes darting back and forth between Lana and me.
“She wants to make this place look like some kind of goth night club!”
