Ignite (Cloverleigh Farms #6)(33)

After that, it was on to station housekeeping—cleaning the bathroom, emptying the trash, vacuuming the carpets, mopping the floors, sweeping out the bay, landscaping. I never minded the work, especially since I’d much rather clean than cook. And since the rest of the guys agreed I was the worst at making the evening meal, I was often allowed to trade my kitchen duties for other tasks.

After lunch we had a meeting with the Lieutenant and then some medical training, but eventually I was able to hit the gym for a workout. It wasn’t anything big or fancy, but it was clean and functional, and there was enough equipment to punish myself sufficiently, or at least take my mind off the gorgeous girl next door.

Justin joined me, which was fine, although I wasn’t in the mood to talk. My brother-in-law had known me long enough to read the signs, but when I was done on the treadmill, he got off the machine he’d been on and came over.

“You okay?” he asked.

I shrugged, walking slowly on the belt to cool off. “Fine.”

“You haven’t said a word all day.”

“I’m tired, I guess.”

“How was your weekend with the girls?”

“Good.” My mood lifted a little at the thought of them. “Thanks again for helping with the move. I appreciate it.”

“No problem. You get all unpacked?”

I made a face. “Fuck no. I spent yesterday sweating my ass off at the pool and telling them five hundred times that no, we can’t get a cat.”

Justin laughed. “You know you’re going to get them a cat. Give it up.”

“And who’s going to feed it while I’m here?” I stopped the belt completely and got off.

“Your neighbor. What’s her name again?”

“Winnie.”

“Right. Like the Pooh.”

I thought about her bright, happy smile and girlish laugh and felt like shit again. “I don’t think Winnie is all that anxious to do me any favors.”

“Why not?”

Exhaling, I wiped my face with a towel. “I said something shitty to her yesterday.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m an asshole.” I tossed the towel in a laundry basket, then picked the whole thing up.

“True,” Justin said, following me to the laundry room. “But what was it you said?”

I dumped the dirty towels into the washing machine and added soap. “I made a remark about not being interested in her.”

“Why the hell would you say that?”

I turned the dial on the old machine and pulled the knob. “Because I am interested in her. Sort of.”

“Sort of?”

I frowned. “I’m interested in doing things to her I shouldn’t, because she’s so fucking young it should be illegal.”

“How old is she?”

“Twenty-two.”

“Oh.” He seemed relieved. “That’s not that young.”

I turned around and leaned back against the machine, folding my arms over my sweat-soaked chest. “Have you talked to any twenty-two-year-olds lately?”

Justin, who was thirty-seven, shook his head. “Can’t say I have.”

“They’re young, dude. She was in fucking kindergarten when I graduated high school.”

He laughed. “Hey, I’m five years older than Bree.”

“That’s not as bad. And Bree was like thirty when you guys met. This girl was drinking a fucking Frosty when I went over there Saturday night.”

“You went over there Saturday night?”

“Just to her patio. I was sitting on mine having a beer when she came out to hers, and I wanted to apologize for something that happened earlier at Chip’s party.”

“What was she doing at Chip’s party?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Turns out she’s his cousin.”

He laughed. “Small towns, man. So what happened there you had to apologize for?”

I told him about the incident in her bedroom, and he laughed so hard he wheezed. “That’s fucking amazing. Jesus, how did you hold it together?”

“I don’t know,” I said seriously. “I was in firefighter mode. Plus, the kids were there. Then at the party, Chip was introducing us, and Luna shouts out, ‘We know her! We saw her bum!’ And the whole place went dead silent.”

Justin’s eyes went wide. “What did she do?”

“She handled it fine, but I felt bad. Then Luna had an allergic reaction to something she ate, so we had to leave early, and I never got a chance to talk to her. Later, when I saw her come out to her patio, I went over to say sorry and we ended up having a beer together and talking for a while.” Exhaling, I let my shoulders slump. “And then I fucked up.”

Justin leaned back against a cabinet full of cleaning supplies and cocked his brow. “What did you do, keep her out past curfew?”

I shook my head. “I fucking kissed her.”

“And you feel guilty about it because she’s young?”

“Yeah. I mean, I stopped it before it could go any farther, but it easily could have. Then I saw her yesterday at the pool—the girls went and dragged her out to swim with them—and she looked so good, I couldn’t stop staring at her or thinking about her naked, and it was pissing me off. So I basically announced out of nowhere that I wasn’t interested in her. That kissing her had been a stupid mistake.”