Ready for You (Ready #3)(14)

She realized what she had done a second after she did it, and she stepped back. It was scary how easily we had just fallen back into our normal banter. It made me wonder just how little effort it would take to tumble back into everything else.

Rather than suffer through the impending awkwardness, I started my job of taking up the wood floors. She busied herself by sweeping the four-thousand nails that were being thrown all over the place from each board being pried out of place. We worked through the afternoon.

In the evening, Mia asked, “Hey, do you want to order a pizza or something?”

“Uh…actually, I have to go to my sister’s for dinner tonight.” I didn’t really, but I’d reached my threshold for the day. The silence was getting to me, and if I had to spend one more hour in here watching Mia bend down in those shorts, trying not to see her ass cheeks peek out from the bottom, I would go crazy.

“Oh, okay. Well, you better get going then.” Dodging my gaze, she became very interested in a spot on the wall that needed to be patched.

“Yeah, I guess I should.”

I walked to the door and stopped. I swung around on my heels, finding a surprised Mia behind me.

“What time tomorrow?”

“Excuse me?” she asked in surprise.

“What time do you want me to come back over tomorrow?” I repeated.

“You’re coming back?”

Our eyes met, and I nodded. “Yes, I like to follow through with things until the very end.”

The double meaning was not lost on her.

Chapter Five

~Mia~

Like clockwork, he showed up at my doorstep the very next day.

Then, the day after, he returned when I was done with my shift at the hospital.

He even came back the following night, holding a bag of takeout in one hand and a change of clothes in the other. This was the second day he’d arrived in a suit. It was further proof that the boy I’d left on the football field after graduation day had disappeared, replaced by a man I barely recognized.

This new Garrett was not the lighthearted boy I remembered. He was a little rough around the edges and a bit bossy, and he had a hardness to him that I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t what I was used to, but if I had to admit it to myself, it was sexy as hell. I had adored playful, carefree Garrett. He was always loving and gentle, and he’d dedicated himself to me completely. But grown-up Garrett was full of mystery and angst. I didn’t know what he would do from one minute to the next, and I hated myself for liking it.

He wasn’t for me, and I didn’t need to add complication to his life again. He was just doing me a favor with the floors, and I needed to keep my distance. If the past had proven anything, it was that he deserved someone a hell of a lot better than me.

“You brought food?” I asked as he breezed past me toward the kitchen.

“Well, you have absolutely nothing in your refrigerator, and I nearly starved to death last night, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. You know you’re a grown-up now, right? Food doesn’t grow on trees. You have to actually go to the store, pick it up, and prepare it.”

He was also incredibly sarcastic. That, unfortunately, wasn’t new.

“I know I am a grown-up, Garrett,” I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

His eyes immediately dropped, hungrily watching the way my br**sts strained against my tank top from the pressure of my arms. His emerald gaze traveled back up to meet my eyes, and I blushed like a teenager. I looked away to find plates for the Chinese food he’d brought over, but I could see him smirking out of the corner of my eye. He knew he’d gotten to me.

“You still wear that necklace.”

It was a statement, not a question. I’d wondered if he would say anything about it. I’d caught him staring at it on the first day he’d shown up to help. We had been hours into destroying my floors. Leaning against the wall, I’d tried to catch my breath, and I’d quenched my thirst with a glass of ice-cold water. When I had looked up, I’d seen the crowbar on the floor, and his eyes had been locked on my chest. I’d instantly heated, thinking he was blatantly checking me out, but then I’d realized the heat in his eyes was from anger, not passion. He’d seen the sterling silver key pendant with his birthstone in the center hanging from my neck. He’d given it to me for my sixteenth birthday, and I’d never taken it off since he’d placed it there.

“I’ve never taken it off.”

He just grunted and continued pulling out cartons of takeout. His eyes drifted up to mine briefly, and he held our stare as if he wanted to say something, but then he let it go. We loaded up our plates, sat down at my kitchen table, and silently ate our moo shu pork and fried rice.

“Why?” he asked, breaking the silence.

I stilled, unable to look up and meet his penetrating gaze. “I…I needed to keep a part of you with me.”

I looked up and our eyes held for a moment before he pushed away from the table, startling me.

“I’m not hungry anymore.”

I finished my dinner alone with my knees pulled into my chest, and then I pushed my plate away. I listened to him in the living room, tearing up the floor like a madman. I could hear boards flying and nails hitting the walls. The tears rimming my eyes threatened to spill over as he took his anger and hurt out on the floor. I finally rose from the table to clean up our plates and glasses.