Page 13 of Defining Us

“Shit person with shit taste in music,” she agreed with a wry smile. “You know, he once berated me for hanging toilet paper the wrong way.”

“Ah. Under?”

“Yes,” she confirmed, a semblance of shame persisting.

He shrugged. “I like under. It looks aggressive when it’s hanging over.”

After months of fantasizing about Joel, of imagining him bending her over the circulation desk and having his way with her, she never expected an innocent comment about toilet paper would make her heart soar. But it did.

Her throat tightened, overcome with emotion. She couldn’t form a proper reply or maintain eye contact. Instead, her gaze drifted lower and lingered on his chest, captivated by the small puffs of silver-tinged black hair that peeked out from the top of his gray undershirt. For a few seconds, her entire world revolved around the curve of his pectoral muscles, the vastness of his shoulders, the slopes of his biceps, and the pronounced veins in his forearms—all culminating in those large hands that handled books so delicately.

Gawking at him was nothing new, but she’d graduated to straight-up leering like an animal in heat. She dragged her attention away from his torso, eyes darting around the garage in an attempt to act natural. Even though there was nothing natural about the way she’d just blatantly eye-fucked him.

The old Mallory would be proud, though.

“I should get back to work,” she muttered.

One glance up at Joel, and she abandoned that plan. A light shade of pink tinged his sharp cheekbones, and his dilated golden-brown eyes made her quiver. While no stranger to his intense looks, something was layered into his expression—something so primal her knees weakened. Because the way Joel peered at her was not the stare of acquaintances or newfound friends.

In fact, it was the look he wore in every fantasy she’d constructed since first laying eyes on him. The look that drove her to press the button on her vibrator, upping the pressure untilher hips bucked off the bed. She blinked a few times, assuming she’d hallucinated the whole thing, but the sensual episode only deepened the longer they stared at each other. His stormy gaze carefully traveled down the length of her, fixating on the pebbled peaks that obscenely pressed against the linen bodice of her sundress.

Christine.

Christine.

Christine.

There was no phone call to break the moment this time—no shrill sound to pull Mallory back down to earth—so she chanted the name in her mind like the most painful incantation.

“Relationships are tough,” Joel eventually rasped out, fracturing the heady silence.

“I agree.” She paused and looked down at her Oxfords, so polished against the scuffed concrete floor of the garage. “Sometimes I wonder if they’re worth it at all.”

“They are.”

His response was filled with such conviction that she lifted her gaze and caught his eyes. Every moment they’d shared over the past week rushed back to her, and her head spun with the substantial memories she’d created with him in such a short span of time.

That little spark of hope within her simply couldn’t be extinguished. Not while one question remained unasked. Her mouth opened, the inquiry on the tip of her tongue.

This might be too forward, but can I ask what the situation is with your ex-wife?

In the end, she couldn’t summon the courage to ask. The woman she’d once been—the one she wanted more than anything to bolster back to life—was still woefully dormant.

With a quick glance at her wristwatch, she smiled contritely. “I really do need to get back.”

“Of course, yeah. I’ll see you Friday.”

She whirled around and proceeded down the driveway, but his rumbling voice stopped her.

“Hey, Mallory?”

“Hmm?” she said, glancing over her shoulder.

Joel stepped forward, leaning against the garage-door frame. He gestured toward her and said, “That’s a pretty dress, by the way. Brings out your eyes.”

The cornflower-blue sundress was nothing special, but his compliment made it feel like the finest haute couture. A smile extended across her face, and bliss zipped down from her head to her toes.

“Thank you.”

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