Well, a quarter.
Colt grunted again.
“You should get that grunting thing seen to,” I said whimsically, browsing the animal section. Chickens, guinea, more chickens—ah! “I found the duck books.”
“Great,” he said dryly. “Can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“We have one idiot’s guide to ducks. Want me to put it back for you?”
“Is it actually called idiot’s guide to ducks?”
“No. It’s called How to Raise Ducks And Other Poultry, but it’s all we’ve got.”
“Fine. Put it aside. I’ll swing by after work and get it for him. Unless you want to drop it over?”
“That’s a negative,” I replied. “I have to make money, and I have tomato plants to prune and feed tonight.”
“Such a cop out.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m the one carrying an idiot’s guide to ducks through the store.” I stepped back behind the register and tucked it under the counter with my Abigail Lyon book. “Gotta go. Let me know when you’re coming in.”
And with that, I hung up and saw to the hikers who were all holding armfuls of books that varied from how-to guides on the trails locally to romance and even murder mysteries.
I did it all with a damn big smile, too.
CHAPTER TEN – JOSH
rule ten: as hemingway said, ‘write drunk, edit sober.’
rephrased: chat drunk, date sober.
mostly.
KINSLEY: U mad, bro?
I stared at my phone. What the fuck was that?
ME: What?
KINSLEY: U mad, bro?
ME: You need to get off the internet.
KINSLEY: I know. Even writing that hurt me.
KINSLEY: Colton said you’re in a shit mood. What did I do?
Nothing, I wanted to say. Lie. I wanted to lie.
Tell her she’d done nothing. That all her stupid fucking questions earlier were unfounded, that I was just being nice when I’d said she was beautiful, and the reason I’d said I was glad her date went badly was because I genuinely didn’t like the guy.
“That’s my brother’s line” be damned.
ME: Nothing. Slept bad, that’s all.
KINSLEY: You’re so full of crap even politics doesn’t want you.
Her brain was a strange place. Wonderful, but strange.
ME: Might make a good journalist though.
KINSLEY: Doubt it. You’d get bored in five minutes.
ME: I take offense at that.
KINSLEY: I take offense at you ignoring my questions.
I sighed. I should have known better than to avoid her. She was like a rabid dog with a bone when she wanted to know something.
ME: Fine. It just wasn’t your usual style and it took me by surprise.
KINSLEY: Try again.
ME: It was very revealing.
KINSLEY: Negative, it was actually very demure. Try again.
ME: I didn’t like him. I thought he was a dick.
KINSLEY: Three strikes and you’re out, asshole.
ME: Fine. I thought it was too sexy for a first date and you gave me a hard on.
KINSLEY: Are you serious?
Yes.
ME: Of course I’m not serious. But you might have given him one and it’s not a good look for a first date, trust me.
KINSLEY: You’re lying.
ME: Fine. You gave me a hard on when I saw the picture. It made me uncomfortable.
KINSLEY: Speak for yourself. I feel like I need to burn that dress now. I can definitely never wear it around you.
ME: Not if you want me to rip it off.
KINSLEY: This conversation is getting uncomfortable.
ME: You insisted on it, not me.
KINSLEY: I regret that decision greatly.
ME: All you had to do was accept my stupid lie originally and none of this would have happened.
KINSLEY: I can never look you in the eye again.
ME: The feeling is mutual, trust me.
KINSLEY: I wish we’d never had this conversation.
ME: Well, there you go. There’s your next dating tip. Leave shit the hell alone when someone doesn’t want to talk about it.
I put my phone face down on the sofa and grabbed my beer from the coffee table. As much as I hated that I’d admitted that to her, it’d shut her up. At least I hoped it had. The last thing I need was for this conversation to go any further than this.
I wasn’t lying when I said I’d never be able to look her in the eye again.
I rolled my neck and shoulders, silently pleading with the knots in my shoulder muscles to loosen up. It had been a long ass day at work. Combine that with my frustration over last night, my slight hangover this morning, and having to set Kinsley up with yet another guy…
I was so fuckin’ done today.
I needed a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.
The hot shower I could guarantee. The sleep? Not so much.
I left my phone on the sofa, finished my beer, and headed to the bathroom to do just that. I turned on the shower and twisted the dial to the hottest heat I could stand. It took only a minute for the bathroom to be filled with steam, and I stripped naked before I got into the large, walk-in shower.
The steaming hot water beat down on me like the massage my shoulders so desperately needed. I had no idea how long I stood there, letting it drain over me, before I washed my hair and scrubbed down my body.
I let the water wash the soap off for a few minutes before my crinkled fingertips told me I’d spent long enough in the water.
I got out of the shower and killed the water before wrapping a clean, blue towel around my waist. My house was deathly quiet, and for the first time since I’d moved in, I wished I didn’t live alone.
Or that I wasn’t alone right now.
I padded into my room, leaving wet footprints on the thick hall carpet on my way, then sat on the end of my bed. I had absolutely no desire to get out of this towel and physically dry myself off, so I didn’t.
Kinsley Lane.
She was the
