I smoothed a hand over my face. “I know. I’m just tired. I stayed at the hospital all night with everyone. The only reason I have on clean clothes is because I went home to feed Mojito before coming in and decided to change real quick.”
“Do you need anything? Coffee? Breakfast? Anyone at the hospital need anything?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m sure Carl has all that covered, and I’ll grab something a little later. I’m not hungry right now.”
“So, what am I doing today?” Brent crammed his hands into the front pockets of his cargo shorts, looking as though he hated to ask. “Want me to handle this office stuff while you get some sleep?”
“No.” The word came out harsher than I’d intended, and I cleared my throat to try again. “No, I’m fine. I’ve got this part under control.”
“All right.” Brent sat in the seat across from me.
My eyes skimmed over the pile of papers and crap stacked along my father’s desk. Why the hell couldn’t he be more organized? I had no clue what Brent and I were supposed to be doing today, and there was no way in hell I was calling my dad to ask.
“I’m not sure what was planned for today for us,” I admitted as I riffled through things blindly, searching for a clue.
Brent and I generally did all the service calls and the others did the bigger, more time-consuming jobs where they were on the same site for days or weeks. Mixed in with some papers from the job we’d done yesterday at the nudists’ house, which felt like a year ago, was a scrap of paper where my dad had jotted down some instructions, a phone number, an address, and a time. I assumed this must have been our job for the day, and passed it over to Brent.
“I guess this is where we were headed today. Do you think you can handle it on your own? It looks pretty straightforward as far as the instructions—just a ballast replacement and adding in a few receptacles in an office.”
“Absolutely,” he said. “You just gonna hang out here?”
“Yeah, I think I’m gonna take a catnap and wait for the phone to ring. If I get bored, I’ll text you for the address and come help out for a while.” I tossed him the keys to the van.
“All right.” He twirled the keys on his index finger. “Sleep tight, Sleeping Beauty.” He headed out the door with a smile on his face.
That was one thing I could always count on with Brent—for him to say some fucked-up shit to make me smile when I was in a bad place. True friends were priceless like that.
Propping my feet up on the corner of the desk, I crossed my arms over my chest and closed my eyes. I’d accomplished making sure everyone had something to do. The shop was still in working order, even with my old man out of commission. This was something to be proud of regardless of the circumstances. I drifted off into a light sleep in no time.
The shrill sound of an actual phone ringing woke me. I’d grown used to the jingling of my cell, and this harshness startled me, nearly making me fall out of my chair. Rubbing my eyes, I glanced at the little clock hung on the wall. Holy hell, it was two in the afternoon. I’d slept for almost five hours!
“Mason’s Electric, this is Ian,” I answered the phone.
“Hey, this is Bob with Spikers Insurance Group. I’m calling to set up a time for one of your guys to come look at an apartment that has some electrical damage,” the guy on the other end said.
I reached for a pen and searched for a piece of paper to write on. “Sure, yes, sir. What’s the address?”
“It’s in the Credence apartment complex in Norhurst. You know where those are?”
“Yeah.” I jotted the complex name down. “Over by the college, right?”
“Yeah, it’s apartment two B. A water heater in the upstairs apartment busted. It flooded the laundry room and dripped into the apartment below. I’ll need your guys to come out and survey what all needs to be done electrical wise. I can tell you right now though, you’ll definitely have to rewire for the new water heater and possibly do some work in the downstairs apartment. I’m not even sure this place is up to code, so I’ll need you to let me know something on that end as well.”
“Okay.” I nodded even though he couldn’t see me, and continued to write everything down as fast as I could. My cell went off. Glancing at the screen, I noticed it was a text from Brent. He must have finished the job I’d sent him on this morning. “When were you wanting us out there?”
I put the phone in the crook of my neck, and grabbed my cell to text Brent back.
“Well, shouldn’t you tell me what you have available?” Bob said. I could hear the smirk on his face clear as day through his condescending tone.
“Right.” I cleared my throat. Brent had been texting to see if I had anything else lined up for him yet. I set my cell down and focused on Bob. “I can have someone out there later this afternoon. Would that work for you, Bob?” I asked with more bite to my words than necessary.
I wasn’t aiming to be a dick, but this guy had no idea what I’d been through in the last few hours.
“Absolutely, let me give you a number you can reach me at once you’ve figured out all the estimated damages,” he said.
I reached for my pen again and jotted down the number. Once I got off the phone with him, I shot Brent a text to let him know he needed to come pick me up because I’d found something for us to do. It wasn’t that I thought he couldn’t handle the job on his own; it was that I couldn’t sit in this damn office any longer. I would head to this job with him, and then we’d call it a day. I needed to go back to the hospital and see how everything was going.
CHAPTER NINE
LAUREN
Paige sent me home an hour early. The shop had been practically dead all afternoon, and she knew there was a crap ton of stuff I needed to get done at home. I swung by Walmart on my way, and picked up some oversized Ziploc bags to put my clothes in. That way I could at least stack them neatly in the hall closet until my room was aired out and fixed.
The second I walked through my apartment door, my nose was assaulted by a moldy stench. The horrendous smell from my room had seeped throughout the entire apartment. Pulling out my phone, I dialed Mrs. Tapper, ready to unleash on the lady.
“Hello?” she answered—on the fifth ring and in her usual smoker, croaky voice.
“Mrs. Tapper, this is Lauren Myers in two B. I’m calling because I need to know what’s going on with my apartment.” My heart hammered in my chest, and I swore my voice made me sound like I’d just ran a mile before calling her.
“The insurance guy was there this morning.” She paused for whatever reason, and I sighed into the phone, waiting to see if she would take a hint and continue. She didn’t.
“What did he say?” Dear God, this woman could drive me mad sometimes.
“He’s calling around for others to survey the damages.”
“But isn’t that his job?” I was confused.
A big puff of air from her made the phone crackle on my end. “Bottom line is, Miss Myers, your apartment will be fixed shortly. I don’t know what to tell you other than you may need to find some place to stay for a few days while that happens.”
My heart dropped to my toes. Find another place to stay? Where the hell was I going to go?
“Okay.” I didn’t know what more to say besides that.
“There’s a company coming by sometime soon. The electricians, I believe. Maybe you can get some answers from them on a time frame.”
“All right, I’ll ask. Thanks,” I muttered.
Mrs. Tapper hung up without saying anything more.
I crossed my apartment to sit on the couch and think about whom I could stay with for a while. My parents were out of the question. They’d just gotten my little sister, Meg, out of the house last year when she’d graduated high school, and they had reverted into some weird honeymoon phase again. The chiming of my cell alerting me of a new text grabbed my attention. It was Jimmy.
Are you going to be ready for a repeat tonight? This time maybe you come to my pl
ace.
A smile twisted my lips. Maybe Jimmy would let me stay with him for a few days.
Absolutely. I’ve been meaning to ask you, would it be okay if I crashed at your place for a little while, just until all this crap with my apartment is fixed? ~ Lauren
I picked at the skin along my bottom lip as I waited for his response. I’d never spent more than a single night at Jimmy’s place, for whatever reason. He was a private person. He didn’t enjoy cuddling for too long, and he never overstayed his welcome at my place. Hell, come to think of it, I don’t think he’d ever stayed the night at my place period. He always snuck out before I woke. I worried asking to stay with him might be too much, but it was too late now. I couldn’t take it back.
A knock on my front door startled me. I jumped up to answer it. When I swung the door open to see who it was, my eyes skimmed over two young guys who I presumed to be the electricians. My whole apartment was turning to crap, and this was who the insurance guy sent to get the work done—two guys who couldn’t be more than twenty-four or twenty-five with playboy good looks? What the hell?
“Hey, we’re with Mason’s Electric,” said the one with the longer, sandy blond hair and a scruffy-looking face. “We need to view the area with the water damage.”
“Yeah, come on in.” I motioned for them to walk past me. The one with brown hair and puppy-dog eyes smiled at me like an idiot. Rolling my eyes, I closed the door behind them. “Welcome to my mold hole. The water damage is back here.”
I didn’t glance at either of them while I walked toward my room. The distinct sensation of eyes zeroing in on my ass flitted through me, and I knew without having to glance over my shoulder it would be puppy dog’s eyes and not scruffy. I did not have time for this guy’s crap right now. Opening the door, I instinctively reached for the light switch, and then remembered Timothy had taped it off.
“I would turn on the light for you, but my landlord’s moronic grandson taped it off, saying it’s dangerous to use.” I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms over my chest.
“From what we’ve seen upstairs, he might be right about that,” puppy eyes said. “Don’t worry though. I do my best work in the dark.” He winked.
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?” Not a single ounce of sarcasm was held back when the word flew from my mouth. I knew this guy’s type, and I wasn’t down for that kind of corniness at the moment.
Scruffy elbowed his partner in the ribs. “Stop. Let’s just get this done. I have someplace I need to be.”
Puppy eyes dropped his player, I’m-going-to-get-in-your-panties attitude, and his features softened. “I’m sorry, man. I know.”
“There’s plenty of light for us through that window, and we have flashlights,” Scruffy informed me.
“Of course.” I leaned into the room a little more. “So, do you think you can tell me about how long it will take you to fix all this? I’d like to have a bedroom to sleep in sometime soon.”
I waited for puppy eyes to say some smartass line about me sleeping in his bed or something of equal cheesiness, but he didn’t.
Scruffy looked at me and grinned. “Well, that depends on everyone else. We’re just the electricians. I can’t tell you how long the drywallers, the painters, or the carpet people will take.”
Holy shit, they were practically going to build me a new damn bedroom! I was going to be homeless for quite some time, it seemed. Great.
“I need to move this bed so I can get a better look at the fixture. Is that all right?” Scruffy asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Whatever.”
“Actually, it might be better if we lean the mattress against the wall over there. There’s not enough room in here for us to reach the light, even with pushing the bed all the way against the wall. At least by doing it that way, we can still get to the fixture by standing a ladder inside the frame of the bed. Make sense?” puppy eyes asked him.
Scruffy nodded, and I felt as though I was witnessing a moment of male bonding. “Yeah, that does actually. Good idea,” he said.
“Here, let me grab those pillows and stuff. There’s no point in having them on the bed anyway.” I crossed the room and removed my comforter, sheets, and pillows.
Wadding them up, I headed toward the laundry room in the hall. Tossing them on top of the washing machine, I spotted puppy eyes leaving to retrieve their ladder. When I stepped back into my bedroom, Scruffy was gripping the edges of the mattress to flip it up and against the wall. My heart leapt to my throat as I remembered what was underneath my bed.
“No, wait!” I shouted in a rush of words, but it was too late. Scruffy had already lifted the mattress and pushed it against the wall. Now he stood staring slack-jawed at what rested on the floor at his feet.
CHAPTER TEN
IAN
Never in my life had I seen so many vibrators in one place—and never in so many colors and shapes. What the hell was the one with the rabbit ears on it for? Did this chick have an animal fetish?
“I, um.” I couldn’t find a single thing to say. I was stunned into silence.
“Oh my God.” She rushed over and scooped all her toys up. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Her cheeks tinted a shade of pink I found extremely attractive as she folded her arms around them all. “What? Yes, these are my vibrators. I’m a single girl, and I have needs,” she shouted as she left the room.
“I didn’t say anything.” I grinned, shaking my head.
“You didn’t have to. I can see it written all over your face,” she insisted from somewhere down the hall.
“And what would that be?” I folded my arms across my chest, watching the doorway, waiting for her to come back.
She poked her head through the threshold. “You looked mortified. You’d think you found a tray of needles and drugs or something under there. It was just some vibrators.”
“Vibrators?” Brent asked. He walked into the room, carrying a ladder over his shoulder. “I leave the room and suddenly you two are talking about sex toys?”
Realizing all at once how completely unprofessional this conversation was, I grabbed the ladder from him and placed it between the frame of the bed.
“Yeah, your partner here found my stash beneath my bed when he lifted the mattress.” She waved her hand wildly. I got the impression she was still embarrassed as shit, but didn’t want to appear to be. I liked that about her. “Go on, laugh. You know you want to,” she added.
“You lonely or somethin’?” Brent asked, flashing one of his best lady-killer smiles.
She rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not lonely.”
“You horny?” Brent pressed.
“All right, that’s enough. This is getting a bit inappropriate,” I insisted, unbelieving he’d asked a homeowner that question. It was more than that though. If I was being honest, something about him asking her that question irked me.
“The answer is, no, I’m not horny. I have a boyfriend.” Her eyes flicked to mine. It was obvious she remembered telling me she was single. “Well, a sort of boyfriend, and loads of vibrators to satisfy myself. So, no, I’m not horny, but thanks for asking.”
“I’m just gonna say one more thing, and then I swear I’ll drop it,” Brent said. His eyes shifted to mine for a split-second, and then back to hers. “He must not be that great in bed. If he were, you wouldn’t need all those toys. Just something for you to think about.” He smiled.
“He is, but even if he wasn’t, you’re not my type, so don’t get any ideas,” she said with more sass than I’d ever seen directed Brent’s way.
Generally, women flocked to him. He was your all-American-looking guy, and he had a Southern accent that women went gaga over. I walked up the ladder, making sure I could still see her face, because this—granted it was slightly inappropriate—was the best conversation I’d heard in a while.
“I’m not your type?” Brent flashed her his most charmingly wicked smile. “Honey, I’m everyone’s type.”
“Precisely why
you’re not mine. I think I’m over my playboy days, and now I prefer something more along the lines of a solid man.” I wasn’t sure if she meant to or not, but she looked at me when she said the last few words.
This excited me more than I cared to admit. Swallowing hard, I began to unscrew the light fixture, ripping my eyes away from her.
“Can you go make sure the breaker is off?” I asked Brent.
“Yeah.” He left the room, but I knew the girl—what had her name been on the paper?—was still in the room with me. Her presence was strong. I could feel her eyes tracing my face and arms as I worked.
“So, how long have you been working for Mason’s Electric?” she asked.
Normally, I didn’t like the type of homeowners who stood around watching my every move while I worked, but with her, I didn’t mind. This probably had something to do with the fact that she was good-looking.
“Pretty much my whole life,” I answered as I pulled my tester out of my tool belt. You could never be too careful when messing with live wires. I’d been shocked enough times after Brent had supposedly switched off the breaker to learn that using this little piece of equipment was a security measure always worth taking.
“Your whole life? I guess work can feel that way sometimes, huh?” She shrugged. “Being a grown-up sucks ass sometimes.”
I laughed. She’d hit the nail on the head. “Yeah, you got that right.”
“Jesus, I leave and the two of you laugh and cut up,” Brent scolded us as he walked back in. “I get the impression you’re hitting it off pretty well when I’m not around. Maybe I should wait outside.”
I risked a glance at him, knowing there would be some sort of smirk playing at his lips that I would want to slap off. Sure enough, there was. There was also an eyebrow raised as he glared at me.
“Would you just shut up?” I shook my head and continued messing with the fixture.
There wasn’t much we would have to fix here, just the ceiling fixture and possibly the switch to it. That was unless they decided to rip out the drywall in the room, then we’d for sure have more to do. The carpenters always screwed up and spliced a wire or two during a demolition like that. I doubted the landlord would want to go that route, though. This news honestly disappointed me. I’d enjoyed my time here in Lauren’s—that was her name—apartment. Something about her intrigued me. Maybe it was her way of handling douchebags like Brent, I couldn’t be sure, but she’d struck me as someone who’d be fun to hang around and get to know a little better. Best of all, she was easy on the eyes.
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