Hold On (The 'Burg #6)(105)
It was from Merry.
Ethan get to school okay?
Not having him for years and falling in love with him more and more every time I saw him or even thought of him, I never would have thought, if the impossible happened and I got him, there would be farther to fall.
I was dead wrong.
I was moving my thumb over the phone as I hopped out of my car, nowhere near done with my text, when I started to shift out of the door to close it and ran into something.
I jerked in a turn and stared at my dickhead neighbor who was right there, in my space.
Okay, apparently, even when most of your life stops sucking, some of that suckage remained.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” I replied, forcing myself not to look around to see if I could find Ryker watching.
“Sorry, baby.” He moved back half a step. “Thought you saw me.”
I got out of the way of my door, slammed it, and put space between us as I beat back a lip curl at him calling me “baby.”
I also did all this as I answered, “I was texting.”
“Yeah,” he said, taking a step toward me, and I held my ground even though I didn’t want to. “Listen, know you got a kid but thought you might wanna find someone to look after him and go grab a beer sometime.”
I looked to his house.
I saw the beat-up Chevy truck I knew he drove.
I did not see the run-down Ford Fiesta his woman drove.
Not good news.
I looked back at him. “It’s cool you askin’, but just to say, I got a kid and I also got a man.”
His face changed and it was not a happy change.
“Black Excursion?” he asked.
He’d been watching me.
Now I was the one who was not happy (or less happy, considering I wasn’t happy at all he was in my space).
“Yeah,” I told him.
He moved closer to me.
Shit.
“Dude’s not your style, darlin’,” he said in what I expected was his come-on voice.
It did nothing for me for more reasons than the fact the * didn’t even know my name, so he couldn’t know what my style was.
Unless he made assumptions about me.
Which pissed me off.
However, I could not engage.
And that sucked.
“’Fraid you’re wrong,” I replied, stepping away.
“That guy’s too clean-cut,” he declared, taking another step toward me. “You seem like a woman who likes to have fun, let it all hang out.” His gaze dipped to my tits. “And you can feel free to do that with me, baby.”
He was right. I was that kind of woman, and I was good doing that with Merry because my dickhead neighbor read Merry wrong—Merry was also that kind of man.
“Think we can have good times, you and me,” he stated, looking into my eyes again and taking yet another step toward me.
“Think my man wouldn’t be too happy about that,” I returned an understatement. “But you gotta know, I am happy with my guy, so no offense to you and your offer, but I’m good where I’m at.”
“You sure you wouldn’t wanna take a shot at better?” he pushed.
Him? Better?
He’d been watching but had he actually seen Merry?
“Got a good thing,” I said softly, hoping to get through and get this * away from me. “Been waitin’ for it a long time. It’s good for me. It’s good for my kid. No way I’m gonna f*ck that up. You with me?”
Not that I’d even consider it with him.
Then again, I wouldn’t consider it with anybody…but Merry.
He studied me.
I let him.
When I was about to quit letting him, thankfully, he nodded.
“I’m with you, babe. I hear that. But I’m two doors down, you know? Shit happens with that dude, he doesn’t look after you, there’s always a cold one waitin’ for you just down the street.”
I had a feeling he didn’t know what looking after a woman meant.
And I was never going to find out.
“Thanks, that’s sweet,” I lied.
He smiled.
He had good teeth, but I knew that was all that was good about him.
“You ever need anyone to look after your boy, I’m around a lot.” He kept smiling. “And I like kids.”
And that was never going to happen.
“That’s sweet too,” I lied again.
“Just so you know, in case shit goes south, I can be all kinds of sweet.”
How was he not getting the hint?
“Noted,” I murmured.
He kept smiling. “Later, babe.”
“Right. Later.”
He did a slow turn, doing it watching me.
I did a quick turn and hoofed it to my house.
Once I got inside, I finished my text to Merry and hit send.
Ethan’s all good and you’re all kinds of sweet.
And that was no lie.
The second after I sent that, I went to my Contacts and found what I needed.
I put my phone to my ear and got Ryker’s voicemail.
I waited for the beep and shared, “My dickhead neighbor just asked me out. He took no for an answer, but that didn’t stop him from pushin’ it and bein’ chatty. Since it’s flyin’ through the ’burg, you gotta know Merry and me sorted things out. If you don’t want Merry breathin’ down your neck on this, or wadin’ in and committing felonies when the badass is unleashed, you need to do whatever it is you’re doin’ and you need to do it quick. My neighbor is watchin’, that watchin’ he’s doin’ is watchin’ me, and if Merry cottons on to that, all holy hell is gonna break loose.”