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Instead of telling her “I told you so,” he’d offered to pay for a lawyer to rid herself of, as he liked to put it, “the dead weight.” When Dallas decided to drag his feet and tried to get alimony out of her, Isaac had stepped in and taken care of things. To this day she didn’t know exactly what he’d done to speed the divorce along and she didn’t ask any questions. She was through with Dallas and that’s all that mattered.
Isaac had also stepped in when her original store in Denver had burned down. He’d wanted to know what happened and when she refused to tell him that some crazy man hellbent on finding her best friend Calliope had burned it to the ground, he’d gone behind her back and gotten the information. He’d insisted on taking care of everything, but she’d refused. And before he could get all riled up and go after the man responsible, she’d told him not to bother, Calliope and the Sons of Redemption MC had taken care of it. She didn’t know for sure, but she would guess that he’d contacted Race to confirm that the man in question had been dealt with and that there would be no blowback on her or Calliope.
Throughout the morning she had several customers enter her store, some needing help, some not. Keeping busy made it easier to keep her mind off her cranky but sexy neighbor. She was half convinced that if she could get him drunk and have sex with him, she could get over this stupid infatuation she had for the man. Then again, it could be the biggest mistake of her life.
3
It had been over two weeks since Bellamy started sending her texts to Race. She just sent him another one telling him about the hot water heater and fridge, this time adding, “Since you have not responded to any of my previous messages I am left to assume that I am going to have to come by the clubhouse in order to speak with you. I’ll be by after five today.” She had half a mind to tell him she was going to show up on his doorstep at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning to use his shower and every subsequent morning after that until he fixed her hot water heater.
What really annoyed her was that she’d had to stoop to spying on him, constantly being on the lookout to catch him at home so she could go next door and hash it out. So far she’d been unsuccessful given her window of opportunity began after she got off work. The one time she thought she might catch him, his kids showed up and she didn’t want to go all crazy bitch in front of them. She didn’t mind if Race saw that side of her but she’d prefer his kids didn’t think she was some crazy lady that lived next door to their dad. And at this point she feared nothing short of crazy bitch would get his attention.
She’d come home last night completely exhausted from having to field phone calls from her ex, Dallas. The man never called unless he was on a losing streak and owed someone money. Then he would hound her, begging for her to lend him some money. She’d never lent him any money since the divorce, so why he thought she’d change her mind now, she didn’t understand. She could easily let Isaac handle it but she was afraid her brother’s way of handling it could mean pain for Dallas. Physical pain. So she kept her mouth shut for now.
After ignoring Dallas’s calls all day, she wanted to come home and soak in a nice hot bubble bath, light some candles and have a glass of wine or two to unwind. What she got instead, was a quick ten-minute cold shower. She’d barely had enough time to rinse the conditioner out of her hair. She’d had to stand back and put her head under the water as she tried to keep the rest of her body out from under the cold spray.
Thoughts of Race’s unanswered texts and Dallas’s unwanted calls kept distracting her from getting any actual work done. The most work she’d accomplished so far today was scanning through some photos of new designs one of her suppliers sent her. She also got her mail sorted through, but that was about it. Since it was around 10:30 and she’d been open an hour and a half, she had high hopes that she’d snap out of it soon.
A ping from her phone sitting at the corner of her desk drew her attention. Finally. A text from Race. Seriously? All he’d sent was a big yellow thumbs up. What was that supposed to mean? Yes, she needed to come by the clubhouse? Yes, he got the messages and would take care of it? Or yes, he’d take care of it, but when? The man was infuriating.
Her thumbs flew over the phone’s keyboard.What does that mean?
His reply wasI’m heading to your house now to check it out.
About freaking time, she thought.She glanced at the time and made a quick decision to go to her house and make sure he checked out both the water heater and the fridge. Grabbing her purse from her bottom drawer, she hustled out to the front in search of Cathy. Spotting her at the counter checking a customer out, she waited for her to finish before she spoke.
“Hey, Cathy. I need to run to my house for a little bit. Race finally showed up and is going to look at my water heater and fridge. I don’t want him escaping until he’s checked out both.” Cathy was fully aware of the struggle Bellamy had been having trying to get Race to come over and check things out.
She might just hold him hostage until he finished the repairs. Or better yet, she’d force him to take a cold shower at her house so he could experience first hand how hellish it was.
“Sure, Bellamy,” Cathy chuckled. “Go ahead. I know how long you’ve been trying to get him to fix things.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it. I won’t be too long.”
Bellamy made it to her house in record time. After hitting every green light and the roads being cleared of all snow for a change, she thought maybe her luck was changing. Entering the house, she dropped her bag on the counter and went in search of Race. There was a garden hose running from where she imagined Race was at in her laundry room and out the back door. The door was propped open by the hose, cold air leaking inside. She shivered and continued down the hall. As she suspected, she found him in the laundry room kneeling in front of the water heater, an open toolbox off to the side.
“Oh, good. You’re still here.”
“Yeah. Just got here,” he replied over his shoulder as he set the panel from the side of the water heater aside. He didn’t act very surprised to see her. Well, what did he expect after making her wait so long for even a simple response? “Can you hand me the Phillips?”
“What?” Her gaze shot from where she’d been ogling his ass in his snug jeans to his face. Seeing that she’d been caught staring at his derriere, she could feel her face heat in embarrassment. Son of a bitch. Ever since she saw him naked it was all she could think about. Well, that was a lie. She also thought about how well blessed his dick had been even in the cold.
“The Phillips. Screwdriver.” One side of his mouth kicked up in a smirk. He pointed to the open tool box behind her as he leaned back, his butt touching his heels.
“Oh. Okay.” She turned to get him the tool. The laundry room was normally a decent size space with plenty of room to move around. Having Race and her both in there things were a whole lot more cramped.
Trying to hide how flustered she was, she bent over, silently mouthing “fuck, fuck, fuck” for having been caught. She fished around the toolbox until she found what she was looking for. Turning back to Race, she handed him the screwdriver. It took him a moment to accept it, his gaze fixed on where her ass would have been when bent over. He took a deep breath, accepted the tool and turned to the water heater mumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like “fucking killing me.” In a louder voice he asked, “How did you know which screwdriver was a Phillips?”
“My brother used to work on old cars. If I wanted to spend any time with him I had to hand him tools. That’s how I learned the difference between a Phillips and a standard or flathead screwdriver.” She shrugged her shoulder like it was no big deal when he looked her way.
“You didn’t have to leave work to be here. I have it under control.”
“Oh. I know. I thought you might have some questions so I thought it would be easier if I were here.” What she didn’t say was “I was afraid you’d half ass the job and leave before checking out the fridge, too.”
“Could’ve called you.” Race was not a man of many words. He was short and sweet and to the point. She should feel fortunate that he wasn’t grunting at her and scratching his balls.
“As long as you’re here you can hold the flashlight.” Race handed her the light. “Point it right here.”
She wasn’t sure what he was doing, but she held the light the way he told her. He moved to the left, so she stepped to the right trying to keep the light on his work area. “What’s with the hose running through the house?”
