Page 56 of Tough Nut to Crack

"Fine," she snaps before turning to walk back toward the back porch of the home.

I look over at Ethan, but my eyes land on Ronnie, whose eyes are locked on her ass as she walks away.

"No," I snap at him, but the man can't even wipe the smile off his face when his eyes meet mine. "We don't date customers."

"Her parents are the customer," he clarifies, his grin growing wider.

"For fuck's sake," I mutter before walking back to my truck to get my hard hat.

Chapter 23

Riley

I nearly squealed in delight when Sage shot me a text message late yesterday evening asking if I was available to work at the store today. She had an appointment she forgot about, and she had to leave town early and couldn't open the store on time. I jumped on it immediately, and it had more to do with getting out of my own house and avoiding Mac than the need for income.

I realize how crazy it is to not want to be home because someone else was staying there, but I also know I can't just ask the man to leave, not after seeing the destruction in his kitchen yesterday.

Damn. I don't even want to think about yesterday. Not the sex, not the shower, not the aftermath.

I know I acted like a child, ignoring him and pretending he didn't exist, but there was no way for my brain to work through what he said. He claimed I was like an addiction for him, and it didn't sound like he was very happy about it at all, so there's only one way to break such a bad habit for someone, and that's to not give them what they crave, no matter how much I crave him as well.

This has gotten way too complicated when all it was supposed to be was a quick romp after a very bad day, but the soup getting thrown in my face, which put me at the bar that night, seems like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then, enough so that it has distracted me from my own goals in life because I've been infatuated and overrun by thoughts of him.

Maybe he's the strong one for being able to make that confession. Maybe it's my own guilt for feeling the same way and wanting to feed that habit rather than thinking it should be avoided.

Whichever it is, it opened my eyes to the fact that what we're doing may be fun while it lasts, but it could very easily be detrimental to our lives as well. We both have big goals in life, and getting distracted by each other is the last thing we need right now.

"I gave you a twenty."

"Hmm?" I say with a forced smile.

"This is the change for a ten," the woman at the counter says. "I gave you a twenty-dollar bill."

"My gosh. I'm so sorry," I say, hitting the button on the cash register to open it back up to pull out the rest of her money. "There you go."

She gives me a weak smile before snatching her bag off the counter as if I was intentionally trying to rip her off.

I swear, if the door didn't have a slow-close feature on it, I'm certain she would've slammed it on her way out of the store.

"I hate out-of-town people," Mrs. Shears says as she steps up to the counter, placing a magazine and the new release of a very steamy romance series in front of me.

"I made a mistake," I say. "Will this be it?"

She gives me a halfhearted smile before nodding, and I can tell she isn't happy that I won't stand here and gossip about others.

"So," she says, switching gears as she leans on the counter, bringing her face closer to mine like you would when confiding in someone or getting ready to spill some secrets. "You and Mac Hammer, huh?"

"Twenty-three-eighty-four," I tell her. "Would you like to add a reusable bag for only a dollar more?"

"No thank you, dear," she says as she pulls out her checkbook before changing her mind when she looks down at the items. "Better yet, I'll pay cash."

She hands over a twenty and a five, and I make sure to give her the proper change. "Your receipt?"

"Burn it," she says before scooping her items off the counter, shoving the book in her purse, and carrying the magazine out in her hands.

I have no idea why some of the women in town are so concerned about people judging them for what they're reading when most of them are the first ones to gossip about what other people are doing.

I like Rebecca Shears. She's Kalen Alexander's mom and one of the more important women in town, but she is as big a gossip as Mrs. Easter is. I swear the older women in town get together once a week just to compare notes on gossip and the happenings in town.

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