Page 17 of Loco

Then there were the accidental touches—too many of them. Brushing past each other in the kitchen, both reaching for the same dish towel, our knees bumping when we sat on the couch. Every little contact sent a jolt through me, like my body had suddenly decided it was hyper-aware of her presence in thrilling and torturous ways.

The worst part was that I wasn’t just imagining it. I caught her looking at me when Sayla thought I wasn’t paying attention, her eyes lingering a little too long before she quickly looked away. She laughed at my dumb jokes more than usual. And when she walked past me at one point, she bit her lip like she was trying not to react to how close we were.

By the time the storm showed signs of letting up for a moment, I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted to dig her car out or keep her here indefinitely to see what other chaos she could bring into my life.

But as I caught her laughing at something Lynyrd did, her guard dropping for just a moment, I realized something dangerous for her.

Snowstorms eventually passed. But this thing between us wasn’t going anywhere.

Chapter 6

Sayla

Living with Roque was… interesting.

For one, he was a morning person, which I found both alarming and deeply offensive. He’d wake up before the sun, already dressed, sipping coffee, and somehow functioning like an actual human being while I was still trying to figure out which way was up. Secondly, he had a ridiculous amount of flannel shirts. I was beginning to suspect he had an entire section of his closet dedicated to nothing but plaid. And lastly, living with him meant living with his animals—Lynyrd, Skynyrd, and Dog—all of whom seemed to have collectively decided that I was their new favorite person.

Despite that, I wasn’t hating it, which was probably dangerous.

But I didn’t have time to think about what that meant. The storm hadn’t completely passed yet, but it had eased enough for us to get out of the house. The roads were still covered in snow, ice clung to every surface, and another round of bad weather was forecasted in the next two days. If I had any hope of salvaging myhouse before the next storm hit, I needed to get a plan in motion now.

Bundled up in more layers than I cared to count, we trudged over to assess the damage.

It wasn’t pretty.

The moment we stepped inside, the cold hit me like a slap. It was somehow colder inside than it was outside, which was never a good sign. Roque headed straight for the kitchen while I stood in the doorway, taking in the disaster zone that was once my home.

“Good news,” Roque called. “The house is still standing.”

I shot him a glare as I peeled off my gloves. “Great. What’s the bad news?”

“The pipes are frozen.”

I groaned, rubbing my hands over my face. “Of course they are.”

“I wrapped them the day after the bath incident,” he added, “but with no heat in here and no way to flush water through them, it didn’t do much.”

I let out a frustrated sigh, staring at the sink like it had personally wronged me. “So what? I have to wait until they decide to defrost?”

“Unless you want to go at them with a hairdryer for the next six hours, yeah.”

I muttered a string of curses under my breath.

Roque leaned against the counter, crossing his arms. “And that’s not even the biggest issue.”

I turned to him, already bracing for bad news. “Oh, good. Can’t wait to hear this.”

He ticked off a list on his fingers. “First, we need to get the plumbing sorted before anything else. Otherwise, you won’t have running water. Second, the flooring in the bathroom needs to be completely redone—probably reinforced. Third, there’s insulation damage from the flooding. Fourth, the wiring might need checking because I don’t trust what happened when the tub came crashing down. Fifth?—”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” I threw up my hands, feeling overwhelmed just listening to him. “It’s going to take forever.”

He gave me a look that wasn’t quite sympathetic but close enough. “The good news is, I know people who can do this work properly, and they won’t charge you a fortune.”

That was good news. The bad news? “I still have to do this slowly because money doesn’t magically appear in my bank account.”

Roque nodded like he’d expected that. “Which means you either move in with your parents…”

I scowled. “Not happening.”

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