“Okay, well, let’s get you out to the truck.”
“I can do it,” he bit out, standing with the help of his brother.
“RJ, let’s get this cleaned up as best we can. The tub will have to stay down here until we can get the floor fixed,” Eric said.
“No problem.” RJ started giving out orders to the other guys, and I just stood there, clothes wet and splinters in my feet. Since I obviously wasn’t going to have any help from Andrew, I decided I might as well go back out and work on my car again.
After the disaster at my house the other day, I finally decided to suck it up and go see Andrew. It took a little prying to get Eric to tell me where his brother lived, but when I explained that I just wanted to bring him something from the bakery and apologize, he gave in.
Of course, I didn’t want to see him solely for that purpose. I needed friends in this town. I needed to establish myself as a good person that people wanted as a friend. Almost killing someone with a tub was a strike against me. Now that Bartholomew was pushing to have his father’s body exhumed due to suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, I had to be sure that I was seen in the best light possible. I couldn’t have people suspecting that I killed my own husband. I needed that trust, and nothing was going to stop me from getting it. Not even some guy from a small town that obviously thought I had purposely tried to injure him. He wasn’t on my shit list, and I intended to keep it that way.
I stopped by the bakery and picked up an array of baked goods for Andrew, and then decided to stop by the florist for some flowers to brighten his day. Sure, guys weren’t normally all about flowers, but I would try anything to get him on my side right now.
I stood outside the tattoo shop and stared up at the second floor. I was so nervous. I wasn’t sure why, but I wanted Andrew to like me, and not just because I needed it for my own purposes. I actually thought he was pretty handsome, though he tended to wear this beanie on his head, which I didn’t understand at all. At first, I thought it was because of the weather, but then I remembered that he wore it in the hardware store, and again at my house, and he never took it off. That was a little weird. He must be one of those hipsters, but that didn’t matter. He was nice, from what I saw.
“Can I help you?”
I flinched slightly, not expecting someone to walk up to me and start speaking. “Um…I’m just going to see a friend.”
The man quirked an eyebrow at me and crossed his arms over his chest. “Booty call?”
I frowned. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You know, for sex? Because if you’re looking for Andrew, he’s a little out of commission right now. A tub fell on him.”
My face flushed bright red and I nodded, clearing my throat. “I know. It was my tub.”
His eyes lit up and he started laughing. “No shit?”
“No shit,” I said, completely mortified.
“Oh, this is too great. Are you serious? You’re tub lady?”
“Um…I guess? I’ve never been referred to as tub lady before.”
“Oh, this is just too perfect.” His eyes trailed over my body in a way that made me a little uncomfortable, like he was sizing me up. “Sorry, it’s just…you’re very beautiful, and a tub fell on him,” he laughed.
“Yes, I know a tub fell on him. I was there.”
“I know, but you’re also beautiful.”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure how my beauty has anything to do with it.”
“Well, a tub falls on him in front of a pretty girl…it’s kind of funny, you know?”
I stared at him in confusion. How was this funny? I didn’t get it.
“I’m Joe, by the way, his brother.”
“His…how many brothers does he have?”
“Six.”
My jaw dropped and I stared at him. “Six?”
He sighed slightly. “Yeah, and now there are all the women.” He snorted. “Six women.”
“Six women. Like…do you share them?”
He looked at me strangely. “How do you mean? For like, cleaning and stuff?”
“Um…no I meant…you know what? I don’t want to know.”
He looked confused for a second and then he burst out laughing. “No, as in six women to go with six different brothers. We were all waiting on Andrew to find someone.”
“Oh, I’m not someone.”
“Really? Because you’re here with baked goods and flowers.”
“To apologize.”
He nodded with a smirk on his face. “Sure. I won’t tell anyone.”
“It doesn’t matter because there’s nothing to tell.”
He gave me the okay sign and winked at me. “Sure. I get it. You want to keep it on the DL for now.” He leaned in closer and whispered. “If I were you, I wouldn’t try and keep it a secret for too long. The whole town always finds out about things like this.”
“Like what?” I asked frustratedly.
“You know,” he nodded, winking at me again. Did he have some sort of issue with his eye? Why the hell did he keep winking?
“I really don’t know. All I know is that a tub in my house almost killed him and I came to apologize.”
“And may I say that you dressed perfectly for the occasion.”
I looked down at my skinny jeans with knee boots and my coat, not sure what he was talking about. Did he think I was trying to be seductive? They were just normal clothes.
“Okay, I just want to go upstairs and apologize.”
He nodded again. “Of course. And may I make a few suggestions? I would make him be on the bottom, you know, because of his bum foot and all.”
“There
