Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,6
was still in jeans, she’d thrown on some cutoffs and a T-shirt. It was a little too chilly for shorts yet. But her place was kind of warm.
The Mannings lived smack in the middle of one of the new developments for our area. New as in it had been built about ten years earlier or so. I was pretty sure Rachel’s family was one of the first ones to move in out here. They had a great view of the green belt and a huge backyard, but no pool.
It wasn’t like I had a pool either. Archie and Ian had pools. Jake didn’t. Well, technically, Coop and I had the pool at the apartment complex, but yeah, we hadn’t gone swimming in it since Ian’s parents had one built in their backyard.
“Yeah,” I said, dragging my wandering attention back to the subject at hand. “So, I can take two shifts of whatever I want, and she’ll get the other two. Marsha even offered to let me just be a floater—you know, fill in when someone is sick if I wanted. That way, I stayed employed but I could have my time back.”
Sometimes, I thought Marsha must be on the far opposite end of the spectrum from Maddy. Kind of a universal balancing effect.
And now I sounded like Coop.
A smile tilted my lips. Guess he really had rubbed off on me, in more ways than one.
A pillow slapped against my head, and I laughed as I blew some of the errant strands of hair out of my face.
“You went all dewy-eyed. Which one of the assholes were you thinking about?”
“Coop,” I admitted. Tucking the pillow beneath me, I rolled onto my stomach and kicked my bare feet up into the air. No one wore shoes in Rachel’s house. Her parents would have a conniption. Shoes didn’t even come in the house. They were set neatly on a stand in the vestibule. Well, guests did anyway, mine were the only shoes there. The family had a stand in the garage.
“Uh huh.”
I glanced past her to where the condom cactus sat in a prominent spot and bit back a smile. I didn’t stare at it too long, ’cause I didn’t want to draw her attention to it. Especially since she’d added a little flag name tag to it that said “Asshat.”
That was adorable.
“Anyway,” I circled us back because the conversation about work was troubling me more than I wanted to admit. “If I’m going to work for Mason’s and for Marsha, I want to actually do my job.”
“And you’ve kind of missed it.” If Rachel was guessing, she was doing an excellent job. Then again, Rachel seemed to get me without a lot of effort on my part.
That was something I planned on changing, which was another reason I’d offered to come over and hang out here rather than invite her back to my place.
Well, that and the four sexy distractions currently occupying my apartment. I loved having them there, but it did make girls’ night challenging. Especially a rather spontaneous and unplanned girls’ night.
“I have missed it,” I admitted. “But not as much as you might think.” Guilt stabbed me on that last bit, and I cut a look at Rachel. “I loved working at Mason’s because Marsha’s great and it can be fun, don’t get me wrong. But it was also brutal, and I ran my ass off. I am honestly okay if I never see another shake again, and it really kind of put a crimp in my love of burgers.”
“Well, anything that damages your love of food,” she teased with a smile that invited me to join her in laughing at me. Which, I could, because yeah, I got it. I liked to eat.
“But I feel bad.”
“Girl, anyone ever tell you that you overthink the shit out of things?”
“I don’t know, Rach, let’s talk about dissecting poetry and planning out a loving campaign with roses and poems and little gifts to brighten someone’s day without getting anything in return.”
“Pfft, I got to enjoy your joy,” she countered. “That was totally something in return.”
“Fine, but you still thought an awful lot about it. So I’m not the only one who overthinks, hesitates, pulls back, reassesses, then plans again.”
Her nose wrinkled, and she cut her gaze skyward as if debating it. Then nodded. “Fair enough. We are a lot alike that way.” The corners of her mouth tilted. “Probably why we could rub each other the wrong way.”