My Cone and Only (King Family #1) - Susannah Nix Page 0,35

more like it,” he said jokingly and twisted out of my arms.

We hadn’t ever talked about the things he’d said last Saturday when he was drunk, or the stuff Mia had told me about my brother. This whole HOA situation had derailed all of that. But now it came crashing back, leaving me wondering anew if Wyatt kept pulling away from me because he wanted to pull away, or because he was scared not to.

“If you like the project plan, you’re really going to like the next thing I have to tell you.” His gaze dropped to my chest and the smile froze on his face before he jerked his eyes toward the ceiling.

Glancing down, I realized the front of my robe had gaped, and I’d just given him an eyeful of my boobs. Great.

“Sorry.” I pulled it closed, trying to recover some of my dignity.

At least I knew it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten a look at my chest. In addition to the vomit-shirt incident I’d just learned about, there’d been a few times in high school when we’d both been skinny-dipping at the Holler.

The clothing-optional swimming hole up at the state park had been a favorite hangout in our high school days. My brother had frequented it with his friends while hypocritically forbidding me from doing the same. Not that I’d actually wanted to go skinny-dipping with my brother—yuck. But you could bet I took advantage of his absence as soon as he went off to college.

The first time I ran into Wyatt there, he’d freaked the fuck out. I still remembered the look of panic in his eyes as he’d tried to cover himself. I got quite an eyeful before he managed to get his shorts on, and the image had made a permanent impression that still surfaced regularly in my dreams. He’d tried to make me leave, and we got into a fight when I refused. I’d ended the argument by stripping off my bikini top in front of him, and he’d averted his eyes exactly like he was doing now. He’d spent the whole rest of that night—and every other time he saw me there—hilariously trying to keep a watchful eye on me without actually looking at me, and somewhat less hilariously directing murderous glares at every guy who dared to glance in my direction. It had been both sweet and annoying as hell.

All of which was to say that Wyatt’s eyes and my boobs weren’t exactly strangers.

I cleared my throat. “What’s the other thing you wanted to tell me?”

He glanced down cautiously, checking to make sure it was safe before he relaxed again. “I, uh…” He scratched the back of his head like he was trying to remember what we’d been talking about. “Right. So I talked to Rodney Phelps yesterday. We had a nice chat over a couple of beers, and he agreed to waive the fines and late fees if you get all the required repairs done by the deadline.”

I clapped a hand over my mouth, too emotional for a moment to speak. “Are you serious? All the fines?”

Wyatt nodded, looking pleased with himself. “Everything except the attorney’s fees. So you’ll still have to pay like six hundred dollars.”

“Oh my god!” Six hundred dollars had never sounded like such an inconsequential sum of money before. It was an amount I could actually afford to pay if Wyatt got the repairs done for what he’d estimated.

For the last thirty-six hours, I’d barely been keeping my shit together, functioning in a state of ongoing panic. The phrase “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” had never felt so applicable before. That had been me, taking out the trash and making my bed while the threat of losing my house loomed over me like an enormous freaking iceberg it was too late to steer away from. But now that crushing weight had been lifted off my chest.

As much as I’d wanted to trust Wyatt and knew he had the best intentions, I hadn’t been able to let myself believe he could actually get me out of this mess. He was the kind of friend who’d drop everything and rush to your side in an emergency, but levelheadedness and follow-through had never been his strong suits. Even if they had been, my pessimist’s soul wouldn’t let me trust that anyone could swoop in and fix everything.

But that was exactly what Wyatt was doing—literally. I wanted to throw my arms around him again and cover his