Trouble (Dogwood Lane #3)(31)

“You actually like her.”

I flinch for both our benefits.

He says the words “like her” as if I’m trying to date her. The concept in itself makes me ill. My face screws up like I’ve sucked on a lemon, and that only amuses Matt more.

“I don’t like her. Not like how you said it,” I say, slightly offended.

“How’d I say it?”

“Like I like her like her. Like I have lost my balls like her. Like I want to attach myself to her like her.” I shake my head. “It’s not like that.”

“What’s it like, then?”

“I don’t know . . .” I take my hat off again. My fingers slip through my hair as I try to figure out what I’m thinking. “She’s a challenge, I guess. She asked me to give it my best shot last night. To give her my best pickup line.”

Matt leans on his truck with one ankle crossed over the other. He looks too damn comfortable for this conversation.

“I’m intrigued,” he says.

“Why?”

“I’m dying to know how you responded to that.”

“Probably like anyone else would’ve,” I say. “I mean, what do you do when someone says that and they have their clothes on?”

Matt bursts out in laughter. His delight in my frustration doesn’t help. It only makes me more irritated.

“Matt, seriously. Shut up or help me here.”

He shoves off the truck, a shine in his eyes. “Is the Penn Etling asking for my help on how to win over a girl?”

“No,” I protest. “That’s not what I was saying.”

“Sounds like it to me.”

I put my hat back on. “I was just a little thrown off, okay? Put on the spot. Guys like me don’t have pickup lines shoved in our back pockets. We don’t need them.”

“I think Avery proves that’s not quite true,” Matt says, patting my shoulder as he walks by. “But I like your confidence.”

I walk beside him as he heads toward the front door. He watches me out of the corner of his eye, waiting to see where I direct this conversation. The truth is, I don’t know where to take it.

Do I need help getting Avery to admit she wants me? No. I can manage that just fine. It just might take longer than I want it to. But would I feel a little better if Matt would just tell me this is all normal? Fuck yeah.

“It’s okay to like someone, you know,” Matt offers. “It doesn’t make you weak or anything.”

We stop a few feet short of the door. He turns his body to face mine.

“Yeah, I know,” I say, blowing him off. “It’s just fucking with me because she didn’t give in. That’s all.”

Matt opens his mouth and then shuts it. He sticks a hand in his pocket as the wheels turn in his brain.

“Can I ask you something?” he asks.

“I guess.”

“If you did like her, would you tell me?”

What the fuck?

“Why? Do you like her or something?” My blood begins to heat as the idea of seeing Matt and Avery together washes over me. When Matt laughs at my reaction, I narrow my eyes. “This isn’t funny.”

“No, I don’t like her, caveman. Settle down. Damn.”

“I’m not unsettled.”

He smacks his lips together as his chest bounces with a quiet laugh. “One of these days, you’re going to have to realize that you’re a mortal just like the rest of us.”

“Nah. That’s a rumor.”

He snorts. “Look, Penn. You’re a giant pain in my ass. You waste more of my time than any other human being in the world. You’ve gotten me in more trouble than anyone I know. You make me do all the trim at work, and you still haven’t paid me back for demolishing my bumper.”

“Take it up with the deer that jumped out in front of me. Or with your brother, who just had to have treated posts on the jobsite when he got there the next morning.”

“Or you could’ve taken them the evening before like you were supposed to.”

I grin. “I had plans.”

Matt sighs, shaking his head.

We stand around, feeling each other out. This isn’t a conversation we have often. Or ever. Matt doesn’t date a bunch, and when he does, he’s not talking about it much with me. I’m never asking him for advice or needing to talk shit out. This is new ground for us. I don’t think either of us particularly knows how to get where he wants to go.

“Look,” he says after mulling it over for a while. “You’ve made a career out of not settling down. I get it. No problems with it.” He makes a face. “I kind of admire it in a really weird, kind of sick way.”

“Hey, thanks,” I say, appreciating the compliment.

He laughs. “That wasn’t meant to be taken the way you just took it. Anyway, you’ve managed to avoid getting to the root of your antirelationship strategy for a long time. Maybe now’s a good time to think about it and fix it.”

“And why would I do something like that?”

“So you can be happy.”

“I’m happy. I’ve never not been happy. I’m the happiest motherfucker on the planet.”

“But you could be happier.”