“No more often than necessary.”
“Right.”
He rubs the back of his neck under his straight black hair and I take in the four sodden bags of laundry by the door. “You new to the area?”
“Huh?”
I jut my chin at the bags. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”
“Oh!” he says, as if remembering why he’s here at all. “Oh, no, I . . . my washing machine at home is busted.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Is it? I mean, if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been lucky enough to run into you.”
I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, annoyed by the thrill his words spark in my heart. “I don’t really believe in luck.”
“What about fate? I mean, this is kind of unreal. I even had a dream about you last night.”
I raise my eyebrows. My lips part, at a loss for words. As though he realizes what he said too late, his cheeks darken. He massages his temple again, looking lost.
“Did I say that out loud?” he whispers to himself.
Fighting against the flutters that have erupted in my stomach, I look up at him. “Are you okay? Are you sure you don’t want me to call an ambulance?”
He shakes his head. “No, I’m okay. Look . . .” He turns and heads toward his bags of laundry, dragging them back across the room. “Motor skills are still functioning. That’s good, right?”
I smile gently and nod as he opens the lids across from my machine and dumps what looks like every piece of clothing he owns inside. While I pull my clean clothes from the dryer, he meticulously fills the coin slots with his quarters, then stops. For a long moment, I watch as he stares at the machines, his eyes bouncing between them all.
“Fuck,” he says quietly.
I lean forward over my basket. “Problem?”
He looks up, his cheeks flushing. “Yeah, I ah . . . forgot to bring detergent.”
“Oh.”
“You don’t suppose that old reptile over there will sell me some, do you?” he asks, tilting his head Doris’s way.
I press my lips together to smother a smile. Reptile is definitely the right descriptor. “No, definitely not.”
He closes his eyes and sighs. “Great.”
Don’t offer, Dusty. Don’t do it. He’ll think you’re flirting.“You can borrow some of mine.”Damn it.
“Really?”
I shrug and close the door on the now empty dryer, bringing my full basket of warm clothes over to the folding table. “Of course.” I grab a cart and, after looking around and making sure no one is watching other than Joel, push back a loose piece of paneling to grab my stashed detergent box.
“Smart,” he says, grinning as I start to scoop the detergent into his open machines, acutely aware that his eyes never leave my skin.
I shrug. “I have my moments.”
“I really appreciate this.”
Flipping the lids down, I smile at him. “Everything in there?” I ask.
He nods, and we both start pushing the coins in to start the machines.
