“About?”
“You know how we said nothing but honesty from now on?”
Chapter 28
You’ve Been Pinned
Hailey felt more nakedthan she actually was—which was saying something since she didn’t have on a stitch—and she struggled to not let it show from where she sat at one end of the couch, knees bent in front of her with her arms cinched around them. “So a woman you were involved with isdownstairs, and she thinks you’re giving her a job? What else is she expecting you to give her?” She used her most reasonable voice. She really did.
“She’s not downstairs now. She left with Charlie, which is why I could bring Chance up here.” The dog wagged his tail from where he lapped at his water bowl, obviously happy to acknowledge his new name. Noah stood at the opposite end of the couch with a throw blanket cinched around his middle like a towel.
Hailey cocked an eyebrow, ready for the rest of the answer. Instead, she got the throw, which he whipped off his body and dropped on her shoulders.
“You looked cold.” He shrugged and resumed his spot at the other end. Yeah, naked Noah wasn’t the least bit distracting. No wonder his ex had followed him to Fall River.
“I wasn’t so muchinvolvedas I was … Shit, this sounds so bad, but here it is.” His pained expression almost had her feeling sorry for him. Almost. “I was hooking up with her. We’d dated for about a minute over a year ago. It didn’t go anywhere. She went her way; I went mine. Then I bumped into her in Denver several weeks ago and wound up staying at her place for a few nights. I was kind of in Wyatt’s and Serena’s way, and it seemed like a simple solution. Turned out to be way more complicated. I was coming from her place the day you and I … met on the pass.” He shot her a sheepish look. “It was a casual thing for me, and I thought she was on the same page. I thought wrong. I was so sure I hadn’t misled her, but somewhere along the way she decided that we were a ‘thing,’ and now she’s left her job and says she’s here to ‘help’ me. Whatever the fuckthatmeans.”
Who does that?The woman sounded a bit unhinged. “Didyouplant the idea of working for you in her head?”
Chance ambled over and sat between them, his wary doggie face turning from one to the other, like a sunflower following the sunshine. Only nothing sunny was happening here.
Tortured emerald eyes lifted to hers. “I might have without meaning to.”
Hailey pulled the wrap tighter around her shoulders. “Um, I think I need actual clothes for this discussion.”
Noah gusted out a defeated sigh. “Grab mine too while you’re at it, please? I’m feeling a little exposed myself.” As if to underscore the sentiment, he stepped into the kitchen area, where the butcher block hid his man bits. Unfortunately, it did nothing to cover the delicious cut of his V, those washboard abs, or his stupendous pecs … and shoulders … and biceps … and forearms … and hands ...
Stop it!
She dashed up the stairs, on the hunt for clothes that had come off and gone on many times in the last twelve hours. Mostly they’d comeoffand were scattered in various piles around Noah’s loft, a debris trail that mimicked the path of their unorthodox choices of places to indulge in adult playtime. And God, it had been exhilarating.
As she scoured the perimeter of the bed, the heady scent of sex and Noah wafting from the well-used linens, she reflected that the scene was comical in a twisted-fate sort of way, and witnessing Mr. Surly Man squirm in place would have tickled her funny bone if it didn’t hurt her heart at the same time. But she reminded herself they hadn’t known each other when he’d been withher—the downstairs ex-hookup. Still, he hadn’tbeen with the downstairs ex—Sandy—that long ago, and after a short span of time, he had switched to Hailey. Did that make him a manwhore? Throw in the drooling Germaines and Ursulas of the world, and the answer was: quite possibly. Another thought about Ursula struck, and Hailey put it aside.
She shinnied on her panties and pulled one of Noah’s T-shirts over her head, loving the woodsy man scent that enveloped her. If things didn’t work out between them, she was going to steal this shirt. Maybe a second one too.
Snatching his knit boxers and a random hoodie, she ran downstairs and tossed them at his head. “We left off at how you screwed up.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” he deadpanned. Even in the ridiculous combination of hoodie and underwear, the man’s sex appeal came through. It was a living, breathing thing that prowled the shadows and banded its phantom arms around you, catching you unaware and defenseless.
He scrubbed his beard with one of those strong hands she admired so much. “I was antsy to get out of there, and I cut my time short without tying things off the way I should have. I blamed my escape on being short-staffed, which led to joking about needing a good waitress and her coming to work for me. I guess I was trying to let her down easy—I’m a chicken when the waterworks start—and it never occurred to me she’d take me seriously.” He visibly winced.
“That’s a pretty awful joke.”And such a man thing to do.“I can see where she might have jumped to conclusions. It makes me wonder …”
“What?” He held out a hand for Chance to sniff.
She folded her arms across her chest. “You have this woman downstairs who thinks you’re together. You have Ursula who’spositiveyou’ll be together. Is there something I should know?”
His brows cinched together. “I don’t follow.”
“Do you drug your women so they all suffer from the same delusion? Do I need to worry that I’m going to wake up under some kind of spell that compels me to add our names to a wedding registry?”
He snorted. “Hardly.”
“You have quite the magnetic pull, Noah Hunnicutt.”
“Not on you, though.” The sad note in his voice gave her hopes a lift.
Don’t be so sure about that, barkeep. I’m only human.
