Page 32 of Waiting for Tuesday

“Because I’ve been eating your donuts, and you haven’t, so if you eat one, I’ll feel better.”

“But I don’t even like donuts.”

He made a face and leaned farther back against the door. “Everyone likes donuts.”

“I don’t, I swear. They’re processed and disgusting.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Youmustbe joking.”

“I’m not,” I said, hardly able to keep my face serious.

He sat up straighter, took a glazed donut from the box, and held it to my mouth. “Take a bite.”

I turned my head and shoved his hand away. “No,” I said with a laugh.

“Take a bite, and I’ll leave you alone.”

I glanced over at him, glaring playfully. “There’s a name for this, you know.”

He laughed. “Yeah, intervention.”

“You think I need an intervention because I won't take a bite of your donut?”

He shrugged, but the playful grin was almost my undoing.

Without saying a word, I opened my mouth. The action was instinctive, something I would have done had it been an argument with Becky, but I immediately regretted it. John was not Becky, and I shouldn’t expect him to feed me. But right when I was about to close it again, crisp, sweet icing hit my tongue. My breath hitched in my throat and I bit down, filling my mouth with the warm, soft pastry.

The donut was better than I remembered, buttery, and delicate. Then his thumb gently brushed across my lower lip, and my stomach came alive with tiny flutters. I didn’t dare look over at him. It was such a slight touch, one that could have been on accident if it hadn’t lingered a bit too long. He pulled his hand away, stopping for a second before sucking the sugar from his fingers. I forced myself to swallow.

The whole mood in the cab changed in a second. We’d gone from playfulness and laughter, to serious and… And I didn’t want to admit what this was.

“Did you like it?” His voice was low and caused my stomach to tighten all over.

I shook my head. “Not one bit.”

Siri’s voice broke the silence, guiding me to our destination and making me relax a bit. No matter how good it felt, or how much I wanted John, I couldn’t let this happen. I kept my eyes locked straight ahead, focused on the instructions coming from my phone and the life I’d been building for years.

Chapter FIFTEEN

John

* * *

She walked aheadof me through the parking lot, her pigtails swaying against her back. Her overalls much too large, and her cheeks flushed as red as her lips. Yet she could have been the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life.

Inviting her along had been a last minute decision, one I was pretty sure was a mistake. But when her eyes met mine in front of the shop, eyes as bright as the sun, I couldn't resist.

I pulled a flatbed from the front of the warehouse and gestured for her to go ahead of me. She wasn’t the type of girl I normally went for, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about it.

Actually… that was a lie. I knew exactly what I wanted to do about it, but I couldn’t. Not while I was under her employment anyway.

My brows furrowed as I followed behind her. She was a mystery to me—witty, beautiful, and a hard worker. The fact that I wanted her made me feel like shit. I wanted her for selfish reasons—because the tension between us was insane, because every time we touched she melted, but mostly, because she made me forget. Forget about the fear that took hold of my stomach, forget about the man who still gave me nightmares to this day.

But in the short amount of time we’d known each other, I was sure of two things. One, she wasn’t a woman you wanted; she was a woman you kept. And two, in spite of her confident exterior, there was a part of her that was fragile. The part of her that lost it in the back room, a piece that cried alone in the dark.

We made it to the flooring aisle before she finally turned to face me, her head slightly tilted, eyes wide, and lips parted. “Wow,” she said, taking in the various wood, marble, and slate that were stacked three stories high.

Her excitement caused warmth to spread across my chest. “You have a lot to choose from, that’s for sure.”

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