I closed my laptop lid, rested my arms on my new “desk,” and stared out the window into the backyard.
A movement off to the side caught my eye. It was a shirtless Gabe walking from the garage toward a pile of wood stacked on the outside.
I swallowed.
Why God would gift that body to someone who was in a perpetual bad mood, I would never know.
Okay, maybe I was judging him too harshly, but the two times I’d met him, he’d been unhappy. He could have knocked me over with the push of a finger when I saw him smile. And when he had frowned again, I’d noticed he didn’t have laugh lines, so I probably wasn’t far off on him being permanently moody.
But right now, I wasn’t going to worry about his sullen attitude. I was going to admire his smooth pectorals and six-pack. He looked like he was out in the sun a lot, but with his dark hair, I was betting it was his natural skin tone and not a tan. My eyes traveled lower until they landed on his V above his worn blue jeans.
I absentmindedly lifted my hand to see if I was drooling.
My chin was clear. I felt a little like a voyeur, but he was the one walking around shirtless. I was just admiring the show.
He might be crabby, but he made excellent eye candy.
After studying several pieces of wood, he selected two and went back inside the garage.
With a sigh, I stood and went to the kitchen.
Seeing Gabe half-naked reminded me that I hadn’t had sex for quite some time. Even before my ex and I had called it quits, we’d stopped having sex. Looking back, I realized now that it had been a sign that things were coming to an end. But I thought the biggest clue was that I hadn’t even noticed we weren’t having sex.
I opened the fridge and shook off my thoughts. It was a good thing that was all in the past now.
Because while I might not be getting laid, I got to have whatever I wanted for dinner, and while I was eating, I was going to sit in front of the television and watch whatever I wanted.
I had no plans to be alone forever. I liked being in a relationship. I liked having a boyfriend. But for now, I was going to bask in being alone.
6
Charli
The next morning, I hopped in the shower even though I didn’t work until the afternoon. I was hoping the water would wake me up, and I could spend the morning writing.
Unfortunately, the spray that came out of the showerhead could only be described as sad and pathetic.
About a third of the holes were completely clogged, and a few more only had drips coming out. I was still able to get clean and rinse off, but it took forever to get all the shampoo out of my hair.
Writing was going to have to wait because it looked like I was headed to the hardware store to see if they had a showerhead. Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to waste time driving somewhere else.
The good news was, I knew how to put a new one in myself and wouldn’t have to call Gabe. The bad news was, he might be at the hardware store, and I’d have to see him anyway.
As I walked outside to my car, I noticed his truck was parked in the driveway.
This was a good sign.
Next, I heard noises coming from the garage, and I knew I was in the clear. I wouldn’t have to run into him at all.
The hardware store was easy to find, and when I walked in, an older gentleman greeted me. He looked like an elder version of Gabe and Max, including Max’s blue eyes, so I assumed he was their father. Except from the way Peggy and the two brothers had talked about their father moving out of his own place and into his son’s, I’d pictured him as an invalid.
“Hello,” he said with a smile.
“Hello. Do you have replacement showerheads here?”
“We sure do.” He pointed down the middle aisle. “Third row from the back, on the right. If we don’t have what you want, let us know. We can probably order it for you.”
“Thank you.”
The store actually had several options on hand. The one I picked had seven different spray settings, including a pause if needed. I was all about saving water when I was shaving, so it was perfect. It wasn’t the most expensive, but it wasn’t the cheapest either. Even though I was tight on cash, I splurged for that particular one.
When I reached the counter to pay, Max was standing next to the gentleman who had greeted me when I walked in.
Max looked surprised to see me. “Hello, Charli. Nothing’s wrong, I hope. I thought Gabe was home today. You could have asked him.”
“Oh, no. Everything is fine. I decided to replace the showerhead in the bathroom.” I lifted the one I’d found and set it on the counter. “I can do it myself. There’s no need to bother Gabe.”
“What’s going on?” the older gentleman said.
“Dad, this is Charli. She’s renting out your old place. Charli, this is my dad, Lee.”
“Nice to meet you, sir,” I said, shaking his hand.
“You can call me Lee. I hope you’re enjoying the place.”
“I just moved in yesterday, and so far, so good. Except for the shower. It doesn’t work too great.” I smiled to let him know there were no hard feelings.
“Sorry about that. I got so used to it that I didn’t bother doing anything about it. I thought you were going to take care of that,” Lee said to Max.
“I thought Gabe said he had,” Max said through clenched teeth.
“It’s really not a big deal. I don’t work until this afternoon. I’m sure it won’t take me long.”
“Do you have the right tools?” Lee asked.
“Oh shoot. No. I left my toolbox back at my old apartment.”
Max picked up the box, read the back, and said, “I’ll be right back.”
He was back soon with a wrench and pliers. “I think this is all you’ll need.” He packed everything in a bag and handed it to me. “There you go.”
“But I didn’t pay.”
“And you shouldn’t have to. We should have taken care of it.”
I took the tools out and set them on the counter. “At least let me pay for these.”
“It’s fine. Just bring them back. Consider them borrowed.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m not leaving until I pay for something.”
Lee laughed.
“Fine,” Max said. He ran the pliers under the scanner and said the price.
“Both,” I insisted.
“One tool. Final offer.”
“Fine,” I said, using his word back at him. “But I’m not happy about this.” I tried to sound stern, but I was fighting a smile.
“You’re our tenant. You shouldn’t have to deal with it at all.”
“Why can’t you be the one to live next door?”
Max laughed. “Gabe has a lot of bark but no bite. You’ll get used to him.”
If you say so.
I pulled the sack off the counter. “Thank you both for your help. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. Have a good rest of the day.”
“You too,” I said, waving as I walked out the door.
Back home, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to reach the showerhead without some help. And my handy stool had been left back in Virginia too. I knew I should have tried to cram it into my car.
Thank heavens the movers were coming in a few days.
I left the bathroom and scanned my new home.
I picked up one of the dining room chairs. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do.
I shook it to test the sturdiness.
Yep. It was going to work.
7
Gabe
I was deep into making legs for a coffee table when my phone rang. I knew by the song playing that it was Max.
I tended to ignore phone calls without bothering to look at the ID when I was working in the garage. Max had given himself a special ringtone, so I would know it was him. And then he promised to call me only if it was important.
The last time he’d called was to invite me over to
dinner.
We had different definitions of important.
I let the phone ring as I continued to work.
But about fifteen minutes later, it rang again.
With a sigh, I set down the wood I had been sanding, pulled off my work glove, and answered, “What?”
“Good morning to you too.”
“You know I had plans to work this morning. What’s up?”
“Remember how you were going to clean the showerhead and unclog it before our tenant moved in?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you actually do it?”
“Yes, I—” I cut myself off. “Shit.”
“Yeah, shit. Charli came in about twenty minutes ago to buy a replacement that she’s probably installing herself right now. I gave her the new one for free, but you might want to go in there and take care of it for her.”
“You gave it to her for free? We could have unclogged that thing with some calcium remover.”
“But you didn’t do that, did you? You certainly didn’t leave us much of a choice.”
“You could have made her pay for it.”
Dad’s future nursing home was going to drain us dry. We needed to save every cent we could.
“And you could have not charged her two months’ rent right away.”
If she hadn’t signed the contract, she wouldn’t have had to pay two months’ rent. But I didn’t say that out loud.
“Will you please go and fix the shower for her? It’s your fault it wasn’t done in the first place.”
“Dramatic much? Yes, I will go and check on her.”
“Thank you.”
I hit End on my phone and walked to her back door, where I knocked.
No answer.
I walked around the front of the house and knocked there too.
Still, no answer.
Her car was in the driveway, so I assumed she was home. I knocked one more time and leaned into the door.
I heard a faint, “Come in.”
I pushed in the door. “Charli?”
“I’m in the bathroom. I’ll be out in a minute. I need to loosen this before I can get down.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said, bolting for the bathroom. I had no idea what this was, but more importantly, I was worried what she had to get down from.
I reached the doorway and saw her standing on a chair in the bathtub. Was she trying to break her neck?
“What in the hell are you doing?”
“Changing the head of this thing, so I can have a shower with actual water pressure.”
I stepped inside and put my hands on my hips. “Get down. I’ll take care of it from here.”
“It’s okay. I got it,” she said, not bothering to look at me. She kept on loosening the old showerhead without a pause.
“It wasn’t a question.”
“Mine wasn’t a question either.”
I clenched my jaw and counted to five. “Listen, I’m the landlord, and you’re the tenant. Please take your hands off my property.”
She rested her arms at her sides and looked at me. I waited for her to tell me she’d signed a lease or some bullshit, but what came out of her mouth instead wasn’t what I’d expected. “Make me.”
I laughed humorlessly. “I’m not going to make you.”
She smirked. “That’s what I thought.”
She lifted her tools back up, and I saw the chair wobble.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough for me to picture the two of us sitting in court. On opposite sides.
“Nope. We’re not going to play this game.”
“Huh?” she said as she looked over her arm at me just in time to see me step forward. Her eyes rounded as I put my hands on her hips and lifted her from the chair.
I was feeling pretty good about my move until I let her slide down my body.
All my man parts noticed her woman parts.
Is she wearing a bra?
I shook my head and stepped back. I snatched the chair from the shower and marched it back to the dining room instead of looking to see if I could see her nipples.
Dammit. I had no idea the last time a woman’s breasts had given me this much trouble. High school? College at the latest. I was thirty-two years old and didn’t need to be thinking about what Charli had under her shirt.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” she said as she followed me into the dining room.
I slammed down the chair, spun, and yanked the wrench and pliers from her hands. “You might want to get over that because it just happened.”
8
Charli
I clenched my jaw and narrowed my eyes at Gabe’s back. I hated being treated like I couldn’t do something because I was a woman.
I marched back into the bathroom. “I’m not a damsel in distress.”
“I never said you were.”
I couldn’t help but notice the muscles flexing in his arms, and I licked my lips. I could still feel every ridge and bump from when I’d slid down his body minutes ago.
Now was not the time to think about sex.
“And I don’t need a man rescuing me.” That was better.
No matter how hot he was, I didn’t need him sweeping in to save the day.
He laughed. “I’m not rescuing you.”
“Then, what do you call what you just did?”
He sighed and slowly turned toward me.
I crossed my arms over my chest, irked that he didn’t have to stand on anything to reach the showerhead.
“Were you here for the previous conversation? Because it felt like you were. I own the place. This is my responsibility, and I need to make sure it’s done right.”
“I know how to change a showerhead. It’s not brain surgery.”
“I know. But if something goes wrong, this way, I only have myself to blame. Besides, I should have done this before you moved in. It’s my mistake, and I should be the one to fix it. Okay?”
“Fine,” I said after a few seconds.
“Did you have a landlord at your last place?” He turned away from me and went back to the job.
“Yes, but it was a big building with lots of tenants. It would take them forever to take care of work orders. So, most people, myself included, took care of things on their own if they were able to.”
“Yeah, well, you’re my only renter, and I live right next door. I’d rather have you bother me.”
That was the nicest thing Gabe had ever said to me.
“Thank you.” I turned around before he could make some remark that would completely override the nice comment. “I’ll be in my office.”
Since I still had a few hours until I had to be at The Busy Bean, I figured it was a good time to work on my book.
I typed away on my computer, hearing a few sounds here and there from the bathroom, but I soon tuned them out as I got lost in my story.
My current book was about a woman whose life would change drastically after her mother revealed a secret before passing away in the beginning of the story. All her life, she’d thought her father had died while overseas, fighting in the military. On her deathbed, the mother had confessed that her father had never been in the military and was very much alive. He was also in prison for murder.
Throughout the book, not only would she come to terms with the fact that she was the child of a sociopath, but she’d also learn that she had a half-sister.
I didn’t have all the details worked out, but I had the gist of the plot in my head.
Lana tried to calm her racing heart as she approached the door marked for visitors. She had never been to a prison before, and she felt like she might throw up from fear and nerves.
I slammed my laptop shut to stop Gabe from reading aloud over my shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“I came to tell you I was done, but you didn’t hear me call your name.”
I spun around on my chair and frowned at him. “So you decided to spy on my work?”
“No. I walked in to get you
r attention, and then I wondered what was so interesting that you hadn’t heard your name being called.” He lifted his chin, his eyes on my computer. “What is that?”
“None of your business.”
I didn’t know why I cared, but I didn’t want him to think less of me. All the times my ex had rolled his eyes or made faces at my writing ran through my mind like a slide show. I didn’t want to see Gabe have the same reaction.
He walked over to the window ledge and leaned against it. “Come on. You can tell me.”
“Why do you care? You don’t even like me.”
He rubbed his chin. “That’s not exactly true.”
I didn’t believe him, but I supposed if he already didn’t like me, then what would it hurt to tell him my dream?
“I’m writing a book, okay? Feel free to laugh.”
He tilted his head. “Why would I laugh?”
“Because…” I sighed. “I don’t know. Because you think it’s a stupid dream and a waste of time or something else like that.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think it’s either of those things.”
I sat up straighter in my chair. “Really?” I asked, half in disbelief, half hopeful that he meant it.
“Do you read?”
“Yes.”
“Think of all those authors you read. What would have happened if they hadn’t published their books? It’s not stupid. Someone has to put stories out there, or we wouldn’t have anything to read.”
“True. But so far, I’m not one of them.”
“How so?”
“I haven’t published anything.”
“Why not? Have you tried?”
“No. Felix said it wasn’t worth it.”
Gabe furrowed his brow. “Who’s Felix?”
“My ex.”
He scoffed, “Felix sounds like an ass. You shouldn’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do.”
“Not about everything. Just this one thing.”
“I’m actually surprised you let him stop you.”
“Why do you say that?”
Sidetracked (The Busy Bean) Page 3