Quarterback Sneak (Red Zone Rivals #3)(88)

And so, I lifted my glass last, and I held her gaze as I toasted.

“To my future wife.”

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Mary



“Months?!”

I repeated the word back to the stout, almost too muscular man staring back at me with an expression like he was bored with my concern. He was chewing on some sort of seed, and he spit out a shell before nodding and looking back at the house with one hand on his hip and the other holding his clipboard.

“It’s very possible,” he said with a thick New England accent. “I know that’s not the news you or your landlord want to hear, but… the pipes are a mess.”

“Clearly,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose as I recalled the flood inside the house. I’d come home to it after a late night at the tattoo parlor and had spent most of the early morning hours mopping up what I could with every towel in the house.

“The good news is it’s fixable.”

“Right. You just need to gut the entire system.”

The man gave me an apologetic smile. “Ah, don’t beat yourself up. Happens all the time with old houses like this, especially with the summers getting hotter and hotter. These pipes just can’t take the expansion of the water when it gets hot like this.”

I wanted to beat my head against the nearest brick wall.

“I spoke with your landlord, and she wants this resolved just as quickly as you do.”

“Mm-hmm,” I said flatly, trying not to laugh as I pictured Miss Margie doing anything quickly. She was a doll, and an absolute saint for renting the house to me for the low price she did. But she was also a nutcase and moved at the pace of a snail on vacation.

I’d been able to handle the rent on my own, even after Julep moved out. But it wasn’t easy, and I had been actively looking for a roommate to help for a few weeks now.

So much for that.

Now, I was homeless with no money saved and a paycheck that just barely helped me scrape by as it was. And, unlike many of the college kids who lived in this old neighborhood, I couldn’t just call up my mom or dad and ask for money.

I mean, I could. But I wouldn’t.

I was still standing with my arms folded, subtly pinching the inside of my rib cage just in case this was a nightmare I could wake up from, when someone sidled up beside me and nearly made me jump out of my skin.

“What’s the problem?”

I pressed a hand against my heart from the scare, eyes wide until I turned and found Leo Hernandez standing beside me with concern etched into his brow.

Leo fucking Hernandez — North Boston University’s star running back, most unobtainable bachelor, and number one on my people I would murder if I could get away with it list.

Also, my neighbor.

He looked like he was fresh from summer practice, sweat soaking the edges of his hairline and making his gray NBU football t-shirt stick to his chest. His hair was boyish in its length, messy and sticking up in a thousand different ways where it wasn’t stuck to his forehead. His hazel eyes and warm brown skin were too much for most anyone attracted to males to resist, and when you combined it with a body built by years and years of football, it was the most unfortunately irresistible combination.

I’d used to think I loved him.

But that was before I hated him.

He folded his arms over his muscular chest, and it was then that I realized he’d ripped the sleeves off his shirt, showcasing his upper outer rib cage and every inch of his arms. I glanced at his bulging biceps for only a moment before I scoffed and rolled my eyes.

“Nothing that concerns you.”

“As your neighbor, I beg to differ.”

“This your boyfriend?” The man with the clipboard asked, pointing at Leo. “I can explain it to him, if you’d like.”

I ground my teeth, both at the insinuation that I would ever date a pig-headed asshole like Leo Hernandez and that as a woman, I needed a man that the contractor could explain the pipe issue to in order for me to fully comprehend.

“He’s no one,” I grumbled, angling my body so that Leo was cut out of the circle that had somehow formed. “I’ll speak with Margie about next steps. Thank you for your time.”

The man looked between me and Leo a few times before shrugging, Then he ripped off a copy of the assessment from his clipboard and handed it to me. “I recommend getting anything you care about out of there.”

“Right,” I said, again annoyed that he even felt the need to say that, as if it wasn’t common sense.

He left along with the small crew he’d brought with him.

Leo, however, was still standing behind me once the truck pulled away.

“Did a pipe burst or something?”

“Go away,” I clipped before heading for the house.

He was on my heels. “It sounds pretty serious.”

I ignored him, opening the front door of the house and attempting to slam it in his face. But he caught it, and then he dipped his head through and whistled at what he saw.

It was a fucking mess.

Not just one pipe had burst. It was as if one gave out and the rest of the pipes decided they were tired, too, so they threw in the towel and joined the first. There was a giant hole in the ceiling where water had built from the leak on the second floor and caused it to collapse, and if that were all I had to worry about, maybe I could have stayed. But the entire system had gone. Water was everywhere, and so was debris, and I just stared at it all with Leo at my side.