Maybe my taste in men has improved? Because good-looking, kind, well-mannered, and thoughtful? He has to be too good to be true, right?
“This guy’s probably going to want to make sure it works. All right if I hook it up?”
I swallow. And take-charge? “Yeah, good idea,” I stammer. “I just pulled it out of the closet this morning.”
He gathers everything up and takes it over to my TV stand. “You’ve got a Switch, too?” he asks, noticing the Nintendo console.
“Uh, yeah, my ex was big into video games.”
He’s got his head behind the TV, but I see the way he pauses what he’s doing, the muscles in his shoulders stiffening slightly against the material of his black T-shirt. Glancing back with a bit of a disapproving look, he asks, “You supposed to be selling his stuff?”
Annoyance pulses in my gut. See? He’s not perfect. Instead of the ‘What are you, my dad?’ that’s on the tip of my tongue, I go with, “I talked to him today. He was more interested in hearing about when I was coming back to him than about his stuff. So yeah, after everything, I’m selling it.”
Even I can hear the determination in my tone, daring him to contradict me, so I’m surprised when another grin tugs at his lips. “After everything? Sounds ominous.”
His head slips back behind the TV and he doesn’t hear the, “If you only knew,” that I mutter under my breath. Talking to Gunnar today was like breathing tiny slivers of glass into my lungs, painful and something to be avoided at all costs. The sound of his voice had flooded me with a sense of familiarity that’s been sorely lacking in my life. I’d held strong though. He still wants his party-girl back, the one who was up for anything, while I want nothing to do with her. No matter how easy it would be to slip back into Piper’s skin, I know the only place she’ll take me is back down to rock bottom.
The jarring buzz of the building’s intercom announces the prospective buyer’s arrival. He’s barely less sketchy than I’d imagined. It takes about fifteen minutes for him to decide he wants the console and then another five for us to come to an agreement. Scott spends the time silently milling about my living room, except when he accepts the pizza delivery. He’s going through my cupboards for some plates when the guy finally leaves.
“Thanks for staying,” I tell him as I pull out a piece of Hawaiian pizza from one of the boxes, settling myself on a bar stool that I pull out from under the kitchen island.
“You’re welcome,” he says. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” I moan at the cheesy goodness of my first bite. How long has it been since I had pizza?
“You live here alone?”
That gets my attention, and I consider him carefully as I chew. “Yeah, why?” I finally answer.
“Because you live on the ground floor and the lock on your patio door is busted.”
I shrug. “It’s been like that since I moved in. I’ve got that piece of wood to block the track. Nobody can get in.”
I’m not sure if his half scoff, half grunt can be taken as agreement or not, but he changes the subject so I don’t give it another thought. He lifts his chin at my chest and I look down at the logo of a local community college on my T-shirt. “You go to school?”
“Yeah, I’m starting my last semester next week.” I’m not sure why I don’t tell him that this isn’t the school I go to.
“You’re not in the coffee business for life then?”
With a slight grimace, I admit, “Customer service and I don’t always get along.”
“What are you planning to do?”
I shrug again. “I’m not sure really. What about you, are you happy at . . . what was the company name . . . something construction?”
“Dominion Construction, and yeah, I think so. I like my boss and the pay’s good.”
A bit of an awkward silence fills the space between us while I mull over what to say next. “So, um, do you live alone?” I know, I know, not very subtle. I can’t resist though, I need to know.
I’m not expecting him to laugh though. “No,” he says, continuing to chuckle, “I live in a house full of women.”
My heart constricts.
“Four generations of them. My grandma, my mom, three sisters, my niece and my daughter.”
While my mind is sorting through the list, I