“Mitchell’s Landing,” she answers, ruining all the crazy possibilities running through my head.
“What? Get out of here. You’re going to work at the fountain, huh?” Looks like she’s coming over to my turf, and I don’t have a problem with it. My first couple of summers working at Mitchell’s, I messed around with a lot of the fountain girls that worked there at the time. Too many of them, really.
After the end of my second summer—and an epic blowup between me and one of the girls, who just so happened to be a year older and taught me everything I needed to know about going down on a girl—I vowed to never mess around with someone I work with ever again. Even though there’s quite a bit of distance between the dock and the restaurant, it’s not enough when you got a pissed-off girl gunning for you every chance she gets.
Yeah. No more work hookups. They end in disaster.
“No, not the fountain.” Gracie slowly shakes her head, her gaze dropping to my chest. “On the dock,” she tells my abs.
Oh shit. “You’re going to be a dock girl?”
She rolls her eyes. “That is such an antiquated term. Isn’t there something better you can call my position?”
See how fired up she gets when I just make a simple statement? She’s got it out for me, I swear. Having her work with me is even more of a deterrent to not get with her. I don’t need Gracie going into ferocious beast-mode and come gunning for me. “That’s what we call all the girls who work on the dock.”
“And what do they call you guys? The dock boys?” She lifts a brow and crosses her arms, on the defensive.
“Well…yeah.”
She drops her arms to her sides, her face falling. Reminding me of a deflated balloon. “Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” I scratch my chest, Gracie’s eyes following every movement of my hand. Hmm. “That’s cool, though. I can help you out with anything you need to know.”
“I appreciate that. Thanks,” she says, and I can tell she means it. I mean it too. I may give her endless shit, but I also like her. Gracie’s cool. She’s a straight up G—that’s what we like to call her, and she acts like it annoys her when we say that, but I don’t believe it. She has a good attitude and tolerates all of us, and we’re not easy. “I just—I wanted to tell you before you found out by me just showing up in a few days without warning.”
“That would’ve been a trip,” I say in agreement.
“Right. And I didn’t want you to be upset. I’m not trying to like, stalk you or anything. Eli is the one who suggested I look for a job on the lake,” she says.
Thanks, Eli. I appreciate the suggestion, bro.
“I don’t think you’re a stalker, G,” I say with a chuckle. She flat-out avoids me most of the time, so yeah. Definitely not stalking me.
Shit, I’d want her to, honestly.
“We’re going to be spending a lot of time together,” she says. “Living together. Working at the same place.”
I nod, but don’t say anything.
“And I know I was kind of a jerk for cutting you off a while ago, but I had to do it. To save my sanity,” she continues.
I frown. “I was driving you insane?”
She nods. Licks her upper lip. Sexy. Fuck. This girl…
I let myself check her out fully. Extra short shorts. The tank top with the low neckline that displays plenty of skin. Her hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun and she has no makeup on her face. Just pretty, bare Gracie. No one sees this version much, but here she sits. In my room.
I can’t read into it too much, though. I’m sure this interaction means nothing to her.
“Am I really that bad?” I ask when she still hasn’t said anything.
“You love to antagonize me,” she says.
“It’s all in good fun.”
One brow shoots up again. She’s pretty good at that. “Making me angry is fun for you?”
“It’s so easy. I only poke at you because you always react.” A dirty joke sits on the tip of my tongue but I swallow it down. “I’m a jerk. I know I am. I’m sorry I’ve driven you insane all this time.”
She seems taken aback by my apology. “Uh…thank you. I appreciate that. You know, I was hoping to talk to you so we could come to a truce.”
“A truce?”
“Let’s try and keep things peaceful between us this summer. What do you think? I’ll stay out of your business and you stay out of mine,” Gracie suggests.
“You think I’m too in your business?”
“Not really,” she says with a shrug. “But you know what I mean.”
I sort of don’t, but I nod like I get it.
“And I’ll stay out of your way. You can do whatever you want, to whoever you want. I won’t judge.”
Is she talking about my sex life? “Were you judging me before?”
She’s quiet for a moment before she nods. “I have no room to talk though.”
Gracie has been with a few guys, just like I’ve been with my fair share of women. I definitely don’t judge her for it. I’m just like her in male form. “We’re good, G. No worries, okay? You come work at the dock, it’s cool. I’ll help you out with whatever you need. Hey, if we have the same shift, we should ride together and save on gas.”
A faint smile curls her lips. “That would be great. I need to work as much as possible this summer before I start student teaching. I need the money.”
“Me too.” I frown. “And that’s right. I forgot you were student teaching. You won’t be on campus anymore, huh?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Good thing we live together or else I’d miss your smiling face. Or scowling face, since that’s what you usually do when you see me,” I say as a joke.
Of course, she immediately scowls. “Saying that kind of thing is what’s annoying to me, Caleb.”
“I’m just speaking the truth and you know it.” I scratch my chest again, on purpose this time to see if her gaze trails my moving hand. Guess what?
It does.
See, here’s the thing. I know what’s up between us. I’m going to play it cool. We’re going to work together, and that’s nice. You need help, G? I’m here for you. Let’s ride together, so we’re stuck in a car alone for almost an hour one way, forced to make conversation. What a hardship.
I’m a good guy when it comes to Gracie. She just doesn’t realize it yet. I push, but never too hard. I know the moment we end up doing something, anything, I’ll bail on her. Or she’ll bail on me. We fall into a pattern every time we’re together, and everyone is aware of it. My friends warned me to stay away from her from the very beginning, and I know for a damn fact that hers tell her to stay away from me, too.
But we’re drawn to each other. Sexually attracted. Whatever you want to call it. It’s been happening since the first time we met. And while we might be in total denial and act like it’s not there, it is.
It’s undeniable.
She’s been checking me out since the moment she entered my bedroom. Not a lot of women see this bedroom either. It’s my sanctuary, and as Eli announced a few months ago, I don’t bring many bitches into it—direct quote.