Beyond Repair (6 page)

I stared at his forehead, trying to use all my willpower to keep my hands to myself. It didn’t work. “You have chalk right … here.” I leaned over and rubbed it carefully with my fingers. His eyes stayed on me, so I focused on keeping my expression neutral. I kept my hand there a few seconds longer than necessary before I pulled it away, reminding myself that lingering touches were not the best idea to get over my little crush.

A change of subject was in order. “Mia, what’s your picture of?”

“That’s me and Ryder holding hands. Can he come to my birthday party?”

I guess I wasn’t the only one with a guy on my mind.

Chapter Five

M
IA HAD KARATE ON TUESDAY,
and I stuck around afterward, waiting for the other parents to leave. As soon as the room was empty, I walked up to Kyle. “What did you say to Chris on Sunday?”

“Why do you care?” He smirked. “I thought you weren’t into him.”

“I’m
not
. But you were talking about me and I want to know what you said.” I realized Mia was standing near me so I handed her my phone to play with while Kyle and I talked.

“It wasn’t anything bad,” Kyle said. “He mentioned you guys were outside. I asked if you’ve been spending a lot of time together, and he said yes. I told him you don’t really like people around you, and that maybe he should back off.”

“You didn’t need to do that.”

Kyle tilted his head. “You’re the most anti-social person I’ve ever met in my life. Before he moved in I asked him to look out for you and be friendly, but then I found out you two spent the entire weekend together. That’s not you. That hasn’t been you in years. I thought he was overstepping.” He paused for a few seconds. “Do you like him, Brooke?”

“He’s nice. Mia was having a good time with his nephew.” Kyle studied my face as I talked, which was annoying me, so I stared at the floor. “I guess we’re friends? I don’t know.”

“Chris is one of the nicest guys I know. He would be perfect for you—”

My head shot up and I opened my mouth to object, but he held up his hand. “But something happened to him a couple of years ago that he won’t talk about. All I know is that he doesn’t want anything to do with relationships. Or anything involving women, for that matter. I don’t even think he gets
any
action at all—”

“My God, I do not need to hear this.”

“The point is that you both have issues. I don’t want him to start having feelings for you if you’re not ready. Same for you. I don’t want you to like him if he’s not going to reciprocate. Especially with the two of you living next door to each other. That would just be awkward.” He shook his head.

“You already told me that last week. And we’re just hanging out. Don’t worry about it.”

“Chris told me pretty much the same thing. So I guess you’re on the same page.”

My heart sank a little. I wanted us to be on the same page but not
this
page. I tried not to let my disappointment show. “Great. I’m glad we had this talk.”

Kyle did a quick nod, but then gave me a sad smile. “You really would be great together.”

I shrugged and grabbed Mia’s hand so we could leave. “Guess we’ll never know.”

* * *

My focus sucked. I was supposed to be designing a brochure for some tourist attraction in Florida, but the conversation I had with Kyle the night before kept replaying in my head. I leaned back from my desk and rubbed my eyes. Maybe I should take a break for a couple of hours and run some errands. I could finish working after Mia went to bed. Since I worked from home, I had the luxury of making my own hours.

Deciding that was the best course of action, I started to save my work when a knock echoed in the room.

My heart rate sped up. I wasn’t used to people coming over unannounced. Even when Zoey lived next door, she would always text me first. I sat glued to the seat for a moment
.
It probably wasn’t anyone bad. Maybe it was UPS needing me to sign for something for work.

I tiptoed to the door and peered around the corner through the window. Through the tinted glass, I could make out a very tall, blurry figure.

I grinned, finger combed my hair, and checked to make sure none of the granola bar I had scarfed down an hour ago had fallen onto my shirt. Forcing my face into a calm expression, I opened the door.

But when I saw him standing there, smiling that crooked smile down at me, I just couldn’t help it. The grin returned. “Hey! What are you doing here? No work today?”

As I stared up at him, the warm feeling from spending the weekend together returned. I hadn’t seen him in only three days, and I missed his voice, his presence, just … him.

He nodded. “Yeah, I couldn’t finish what I was planning in the rain.” I looked past him and realized it was pouring. I’d been so distracted that I hadn’t even noticed. “Are you up for taking a break and getting lunch?”

He was looking down at me, but I refused to meet his eyes so I could concentrate on the thoughts dancing through my head.

I wanted to so bad, but there was the whole drinking thing. And I really shouldn’t spend time with him when I was trying to get over my attraction.

I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them to find his piercing mine
. Fuucck. You’ll kick yourself in the ass later if you say no.

His smile faded. “If you’re busy, that’s fine—”

“No,” I said a little too quickly, but my stomach was flipping too much for me to worry about it. “I was actually about to take a break. I just have to save what I was working on and send a quick email. Come in for a sec.” I opened the door farther.

Chris followed me in and kicked off his wet shoes. He had been in my place over the weekend for a few minutes with the kids, but now everything felt much different. It had been such a long time since I’d allowed myself to be alone with a guy. This was more nerve-wracking than my first date in high school.

Except it wasn’t a date; it was just neighbors getting lunch together. I was making a big deal out of nothing.

But maybe it wasn’t nothing. Chris was acting different, too. All weekend, he’d been friendly and quick to start a conversation, yet he hadn’t said a thing to me since we came inside. I wondered if he was nervous too, and a tiny surge of hope traveled through me.

My computer was set up on a small desk in the living room. I waved my hand toward the couch as I sank into my chair, working with the mouse. “Have a seat. I’ll just be a minute.”

Chris sat stiffly at the edge of the couch, fidgeting and tapping on his knee with his fingers.

It was so easy to talk to him the last time we were together; I figured I could give it another shot. “Is the rain going to put you behind schedule so you’ll have to work over the weekend?”

He stopped tapping and looked relieved that I’d said something. “No, I was actually ahead of schedule, and I can use today to work on some plans that have to get done. What are you doing?”

My computer screen was huge, so I knew he could see it from across the room. “This? It’s a brochure for some tourist attraction opening in Florida.”

“Why are you designing something for someplace that’s so far away?”

“Because they hired the agency I work for.” I laughed but stopped as I felt him behind me, leaning over to look at the computer screen. The attempts to dismiss my feelings for him faded away as I took a deep breath.

This was the first good chance that I had to smell him. It was a combination of soap, cinnamon Altoids, and rain, with the faintest trace of sawdust. Goosebumps covered my arms, even though I wasn’t cold.

I could hear Chris breathe behind me and felt a need to break the silence and rid myself of this tension. “I don’t really know why they hired us. Our sales team deals with that. I design out of state stuff a lot, though.” At the mention of “sales team,” bile started to rise in my throat, which I quickly swallowed. I wasn’t going to ruin this by thinking about Pierce.

“It looks like you’re really good; that probably has a lot to do with it.” His mouth was a reasonable distance away, but I was concentrating so hard on the feeling of him behind me that I swore I could feel the heat of his breath. All thoughts of Pierce went out the window.

“Thanks.” I could see the bottom of his arm resting on the desk. It was much more interesting than telling him that my company probably made the cheapest sales pitch. “Just another sec.” I quickly typed an email to my boss.

Chris stood up when he saw that I was typing, as I had hoped that he would. I loved that he was polite like that. My thoughts cleared without him so close, and I jumped up after I hit the send button. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” He had an uneasy look on his face. “I have to be honest. I had an ulterior motive for coming here today.”

My stomach sank. It was stupid to think he wanted to spend time with just me. I really had to go back to not liking anyone. It was lonely, but at least my emotions were more in check. “What’s that?”

“Your front door sucks.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, both of ours do, since we have the same doors. They’re made out of really cheap material and …”

As Chris went on about different types of doors and security, I tried to figure out his real reason for stopping by. “So you want me to get a new door?”

“Yes. I would feel better if you did. I’m getting one and just figured … well, it seems wrong for me to have something better than you and Mia. It’s really a security thing.”

“Um, no. It’s fine. I have Mia to think about.” Among other things. I would have gotten a new door the day I moved in had I known it was so crappy and easy to break open.

“Great.” He grinned at me. “I can install it for you. How much time do you have now?”

“As much as I want. I just have to pick Mia up before five thirty.”

“One of the suppliers I use is about a half an hour away. We can go there for the doors and get something to eat after?”

Door shopping. He totally wasn’t interested in me. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Chris drove, and once I got past the fact that his truck smelled like him, we had an uneventful trip to the supply warehouse.

Needless to say, I was out of my element. The building was huge, and shelves went up to the ceiling with huge pieces of wood, drywall, and boxes of sinks, faucets, lights, and whatever the hell else I could imagine. Forklifts were driving around, moving things off the shelves.

Someone who worked there came over to Chris right away. “You’re the best. Thanks so much for picking everything up yourself.”

“No problem,” Chris said. “Makes no sense for you guys to drive all the way to me just to deliver a few pieces of wood. And while we’re here, do you mind if we look at the doors?”

“Sure. Interior or exterior?”

“Exterior.”

He led us to an area, and Chris turned to me. “So, which one do you want?”

I couldn’t even really see them; they were all lying down on shelves. “How about that one?” I pointed at the bottom shelf. It looked nice enough.

“That’s good, but it’s set up for a handle and you need one for a lever.”

I had no idea what the difference was, but the guy who worked there pointed to some a few shelves up. “The same door for a lever or knob is on that shelf. I’ll get the forklift, or we can just reach it together.”

“We can do it; it’ll be easier.”

Before I could turn away, Chris reached up, and his shirt traveled up with him, exposing a couple of inches of his lower stomach. A ridge of muscle forming a v disappeared into his jeans, hanging low on his hips. It was awful. How was I supposed to get over him when he kept looking all sexy and smelling good?

I turned away while they got two doors down and loaded them onto a flatbed. “Hey, we got a load of reclaimed wood this morning. Want to see?”

I turned back in time to see Chris’s eyes light up, and a huge smile overtake his face. “Yeah, I—” He stopped. “Actually, no. We should get going.”

I gave him a light smack on his arm, ignoring the warm fuzzies that traveled throughout my body with the contact. “Go ahead. I can tell reclaimed wood is your Christmas.”

The guy who worked there nodded. “He gets a hard-on for reclaimed wood.”

Chris narrowed his eyes for a second, and then shrugged. “I kind of do.” He grinned down at me. “You sure you don’t mind?”

I put my hands up. “It’s really none of my business.”

His mouth fell open. “I meant if I go look at it. I don’t really have a …” Chris stopped talking and rubbed the top of his head.

Heat rushed to my face as I dug through my purse for the hand sanitizer. That was a total dumbass comment I made. I really needed to stop thinking about Chris, and about how I wanted to claim his wood.

The relief was instantaneous as I rubbed my hands together. “Take your time.”

* * *

We piled the plywood, doors, and several pieces of reclaimed wood that Chris was very excited about into the back of his truck. After driving for a while, he slowed down in front of a little restaurant. “My sister told me about this place. It doesn’t look like much, but she said the food was really good. Is this okay with you?”

It was one of those hole-in-the-wall places that just screamed counter service and getting your drink in a sealed bottle. “Definitely.”

We went in, and it took minimal convincing to talk me out of getting a salad and into getting a cheeseburger instead. He insisted on paying, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“So, how did your sister know about this place?” I paused, considering the location. It was about five minutes from the beach. “Does she go to the beach a lot?”

Chris put his drink down. “Yeah, she loves it. I don’t know why. I’ve always hated the beach.”

“Really? Me, too. I think sand is disgusting, and I feel dirty as hell when it gets stuck all over me.”

He leaned forward. “I hate when you go to the beach for ten minutes, and then you find sand in your car for three months. I think you’re the first person I’ve met who hates it, too.”

“This is good. We’ll never go there.” I realized after I had spoken that my words insinuated us spending more time together, but Chris didn’t react.