Page 36 of Bound By Words

“Hello, sunshine,” I grinned, shaking my head slightly at her disheveled appearance. And that was when Kelly slammed the door in my face.

A muffled “fuck” sounded from the other side of the door, and I laughed, leaning forward to put my ear against the wood.

“You alright in there, Kelly?”

Clearly, Chase hadn’t told her that the blood-thirsty lumberjack was me. You couldn’t fake that kind of shock. It was fucking adorable watching her eyes widen as she saw me standing there.

“Go away,” she moaned with a light thump on the door, which I assumed was her head.

A piece of fabric was trapped in the door jamb, so I tried the knob, but it was locked.

“I think you’re stuck,” I chuckled. “If you open the door, I can help you get free.” I tried to make a joke when she didn’t respond. “At least you’re not practically naked this time.”

Another thump sounded on the door with a low curse I couldn’t make out, and then it started to open slowly, the fabric dropping out of sight.

“What do you want?” she whispered as she peeked around the edge of the door.

“Just letting you know I was out here working. Evan and Chase told me you thought a serial killer lumberjack was roaming the property.”

She narrowed her eyes, slowly trailing them down before they returned to my face. I knew I was covered in sawdust, the mist from the fog that hadn’t cleared, and sweat. I was sure I smelled ripe, too, but her look was not disgusted.

It was curiosity mixed with blatant appreciation. She’d checked me out enough times while we were together last summer and again in February that I knew what it looked like when Kelly liked what she saw.

“Well,” she waved her hand out the gap in the door in a shooing motion. “You can get back to your jacking. I mean lumberjacking now. I don’t want to keep you from your wood.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing as she shook her head, her brain clearly not firing on all cylinders.

“I’m guessing someone hasn’t had their coffee yet?”

“No,” she mumbled as she sighed, the door slipping open slightly more. “All that whacking woke me up.”

Deciding to overlook another accidental innuendo from her mouth, I nodded, shifting my weight.

“Do you want to come in and have a cup with me? Maybe you can figure out my brother’s complicated coffee press. Don’t know why he can’t have a Keurig like a normal person.”

She turned back into the house, walking toward the kitchen. I paused momentarily and stepped inside, closing the door behind me.

“I’d love to.”

KELLY

Connecticut

It really was unfair how men somehow managed to look more attractive when they were disheveled and sweaty. After any physical exertion, I looked like a red-faced tomato in spandex, but Nathan, covered in sawdust and sweaty plaid, looked like some rugged spokesmodel for a cologne ad.

“How’ve you been?” Nathan asked as he joined me in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. “It’s been a while since we talked.”

“Fine,” I sighed as I opened and closed several cabinets, searching for the coffee beans. I knew Chase practically needed an IV caffeine drip every morning, so the coffee had to be somewhere—apparently not where any normal person would keep them though.

“Would you mind if we didn’t beat around the bush?”

I turned, frowning at where he’d taken a seat on a barstool on the other side of the kitchen island.

“I’m not sure what you mean.” My brain still wasn’t completely awake, and now that the adrenaline had started wearing off from when I thought there was a strange lumberjack roaming the property, I was just tired.

“Why are you here? I know Evan and Chase weren’t expecting you to be here.”

Fuck. Sighing, I closed the cabinet I’d been looking in and turned, leaning against the counter and glancing up at Nathan’s concerned face.

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