Jake walked away toward the front of the house and Kyle walked up the stairs to the house.
And Sydney was left standing there alone.
“Okay, maybe I’m just paranoid,” she muttered, taking off up the stairs after Kyle. She found him in the spare room putting on his tool belt and looking a little fierce. “Hey. Are you alright?”
He nodded and picked up his drill. When he went to walk around her, she reached out and stopped him.
“What’s going on, Kyle?”
His eyes went a little wide at her question. “Are you serious? My boss is checking up on me and it’s a little unnerving!” he kept his voice down, but it was clear he was pissed.
“I don’t think he was purposely checking up on you. And besides, he seems fine.”
He started to walk away again when he stopped and turned to look at her. “Why did you look so freaked out when the doorbell rang?”
“What?”
He nodded. “Yeah, when the doorbell rang, you sort of paled—like you didn’t want anyone showing up and finding me here.”
“You’re crazy.” This time it was her turn to try to leave, but he reached out and stopped her.
“Am I? Because I know what I saw, Syd.”
Rolling her eyes, she took a step back. “Okay, fine. I had a second of…I don’t know…if anyone showed up and saw us eating breakfast together, then they’d know you’d spent the night.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
This time she huffed. “Are you telling me you’re more than ready to go down to the yard and tell that to your boss? Because I seem to recall hearing you tell a big fat lie about just showing up to help with the deck!”
He had the good sense not to argue that point.
“I need to get down there or he’ll get even more suspicious than he probably already is.” And this time when he went to leave the room, she didn’t stop him.
She also didn’t follow.
Sitting down on the bed, she sighed and wondered just what she was thinking about this whole situation. She and Kyle were dating again and there wasn’t anything wrong with it. So why did she have that moment of panic when the doorbell rang?
Part of what she said to Kyle was true, but again, what would be the big deal? They were dating and he spent the night. It wasn’t anybody’s business but their own.
No, the problem was his job.
His boss.
And the fact that he had caught them in an intimate moment before and she really didn’t want it to happen again.
But it did.
Groaning, she fell back on the mattress. Staring up at the ceiling for a moment, Sydney came to the realization that it shouldn’t matter to Jake or to anyone if she and Kyle were dating. They were adults, and the work was getting done on the house, and she knew nothing inappropriate was going on during work hours so…
“What the hell am I freaking out about?”
Then she realized Kyle shouldn’t be freaking out either. They weren’t guilty of anything so maybe it was a good thing that all this had happened, and once Jake was gone, they’d finish their breakfast and talk about it.
Feeling better, she got up and stretched.
And decided there wasn’t any reason she couldn’t finish her cinnamon roll now.
Kyle could reheat his.
“Okay,” Kyle said, taking a step back. “I think that’ll do it.”
“Definitely. I’m glad I had some brackets in the truck too. Now Sydney won’t have to worry about whether it’s safe or not to be out on the deck.”
Nodding, Kyle went to pick up some of his tools when Jake’s words stopped him.
“I’d really hate to have to fire you, Kyle.”
With a silent curse, he slowly turned around to face his boss. “Excuse me?”
Jake Summerford was known for being fair and always treating his employees well. On top of that, he was a seriously nice guy. But the look on his face right now showed just how frustrated he was with the situation.
Taking a step forward, Jake leveled him with a look. “I warned you weeks ago about all of this. I told you if you couldn’t be impartial, then we were going to have a problem.”
Not quite sure which part of this situation was setting Jake off more, Kyle figured he’d just go with his immediate gut reaction. “It didn’t seem like a big deal to swing by and look at the deck, Jake. I wasn’t on the clock so I don’t see what the problem is.”