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“Wow, Liam Croft?” Jeffery lifted a blond brow.
Under his cap was a shock of golden hair, and a few days’ worth of growth covered his square jaw. Objectively he was handsome, but his attitude so far was sort of overshadowing how broad his shoulders looked, or how defined his muscles looked under that jacket.
I nodded, shifting the drill in my palm. It was getting heavy.
“Can I set this down, or…" I looked around for a spot to put it.
Jeffery continued to focus on his project. “Just be careful with Liam––you know he used to be a pretty big deal, right? He won a ton of titles when he was boxing.”
“Why would that mean I’d have to be careful?”
I let the drill hang limp in my hand. Didn’t seem safe, but neither did this conversation. Part of me felt protective of Liam. No idea why—the man was a jerk and had been awful to me too many times to count—but it didn’t change the fact that I still felt guarded.
“Word just gets around, and according to a few of his past babysitters, he’s got a bit of a temper.”
I thought back to how he’d yelled at me in the yard. I didn’t feel afraid at all, but was it because Colson was there? No, deep down I didn’t think he’d hurt me. He wasn’t like that.
“Okay, well, thanks for the warning, I guess.”
Jeffery peered over his shoulder, and his lips turned down.
“I mean he’s a nice guy and all, and I know he gets enough dates and all the women want him. Just be careful.”
What the actual fuck was he going on about? He seemed to be drawing a lot of conclusions, and his general know-it-all attitude about a man he didn’t seem to have even met was starting to piss me off.
“Hey Jeffery, can you please take this drill? It’s getting heavy. And not to be rude, but could you not talk about Liam around me anymore?”
The man in front of me rotated, looking surprised.
“Wait, I didn’t mean anything by—”
“I’m sure you didn’t, but still. I’m helping him and have to work closely with him, and I just don’t love hearing rumors about people before I’ve had a chance to get to know them.”
Jeffery scrutinized me carefully as he took the drill from my hand.
“I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have said all that. I just thought I was doing the right thing if you’re going to be working for him, but I wasn’t thinking straight. Can I show you how to use the drill? I promise not to be an ass again.”
My face warmed. It would be childish to leave just because some idiot said a few things I didn’t like.
“Sure.” I shifted my feet until I could see how he was lining up.
I flicked my gaze up to Jeffery’s face and saw he was already watching me, but he quickly turned away. I caught the smile he tried to hide as he did it. I didn’t like how my chest felt, or the way his words had found a way inside there, like an animal burrowing around for food.
If I looked carefully at his words, it wasn’t so much the insinuation that Liam was dangerous that bugged me. If I had a microscope and stared at this whole conversation closely, it would be the fact that he’d pretty much said that Liam was a player that got to me. I had no frame of reference at all, no reason, other than maybe it was the protective thing.
Maybe I had taken his family and decided they earned my loyalty.
I glanced up at Jeffery again, this time appreciating how his jaw looked against the light filtering in from the window. He’d shed his jacket and now worked in a long thermal shirt, which showed his defined arms and chest.
Fuck.
I couldn’t blindly defend the Croft family simply because there was a tiny piece of me that might be attracted to Liam, and how his eyes seemed to melt when he stared at certain parts of my body. It didn’t matter. I was just confused by how protective I felt. Surely it would fade.
* * *
Liam droppedthe girls off at one p.m., and the girls barely said goodbye to their poor dad as they dashed inside my house.
I hated how the feelings from earlier fluttered inside me like a windstorm. I stared at Liam as he stood in the doorway and tried not to notice how he looked in just a simple black hoodie, or how broad his chest was. These were things I hadn’t noticed about Liam until Jeffery warned me away from him. These were things I didn’t care about––because Liam was rude.
