Page 34 of Outside The Wire

It was dark outside and bright snow was falling through the amber of the streetlight. In just a half hour, I would be done and could head home to shower. Maybe I’d get to see Holly tonight, but only if I was lucky.

That was probably what was distracting me from Wyatt’s question. “What?”

“The woman. Who is she?”

I stood up and cocked my head at him in question. “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been whistling and smiling around here all week. I haven’t seen you upset once.”

“I’m not usually upset.”

“No, but you’re not usually in that good of a mood either.”

That was an odd thing to say. “Did you want me to be in a shitty mood?”

“Dammit, that’s not the point!”

“Then what is?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as I watched my boss work himself up over nothing. I could just tell him about Holly, but this was way too much fun to watch. Wyattnever let anything bother him. Yet, here he was, struggling to comprehend how one of his workers could possibly be happy.

“You know what? I don’t want to know.”

“Okay,” I nodded, bending over the engine again.

“Goddamnit! Just tell me!” he screamed.

I chuckled to myself as I stood and decided to put the man out of his suffering. “What would you like to know?”

“Who is she? Is it serious? Are you sleeping with her? Is she going to come around here? Does she have any friends?”

That was more than I was expecting and I scratched the back of my neck as I considered my answers. “Uh…Her name is Holly. I would say it’s serious. No, not sure, again, not sure.”

“What?”

“I was answering your questions.”

“I don’t remember my questions.”

I frowned at him. “Then why did you ask them?”

“Asher, now is not the time to fuck with me.”

“When is the right time to fuck with you? Do I get a schedule or something?”

He glowered at me and turned on his heel, stomping into his office. This wasn’t over by a long shot. I finished up for the night and cleaned up. When I waved to Wyatt on my way out, he was less than thrilled to return the gesture. He was something of a grumpy asshole, but that was okay. I was in his shoes at one point.

Ice coated my windshield and took forever to scrape off. As I waited for the truck to warm up, I started cleaning off the truck, worrying over whether or not Holly would get home safely in this weather. She’d been alone for years, and logic told me she’d be fine, but that protective nature that I just couldn’t shut off reared its ugly head and took over, begging me to check on her.

I bypassed going home and headed right to her shop. She would be closing up for the night in a half hour, leaving meplenty of time to get there and clean her car off for her. At least, that’s what I thought. The roads were slick as hell, hovering just around freezing, leaving a little water on the road, but ice forming underneath.

There were too many crazy drivers out right now, driving way too fast and not paying attention to how the conditions were changing. Someone was going to end up dead before the night was over. By the time I pulled into the parking lot of her shop, my mind was made up.

I got out and stomped up the steps of her shop, shoving the door open.

“We’re closed!” her sweet voice called out.

“Holly!”

Her head slowly peeked around a corner, and a cute little O curved her lips. Fucking adorable.

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