Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (6 page)

He was frowning.
 
“You don’t have to do this, Maddie.
 
I’ll help you pay for the car.
 
It’s not a problem.”

Considering he was an engineer, Maddie knew that money really wasn’t a problem.
 
This was about her pride.
 
She’d made the mistake and she would be the one to pay for it.

Spending time with my high school crush is just a bonus
, she thought.

“No, I want to do this.
 
Don’t worry.
 
I’ll call you as soon as I get home, okay?”
 
He was clearly hesitant, so she got out of the car quickly, clutching her purse.
 
“Thanks for taking me to go get my wallet and dropping me off.
 
Love you!”

And then she slammed the door and waved as she hurried towards the open garage.
 
She breathed a sigh of relief when Thomas finally pulled away.

“Hey there, sweetie,” Brian greeted, wiping his greasy hands on an even greasier rag.
 
“Caleb said you’d be comin’ around this evening.”

She nodded and smiled.
 
“Yep!
 
To help with the bookkeeping.”

He raised a brow.
 
“Then you got your work cut out for you.
 
Wait ’til you see that office.
 
John was never good with numbers.”

“John?”

“Caleb’s uncle.
 
He passed away last month.
 
Lung cancer, but we all saw it comin’ the way he used to smoke.
 
Caleb’s been tryin’ to keep it together, but it’s been hard on him,” Brian responded, frowning.

Maddie’s brows drew together and a pang went through her chest.
 
“That’s terrible.
 
I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

All she knew was that Caleb had come to live with his uncle and aunt when he’d been nine years old.
 
She didn’t know what happened to his parents, but his uncle had practically raised him.
 
Thomas had mentioned once that the two were pretty close, at least they’d been during high school.
 
She knew all too well the pain of a loved one’s death and she didn’t wish it on anyone.

Poor Caleb
.

“We all loved John, but he’d been sick for a while.
 
It wasn’t a surprise in the end.
 
Maybe that’s a blessing, when you know it’s comin’.”

“Brian, it’s none of her business,” came a sudden, harsh tone.
 
Maddie whirled around to see Caleb standing at the top of the metal stairs in front of his office.
 
His face was darkened with anger, his brows pulled down and his full lips pressed into a hard line.
 
His gaze swung to her.
 
“Get up here.
 
You’re late.”

“No, I’m not,” she started, glancing down at her rose gold watch.
 
He’d told her six and her watch read 6:02.

“I’m sorry, princess.
 
I didn’t realize chatting with my employees when you’re supposed to be working off your payment to me was acceptable.”

Maddie’s eyes narrowed, but she remained silent, exchanging an exasperated look with Brian.
 
He gave her a wink and she started ascending the stairs.
 
Every step took her closer to Caleb and she told herself that it was the stair climbing that made her a little breathless, not the man who stood waiting at the top of them.

She could feel his eyes on her.
 
When she finally reached the top and stood before him, he took in her outfit leisurely, which sent treacherous shivers shooting through her body.
 
He ended at her favorite nude kitten heels, which she’d bought half price at Nordstrom’s Rack.
 
His brow seemed to lower even more.

“This is a
garage
,” he sneered.
 
“Don’t wear heels next time.”

She frowned.
 
“It’s not like I’m working
on
the cars.
 
I’ll be in the office.
 
And I think this outfit is very professional, don’t you?”

He didn’t reply, just sent her a dark look that prickled her skin with awareness.
 
She may not like Caleb’s attitude, but her body certainly didn’t mind him.
 
At all.
 
Refusing to provide an answer to her question, he gestured her inside with a grand sweep of his arm as though she was the princess he mockingly called her.

Straightening her spine, she passed him, trying not to inhale his delicious, spicy scent on the way.
 
Then she came to a sudden halt.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.
 
Eyes widened, she took in the office.
 
At least, what she thought was an office.
 
Every inch of it seemed to be covered in paper, paper, and more paper.

“You said you’re good at bookkeeping, princess.
 
Let’s see you prove it,” Caleb said behind her.
 
He was so close, she could feel the heat from his body.

The mess was making her fidget.
 
She liked to be organized.
 
And because she craved order, everything in her apartment had its place, from her adorable cat mug—which she used to store pens on her desk—to her bookshelf—which was shelved by genre and the author’s last name.
 
Sometimes, she organized it by the color of the book covers, but only when she was feeling particularly rebellious.

Yep, she was quite the rebel.

As Maddie’s brown, terrified eyes swept the expanse of the office, she realized she didn’t even know where to begin.
 
Caleb brushed past her and resumed his place at the large wood desk on the left side of the office.

When her brain finally processed what she was seeing, she stammered, “You want me to get through
all
of this?”

Caleb shrugged, not looking at her as he started on a stack of paper in the middle of his desk.
 
“You offered.
 
And can I just say that your spark plugs
were
damaged, so the total cost for the car is $980.”
 
He shot her a smirk.
 
“Including tax, of course.
 
As far as I’m concerned, I’m getting the bad end of this deal.”

“You can’t be serious!
 
Have you
looked
around this office lately?
 
You can hardly see the furniture.”

“This was
your
idea, princess.
 
If you want off the hook, fine.
 
But that’ll be $980 on your way out.”

“My car’s probably not even worth that much,” she grumbled quietly under her breath.
 
Then she blew out a breath.
 
If Caleb Montgomery was trying to scare her off, it wouldn’t work.
 
“Fine,” she said, slapping her purse down on a stack of boxes by the door.
 
“Where should I start?”

Judging by the look on his face, it was obvious that he had expected her to bolt the moment she walked through the door.
 
Then he narrowed his eyes.
 
“You’re the expert.
 
You figure it out.”

High school crush, be damned.
 
Caleb was a grade-A jerk.

With a rock-hard body and do-me eyes
…

Maddie sighed.

This was not going to be easy
.

SIX

Caleb looked up from the stack of papers in front of him for the millionth time in two hours and automatically sought out the small figure across the room.

Maddie was still working away, hunched over the makeshift desk she’d made out of cardboard boxes and spare chairs.
 
She was rummaging through receipts and invoices dating back from who knows when.
 
The space between her eyebrows was pinched and every now and again she’d grumble to herself.

Caleb had tried to fight stealing glances at her all evening.
 
Eventually, he’d just given up.
 
He held a strange attraction towards her that spread through every nerve of his body.
 
He wasn’t thrilled about it either.
 
If she swept that glorious, couldn’t-stop-imagining-it-spread-out-on-a-pillow hair over her shoulder, or drifted from one side of the room to another, bending down to sort through boxes in those goddamn heels of hers, Caleb would clench his fists under the desk and take steadying breaths.
 
And he stayed seated, because if he were to stand, his hard-on would probably scare even
him
.

It had definitely been too long since he’d last had a woman.
 
Something he intended to remedy quickly.
 
Just not with the one in my office
, he told himself sternly.

This was ridiculous.
 
She wasn’t stunningly beautiful.
 
She didn’t have the full lips or the big tits that he usually preferred.
 
She looked more like a schoolmarm than a seductive tease, but his cock sure couldn’t tell the difference.

Maddie walked over to another pile of papers and boxes she had yet to sort through.
 
Her dark jeans stretched tight over her generous ass when she bent at the waist.
 
Caleb clenched his jaw and forced himself to look away with a dark frown.
 
He would’ve thought she was doing it on purpose, but he’d caught the look of utter focus on her features.
 
She was completely oblivious to her appeal, to the effect she had on men, and that just made him want to lash out at her even more.

“
2001
?
 
Really?” she grumbled under her breath, flipping through a folder she’d uncovered.
 
“This place is a disaster.”

Finally
, something he could work with.
 
It felt like a relief when he asked slowly, “What did you just say?”

Her head swiveled in his direction.
 
“I said, this place is a disaster.
 
How can you even
work
in here?”

“Just fine,” he grated.
 
“Maybe if you’d stop complaining,
princess
, you’d actually know what work meant.”

“I’ve organized that entire side of the office already.
 
I have more paper cuts on my hands than a—a…” she trailed off, her cheeks going an enticing pink.
 
“Than a
papermaker
.”

Caleb raised a brow and drawled, “A papermaker?”

She waved a hand, “Or, you know, someone who deals with paper.
 
A lot.
 
Nevermind, it doesn’t matter.
 
What I’m telling you is that I’ve been working my butt off for the past two hours and you think I’m just fooling around?”

He felt a flair of amusement, which didn’t sit well with him.
 
At all.
 
To compensate, he snapped, “Are you always this irritating?”

With narrowed eyes, she turned to face the boxes again and refused to answer, which…disappointed him?
 
With a barely suppressed growl, he returned to his own work, only to find his concentration even more shot than it’d been a few moments before.

Luckily, his cell phone rang, providing a welcome distraction.
 
Glancing down, he saw it was Lucas Branford, a good friend of his.

“Luke,” he said, accepting the call with a sideways glance at Maddie.
 
He leaned back in his desk chair, watching her.

“What are you doing tonight?
 
Kate’s out of town for a book signing and I feel like a night out.”

“The missus is away so you can play?
 
And here I thought you were a ‘changed man,’” Caleb mocked.
 
Caleb knew very well that Luke was utterly and disgustingly
besotted
with his girlfriend, but back in the day, Luke had been an unrepentant womanizer, to the extent that his contact list was crammed full of descriptions like ‘Hot Blonde #4 from Monarch’ and ‘Krazy Katherine from Polk.’

“Not my missus…yet.”

Caleb rolled his eyes, “Thanks but no thanks.
 
Look, I don’t exactly want a night out with you texting Kate every few seconds, with Alex groping Olivia under the table, and Adam off in fucking la la land with Christie, okay?”

“Awww, is someone a wittle jealous that he’s the last single man standing?” Luke cooed.

“We’re obviously not friends if you believe that,” Caleb said, dead serious.
 
The last thing he ever wanted was a relationship.
 
Been there, done that, and he’d been burned not once but twice.
 
Or four times, depending on the definition of the word ‘relationship.’

Fool me once…

“Guys night out, I promise.
 
No girlfriends.
 
Just alcohol and living vicariously through you, since you’re the only one out of all of us that can still score with random hot chicks.”

Caleb’s eyes flickered to Maddie.
 
He smirked and raised his voice a notch, “Random hot chicks?
 
Sounds like a perfect night.”

Maddie stiffened and threw him a look over her shoulder before swiveling back around.
 
She wasn’t even pretending that she wasn’t listening.
 
For some reason, Caleb found that…refreshing.

Luke paused.
 
“All right, who are you and what have you done with my friend Caleb?
 
You know, the one we call a woman-hater because he bares his teeth at them like a rabid animal if they get within five feet.”

“You’re hilarious.
 
Did anyone ever tell you to do stand-up?”