Page 10 of Cold Foot Komodo

Garret. Brother’s name is Dylan Hoffman. I’m guessing Garret Hoffman.Send.

I’ll look into it.

Reed shoved his phone back into his pocket and cast one last glance over to Garret, who was standing in his front yard watching him, then pulled open the front door and went inside.

Wreck could look into it all he liked.

Reed already knew everything he needed to know.

Chapter Three

This was the most she’d ever bought in a single grocery trip, ever. It had taken two carts to get everything to her truck.

Truthfully, she was relieved to find Reed was still at the house and hadn’t abandoned his mission to get her to Cold Foot territory safely.

He had the lights on, and the fire smoke was billowing out the chimney, not into the house. Oh, Reed was a fixer, and he was fast at it.

He was doing something with a hose that was attached to some contraption and led out the open garage door.

He wiped his hands on a rag and sauntered out of the garage, met her at the back of the truck as she unloaded the first few bags of groceries.

“The hot water heater was just full of dirt at the bottom. I’m draining it now. It’ll work just fine. I also got the power restarted and the floor swept up. That couch is a mess though. Might consider getting a different one.”

“You’re kind of awesome, you know that?” she asked.

His face went almost comically blank. “What did you say?”

Now this was a man not used to compliments. She hefted a couple more bags into her arms and looked him in the eye. “I think you are awesome.” And then she tromped through the overgrown yard, arms loaded down with heavy bags.

At the door, she dared a glance back at him, but he was just looking at her with the same blank stare like she’d shorted out a chip in his brain. She giggled and hauled her wares inside.

He followed with a load of groceries, but was dead-silent as they walked back and forth from the house to the truck, unloading it. He looked lost in thought. On the last trip, hebrought in two cases of water bottles while she shut the truck up and locked it.

“You shouldn’t say that stuff to me,” he told her quietly.

“What, that you are awesome?” she asked, unfolding her pocketknife to cut into the packaging of the water bottles.

“I’m just here to make sure you move in easily. Wreck ordered me to.”

“Great. It’s appreciated. By me. Because I think you’re awesome.” Yes, she was poking at him, but she couldn’t help it. He was thrown off-kilter easily.

He shook his head, and a rumbling sound filled the room. When he looked up at her again, his blue eye was much brighter and seemed to be glowing from the inside out. His face looked sharper, and the room felt heavy, and she struggled to draw a deep breath into her lungs.

“Sorry,” she whispered, dropping her gaze.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just…I’m too much. Don’t say nice things to me.”

“Fine. You’re an asshole.”

Three breaths passed before a slow smile stretched his face. “That’s better.”

She watched him turn his back to her and get to work unloading cleaning supplies into the cupboards under the sink.

“Where are you from originally?”

“Here and there.”

Annoying. “How did you end up in Wreck’s Crew?”

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