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“I’ve been busy bribing Tess the last few days to go on this date with me tonight, and you’ve been busy getting your ass grabbed by Miss Abigail. I haven’t had a chance to ask you how it went when you tracked Birdie down the other night at the ice cream place.”
I smile against the glass bottle pressed to my lips when I think about how adorably passive aggressive Birdie is being by scheduling me daily lessons with that grabby-handed woman. My smile falls as I bring the beer away from my mouth to answer Bodhi’s question.
“It didn’t.” I sigh, watching a local tie his boat up to the dock, help his wife out of the vessel, and the two walk hand-in-hand up the ramp to the door to the bar. “I found her at the Dip and Twist, but she was drinking vodka slushes like they were water and clearly wasn’t processing things yet. Couldn’t have much of a conversation with her at that point.”
When I walked away from Birdie after blowing her mind two days ago at SIG, I went back to my cottage and took a shower to cool off, then felt like an asshole for walking away from her like that. I couldn’t handle pacing in my cottage all night until I could see her at work the next day. I just wanted to know if she fully understood why I ended our friendship two years ago and wasn’t still making up dumb shit in her head.
I don’t want to rush her. It’s bad enough I know I scared the hell out of her by being all aggressive and backing her up into the brick wall. As soon as she called me Putz, I lost my mind. And then I lost it again when I just had to get closer to her, brush up against her hot body, and run my nose along her jaw, forcing my tongue not to dart out and taste her by clenching my teeth together so hard they almost cracked.
“Pretty sure I freaked her out by getting all up on her again,” I mutter, annoyed with myself that I just couldn’t keep my distance like a fully developed human and acted like a caveman.
“Oh, I don’t think I saw any freaking out happening when you backed her into the bar and smelled her like a drug-sniffing K9.” Bodhi laughs, letting out a loud belch and then a contented sigh while he rubs his seafood belly. “She got the lady shivers; I saw it. You’re a sexy beast. I’d get the lady shivers if you nuzzled me too. Come here and let’s try it out.”
I smack Bodhi away with a laugh when he leans over the arm of his chair to try to tug me closer to him. And then I choke a little on my laugh when I remember the way Birdie shivered and made a tiny little whimpering sound behind the Dip and Twist when I ran my nose against that soft little spot of skin right under her ear.
Because you scared the holy hell out of her, you idiot!
“At least she hasn’t been running away from me at work the last few days.” I shrug, finishing off my beer and exchanging it for a new bottle from the tin bucket that used to be filled with ice and six beers and is now filled with cold water and a lot less beer.
Birdie has been busier than ever at the golf course, getting ready for a huge annual three-day golf outing the Board of Education puts on for all the Summersweet Island teachers and anyone who works for the school and their families. All the employees at SIG have been busier than ever, getting ready for this event to make it as special as possible to thank the teachers and school employees for all of the hard work they put in all throughout the previous year, and to get them pumped for the upcoming year.
Since Birdie’s promotion will require her to handle the planning, organizing, promoting, and marketing of this event going forward, Greg is letting her take the reins this year as another way to prove herself. It’s been amazing to watch her the last few days, even if it’s meant we’ve barely had any time together. I’ve seen from a distance how much she’s been busting her ass while I gave my lessons and found new ways to avoid Miss Abigail, and we’ve had a few work-related discussions when she’s had to ask for my help setting something up when I’ve been in between clients and waiting around in the bar.
When I think about how Birdie jumps every time she hears my voice and always takes a step back from me as I move in closer just to talk to her, I curse myself again for being so fucking assertive with her twice. It’s like as soon as I admitted I lied about not caring if she dated Douche Dick and it’s the reason why I pushed her away, someone opened up the floodgates and there’s no stopping everything I feel about her and everything I want to do to her from pouring out of me.
