Page 19 of Unhurried Hearts

He holds his hands up in innocence like he didn’t just say that to be an ass. I honestly think he was jealous of me being a business owner. Whenever I spoke about something related to running the salon, he managed to turn the subject back to him.

“Sorry.” A smirk tugs at the corners of his dry lips. “Guess you’re still as uptightas ever.”

Like body language is a foreign concept to him, he reaches out to squeeze my shoulder. There is no doubt that my expression reads ‘don’t talk to me’ instead of ‘please touch’.

“Darren, with what you’re working with down there,” I hold my thumb and forefinger up in front of his face a couple inches apart, “you couldn’t loosen me up if you tried.”

He retracts his hand from my shoulder while I revel in the shade of burgundy that flushes over his cheeks. His eyes flit through the line up to see if anybody heard that. Okay, so my experiences with penises is very limited, but Chris’s hard length against my stomach the other day feltconsiderablylarger. I stand a little taller as my insult hits home.

Chapter ten

Chris

Ispot Anna the second I open the heavy door to The Roastery. How could I not notice that bouncy dark ponytail right away? I’d already checked in at her work and buzzed her apartment. This was the last place to look before I had to head to family dinner. Mom laid her expectations for my attendance on real thick.

“If only one of my children is going to live on the same side of the hemisphere as me, the least they can do is come for family dinner.” As if I wasn’t there visiting at least once a week anyway.

Isaac’s admonishment weighed heavy on me all week and if I was a better man, I’d have found her that same dayto apologise. No, I wouldn’t have walked away from her in the first place. I 'pardon me' myself through the line, my smile erasing the scowls off most of the patrons' faces as I pass. It's not until I'm a couple people back that I notice she's talking to the man behind her. Are they together? My stomach is tense and hot at the idea of someone taking Anna out for a coffee. Is it that guy from her building? My next thought is that it's my own damn fault. I left her in a hallway after kissing her senseless and flirting my way through a haircut. I waited too many days to smooth things over. The thread of her voice is barely audible over the din of conversation around us.

She holds her thumb and finger up in front of her face and catch the words “loosen me up” and then the espresso machine hisses, and I lose the rest of the sentence. Other people within earshot are pretending not to hear, but I see them press their lips together and widen their eyes at their friends. I creep closer and see the narrowed eyes and splotches on the man’s red cheeks and Anna’s spitting mad maneater expression. My bet is that she just insulted this guy’ssizein a room full of people. The way his fists are tight at his side has me striding over at my full height and slipping my arm around Anna in a second. Beneath her sweater, her torso trembles, so I squeeze her tome in what I hope is a grounding gesture. Heat radiates off her, my skin still cool from crossing the street in only my henley.

“Hey, baby.” I bend to kiss her cheek and watch her colour change from an angry red to a blushing pink as she glances up at me in surprise.

Good. I’d rather have her slightly embarrassed than mad.

“Um, hi.” She makes no effort to wiggle away, in fact, she leans heavily against me, and I happily shore her up. Her makeup around her eyes is sort of smudgy, bringing out the darker flecks of colour amongst the hazel.

“Chris.” I stick my free hand out in greeting.

What the hell did you do to make my girl so mad?

“Darren,” he says, making a weak as fuck attempt to squeeze my hand like a tough guy.

I sigh and clench my fingers around his until he breaks eye contact.

“What are you doing here?” Anna asks.

“We have family dinner tonight, remember?” The question comes out before I think it through.

She arches her brows. “Right. Of course. I wanted to get a coffee beforehand.”

Her hair smells like the products she used in mine, so I take a slow breath through my nose. If she slept in my bed, would my sheets smell like that?

“Perfect. We’ve got lots of time,” I tell her, kissing her hair to smell her again.

“Hey, Anna. The regular?” asks the employee behind the till.

“Oh, my turn.” She slips out from under my arm and leaves me with this dumbass.

His eyes flit to Anna so I take a side-step to block his view.

“You’re her boyfriend?” he asks, only able to make eye contact with me for a couple seconds at a time.

Not yet.

“Something like that.”

He nods stiffly. “We used to hook up.”

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