by Jill Shalvis
The new bulb sparked, made a loud pop, and went out.
Olivia jumped about a mile.
Cole didn’t. He didn’t move a single inch. In fact, it was like he was frozen in place.
“You okay?” she asked.
Not even a flicker.
“Cole?”
At his name, he blinked, took a very careful breath, and said, “Off.”
Again, she hit the switch. “Are you—”
“It’s all good,” he said lightly. Casually.
But she wasn’t fooled. She could actually feel the tension in his every muscle—of which he had plenty—coming off him in waves.
Just as she could feel him shoving back that tension, clearly trying to let it go. She got that, she understood that. Hell, she’d lived life like that. “Did you shock yourself?”
He didn’t answer. Didn’t, in fact, move.
“Maybe you should get down,” she said quietly.
That got his attention. He inhaled deeply, then slanted her a long look and unscrewed the bulb.
“Seriously,” she said softly. “I’ll hire an electrician.”
Another long look, and she shut it.
He muttered something she didn’t quite catch and crouched low to set the bulb at his feet on the desk. As he did, his pants slid a little lower, into nearly indecent territory.
Like a moth to the flame, Olivia’s gaze went right back to his butt. It was a really great butt.
Pulling a screwdriver from a pocket, he rose again, fiddling with whatever was up there, and then held out a hand to her without looking.
She narrowed her eyes at the unspoken demand but set another bulb into his palm.
“Lights,” he said.
She hit the switch, and this time both lights flicked on. She stared at him. “What did you do?”
He shrugged.
“Nice,” she said. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She bit her lip but she couldn’t keep it in. “So what was that before? Just now, and also on the boat?”
“If I answer that, then you have to answer a hard one, too. You ready to go there?”
She paused. “Define hard.”
“I want to know why you lied to me.”
She sucked in a breath. Had he guessed? Oh, God, what did he know? “Lied is a strong word.”
“Misled. You misled me into thinking you had a handyman.”
Oh. That. She nearly sagged with relief.
“No?” he murmured. “Not going there, huh?” He slipped his screwdriver into the pocket running along one thigh.
“Who carries a screwdriver and a…lock-fix-it-thingie in their pocket?” she asked, a little desperate for a subject change.
“Me,” he said.
“What else do you have in there?”
He smiled. “Come to dinner and I’ll show you.”
She arched a brow. “You’d bribe me into going out with you?”
“I’m a man without shame,” he said easily. He hopped down from her desk and waited with what she was beginning to realize was characteristic patience for her response.
It was just dinner, she told herself. A simple invitation.
But they both knew nothing about it would be simple.
There would be…hard stuff.
She wasn’t particularly good at that. She’d spent her entire childhood weighed down by the obligations and heavy expectations that had been placed on her. And when she’d failed to meet those expectations, people she’d cared about and counted on had abandoned her.
Repeatedly.
As an adult, she’d come to realize that she was much happier going without the weight of those things.
Giving up relationships had been a by-product.
She was okay with that. Very okay.
“This isn’t brain surgery, you know,” he said. “Just dinner. Hell, we don’t even have to commit to needing utensils. We can grab a burger. How does that sound?”
Sounded right up her alley. Nothing serious.
Problem was, Cole, with his sexy MacGyver ways and those cargoes with the screwdriver sticking out of his pocket, had a little bit of serious in his eyes. “I can’t,” she finally said. “I’m busy tonight. But thanks for fixing the lock and light. Good-bye, Cole.”
He met her gaze, his own lit with amusement and the knowledge that she wasn’t the only one who thought she was a chicken.
And then he was gone.
Leaving her wondering why, if she’d done the right thing, her heart was burning with disappointment.
Chapter 10
It was late afternoon two days later when Cole walked into the Love Shack and nodded to Jax Cullen, who co-owned the bar and grill.
“Sight for sore eyes,” Jax said. “I’ve got a broken dishwasher—again—and no plumber for two days. Tell me you can jury-rig it to work that long, and I’ll feed you all week on the house.”
This was a good deal for Cole, who could cook but would rather have a hot poker shoved beneath his toenail. He went into the back and fixed the dishwasher with a roll of duct tape and his screwdriver. “A bacon blue with fries,” he told Jax.
“Done,” Jax said. “Your boys are already here. I’ll bring the burger to you.”
Cole headed to his usual table. Indeed, Tanner and Sam were already there, with burgers in front of them, along with a pitcher of beer, half gone. Tanner kicked out a chair for Cole.
Cole poured himself a glass and the three of them made their usual toast.
“To Gil,” they said in unison.
“You’re late,” Tanner said.
Cole scrubbed a hand over his face. He’d been at his mom’s all afternoon, building her a set of shelves for the hundreds of books she kept buying even though he’d given her a Kindle.
It had been the last thing on his to-do list.
He was bored out of his mind, not a good place to be. Plus, he was still overthinking Olivia’s flat-out rejection. And she hadn’t been playing coy, either. She hadn’t been playing anything. She honestly hadn’t wanted or expected a thing from him.
He didn’t know what to make of that, or understand why he even cared. “I’m coming back to work,” he said, half expecting them to fuss like old women.
They didn’t. Sam thumbed his way through the calendar on his phone. “Talked to Josh today. The doc said another week, right?”
Cole blew out a breath. “Yeah. But not one day more.”
“Great,” Sam said. “Because I’ve already got you on the schedule for next week.”
Cole looked at him. “Great?”
“Yep. Looks like your first client is already scheduled for six a.m. one week from today. It’s all yours.”
Cole looked at Tanner, who was studying the ceiling like it held the secret to life. “Alright,” Cole said. “Why did that feel too easy?”
Tanner smiled. “’Cause it’s for Lucille and her cronies. They want fishing lessons.”
Well, hell.
“She said all this talk of you dating Olivia gave her the idea,” Tanner said.
“And both of you told her the truth,” Cole said, “that I’m not dating Olivia. Right?”
Neither responded to this. “Shit,” he said. “Seriously?”
“Hey, if she’s focused on you,” Tanner said, “then she’s not focused on us.”
“Nice. Thanks.” But Cole didn’t bother to sigh, as the reasoning was pretty rock solid. “Either of you know anything about this woman I’m supposedly seeing?”
Sam and Tanner exchanged a look.
“What?” Cole asked.
“Nothing,” both Tanner and Sam said, and sipped their beers.
“It’s something,” Cole said.
“Okay,” Tanner said. “It’s the first time you’ve asked about a woman since Susan— Ouch! Shit, man,” he said to Sam, and rubbed his kicked shin. “What’s your problem?”
Sam ignored him and said to Cole, “I know she’s a loyal, fierce friend to
Becca.”
“And I know she’s got a sweet ass,” Tanner added.
Sam must have kicked him again, because Tanner spilled his beer and swore. “Whatever,” he said. “It’s true. And you know the rules. If he’d claim her, I’d stop noticing her assets.”
“I’m not claiming anyone,” Cole said.
“So her ass is fair game,” Tanner said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“You know what?” Cole pointed at him. “I am claiming her, just so you can’t.”
“You can’t do that,” Tanner said. “That’s against the rules.”
“What the hell rules are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. The rules,” Tanner said.
“Let me put this another way,” Cole said. “Look at her ass again and—”
And he didn’t know what, exactly, but it didn’t matter because Tanner was grinning.
“All you had to do was say you’re into her, man.”
Cole ground his teeth and leaned toward him but Sam put a hand on his chest. “Yeah, he’s an asshole,” Sam said, “but maybe you could stop making yourself such an easy target for him.”
Cole thought about it and realized Sam was right. They had another beer and Tanner nodded at Cole’s shoulder. He’d removed the sling on the walk over. “You really better, or just bored out of your ever-loving mind?”
Cole leaned back and sighed in disgust. “Do you know how exhausting it is to do jackshit for days on end?”
“You didn’t do jackshit for days on end,” Sam said. “You tried to pick a fight with Clare, who didn’t bite because she’s smarter than you, and then you went sniffing around Unique Boutique. And then you spent the day building shelves instead of resting your shoulder.”
Cole froze for a beat before drinking more of his beer. “You don’t have enough to do with me out, you’ve got to hunt up gossip?”
“He sleeps with your new girlfriend’s BFF,” Tanner reminded him. “And Becca and Olivia live in the same building. Becca shares her updates with Sam, who shared with me. We all know that you asked Olivia out and got shut down.”
Sam shook his head at Tanner. “You’re a real dick tonight.”
Tanner didn’t look bothered by this assessment of his character.
“Olivia’s not my girlfriend,” Cole said. “I just met her a week ago.”
“Uh-huh. And had her naked two minutes later,” Tanner reminded him. “For two years the women in town have been falling all over themselves trying to get your attention, and you’ve ignored them all. Until now. Let’s just say I find this…interesting.”
Cole might’ve jumped down his throat again, or simply told him to shut his pie hole and mind his own business, except the fact was that they were each other’s business.
And there was another reason. Tanner’s eyes were dark, his body tense.
He was having a rough go of it. Cole knew it, Sam knew it, and Tanner himself surely knew it. Not that he’d complain. That was the problem with Tanner. He kept his shit to himself and deeply protected.
Hell. They all did. “Next time,” Cole said, “you can rescue the pretty girl.”
That got a rare smile out of the ex–Navy SEAL. “I don’t need to rescue them, man.”
This was true. Women had been attracted to him since the day he’d hit puberty, and he’d made the most of it—until karma had caught up with him and bitten him in the ass in the form of a teenage son with as much wild and crazy as Tanner had shown. Maybe even more.
Sam pulled out his tablet, and Cole groaned.
“Whatever,” Sam muttered. “It’s financial planning night and you both know it. We’ve got shit to do.”
Tanner poured himself another beer. “Hit me, Grandma.”
Sam narrowed his eyes at the age-old nickname for the one of the three of them who always worried about everything. “Don’t tempt me,” he said, and turned the tablet so that they could see the screen.
Cole settled himself in for the numbers crunch. Sam started talking and he tuned out, confident that the financial wizard with the Midas touch had taken good care of them as always.
Instead, he let other worries sink in. His mom, for one, who kept saying she was fine, but they were coming into another holiday season soon, her second without his dad, and that was going to be rough.
His sisters, specifically Cara, who still refused to let him help her.
Tanner, who seemed to be getting more and more bitchy as time went on instead of…well, better—
“He’s gone, baby, gone.” This from Tanner himself, and Cole blinked, realizing that they were both staring at him.
“What?” he asked.
Sam swore. “You haven’t heard a damn word, have you?”
“Nope,” Tanner said, answering for him. “He’s running through all his shit in his head again.”
“I am not,” Cole said.
“Right,” Sam said. “Then what did I say?”
“That we’re done?” he asked hopefully.
Sam shoved the tablet beneath Cole’s nose and started again. They went over receivables, payables, the bottom line. They went over their expectations for the next quarter and whether or not they wanted to get a second boat by next summer season.
Which brought a whole new level to the word expectations.
Half an hour later they were done, and in spite of themselves, the three guys who’d started out with literally nothing had come out okay.
More than okay. They had a big, fat bank account and more business than they knew what to do with.
They left the bar together and took in the gray dusk, their breath crystallizing in front of their faces. Daylight Saving Time hadn’t ended yet, so it was still staying light late, but the chill didn’t wait for dark.
Fall in the Pacific Northwest was predictable in its unpredictability.
“Getting cold,” Sam noted, hands shoved into his pockets.
“Yeah,” Tanner said. “Cole might want to stay out of the water in the mornings.”
Sam just shook his head and walked off, no doubt heading straight to Becca’s place.
Tanner stood there a moment, silent. Tense.
Cole blew out a breath. “You all right?”