“You ready to go?” He asked after her coat was buttoned up.
“No, no, no.” She tsked at him as she shook her head. “Always in a hurry. I need to talk to my Vivi first. We have the big plans. You wait for me? Yes.” Without sticking around for his response, she shuffled away.
As he watched her go, he noticed that she looked thinner than she had before the holidays, which made her appear even more frail than she already did. The woman was barely one hundred pounds soaking wet and could not afford to lose even a pound. At her last check-up, Dr. Mills had made it a point that she needed to incorporate some more calories into her diet. Josh had researched the best protein shakes and healthy snacks for her to have on hand. He filled her cupboards weekly with the nutritious snacks, but she insisted on her regular diet of Ritz crackers, black licorice bites, and Shasta soda.
“Hey J.”
Josh looked up and saw Davis Brown walking toward him. Davis was a retired NFL player who owned Davis Construction. Josh worked on Brown’s personal vehicles and his business trucks from time to time. Nonna was going to be upset that she’d gone off to talk to her Vivi and missed seeing Davis. She had a big crush on the man. Every time she saw him, she told him that he reminded her of her hall pass Denzel Washington. Josh had to admit the two men did resemble each other, they definitely shared the same megawatt smile. Davis, for his part, was always a good sport about Nonna’s flirting, and even encouraged it by making claims of how he would wine and dine her if he wasn’t a married man.
Josh lifted his chin in greeting. “Hey, man.”
“Hey, I’ve got a couple of trucks that I need to bring in. One of them is leaking coolant and the steering wheel is shaking; the other needs new brake pads and the engine light is on. You gonna have time this week to look at them?”
Josh nodded. He had a few oil changes scheduled and he was working on the mayor Henry Walker’s transmission in his classic ’66 Ford Bronco but he could definitely fit a couple of Brown’s trucks in. “Yeah, bring ’em by tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks, man.” Davis shook Josh’s hand and gave him a one-armed man hug. “I appreciate you,” he said before heading out of the rec room.
That was a great example of the sort of interactions Josh was comfortable with. Short. Sweet. And to the point. They had a purpose, a beginning, middle, and an end.
He waited for a few minutes but as the crowd dwindled, he figured he might as well head in the direction Nonna had gone.
A quick search out in the hallway and courtyard proved fruitless. There were no signs of either Nonna or Viv, and Viv was hard to miss. She had fire engine red hair and a lot of curves that she showcased proudly. A lot of people around town, and even tourists, referred to her as Jessica Rabbit because she was the epitome of that cartoon coming to life.
He doubled back and walked into the lobby thinking the two might have gone out there. He didn’t find Nonna or Viv but he did find Audrey. She looked up from her book at the same time he came out of the rec room.
He smiled automatically. He couldn’t help it; it was just what his face did when he saw her. “Hey.”
“Hi.” Audrey dipped her head and her long dark lashes brushed against her high cheekbones. She smiled as she looked back up and his heart expanded in his chest.
She always had that effect on him. He was convinced that her smile could cure cancer, could solve world hunger, and bring world peace.
“I was looking for Nonna,” he said as he looked around. “She said she needed to talk to your sister.”
“Viv took off a few minutes ago, she said she’d be back.” Audrey explained.
Josh assumed they would have to come back this way, so he could just hang with Audrey until they did. Which was no hardship on his part. Being near her was like feeling the sun on his face after a dark, cold winter night. “I’m guessing you didn’t know anything about this singles week thing?”
“No.” Audrey shook her head.
He’d figured that she hadn’t. He was sure that she would have mentioned something to him if she had. He and Audrey were friends. Good friends. At least, as good of friends as he could be with someone whose clothes he wanted to rip off every time he saw her.
“What do you think they’re up to?” Audrey asked as she put her book back in her purse.
He shrugged as he put his hands in his pockets. He did that a lot around Audrey to stop himself from reaching out and brushing a stray hair back behind her ear, or cupping her face just to feel the softness of her creamy skin…
Josh cleared his throat as he shook his head, trying to stop the direction his mind was headed. “I have no idea. But I guess if you think about it, they are sort of experts on being single.”
“That’s true.” Audrey chuckled.
“Excuse me.”
Josh looked over his shoulder and saw Gladys Hines, who was in a wheelchair after her hip surgery, wheeling by.
He took a step forward so that she had plenty of room. When he did, he ended up about an inch away from Audrey who lifted her chin, tilting her head back so she could look at him since he was more than a foot taller than her.
Josh was six foot four and Audrey was only five foot two. She was petite in frame but had curves in all the right places. His mind flashed back to two summers ago when she’d worn a bikini because she’d lost a bet to Viv. He’d spent plenty of time imagining what her hourglass figure would look like if it wasn’t hidden behind her usual baggy clothes, but nothing could have prepared him for what the reality was. Her flat belly and tiny waist were accented by the flare of her generous hips and she’d had every guy down at the riverside drooling over themselves.
As he stared down into her amber gaze, he felt himself being pulled by an invisible force as his heart rate increased. He was lowering his head closer and closer to her, only stopping when he felt her breath on his face. That’s when he realized what he was about to do and he stopped up short. Instead of following through, he put his arms around her and gave her a hug and a quick kiss on the forehead. It had been his go to move whenever he got caught in the gravitational pull that only she had over him.
“I need to go find Nonna. It’s late. I need to get her home.”
Audrey grinned and nodded, but he could see the confusion in her hazel eyes at his abrupt departure. As he walked away from her, he wanted nothing more than to turn back and erase that confusion by telling her exactly how he felt about her and how it took every ounce of self-restraint he had not to kiss her full red ruby lips, but he couldn’t do that.
He would never risk what they had. It was too special, too important, and she just meant too much to him to take the chance of losing her. So, there would probably be a lot more forehead kisses in their future, and he was okay with that. He had to be.
3
Audrey locked the door to Brewed Awakenings and turned in the direction of Pine Auto Shop to check and see if the garage door was up and Josh was working.
Seeing Josh under the hood of a vehicle was one of the sexiest things in the world. He was just so...capable. The way the white T-shirts he always wore clung to his chiseled tattooed arms and pulled taut across his broad, muscular back, highlighting his impressive frame always caused butterflies to begin to flutter low in Audrey’s belly. Every time she saw him working on a car or truck, he looked like he could be posing for a women’s calendar of mechanics. He oozed sex appeal.