Page 21 of The Outsider

“Yeah. It’ll be fine.”

Not really. His feet were going to be crunched up at the end. But that didn’t matter.

“What?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Fine. Don’t worry about it, Bix.”

“I’m not,” she said. “If you’re uncomfortable, that’s just because you’re a sap. I don’t give a shit.”

“Good. That’s what I like to hear.”

“Great,” she said.

Then he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving his foundling in there.

He paused at the vacant bedroom two doors down from his own. He could always just get a bed and put it in there. She wouldn’t be here that long. It was probably more efficient than trying to get another one of the buildings ready.

He would think on that.

Until then, he had a very uncomfortable night to spend on the couch. And if it was penance a little bit... that was just fine too.

Bix didn’t know what to make of the situation she found herself in. Everybody at the King house had been nice. Very nice. And the food had been amazing. And then he had noticed that she was tired and...

She rubbed her chest where it felt sore.

She didn’t like feeling emotional. Not like this. It was annoying. She didn’t feel like it was fair. There was no call to go getting sappy or attached or anything like that.

He was just a guy. He was a guy that was helping her out.

What did it matter? What did he matter? He didn’t. They didn’t.

This was almost a con. When she thought about it. Because she was going to go right back to selling moonshine. She wasn’t getting on the straight and narrow or anything like that. He wasn’t actually making a difference in her life.

Whatever the hell he thought he was doing.

She went to the bathroom and took a minute to look around that space. He had a tub in there. She was going to use it. Tonight, or maybe early tomorrow morning. But she realized she needed to get her clothes moved out of the washing machine and into the dryer.

She walked out of the bedroom and made her way down to where the laundry room was. She dug through the washing machine and grabbed her clothes. Put them in the dryer and examined the settings. She didn’t know what the hell they meant. She took her best guess and hit the button. She figured she couldn’t go too wrong with More Dry.

She wanted her clothes to bemore dry, after all.

When she got them started, she walked out of the laundry room, and then stopped. There he was, at the end of the hallway, backlit. Shirtless. He just sort of stood there. And her mouth went dry. Because he was...

He wasbuilt.

She had known that. She had been able to tell that, seeing him in his uniform. That he had broad shouldersand a muscular chest. That his waist was narrow. He was tall. Exceptionally tall.

But that hint of his physique in the uniform hadn’t fully prepared her for this.

For the sight of his well-defined pectoral muscles dusted with dark hair, the firmly ridged abs on his stomach.

She did not get foolish about men. Because she couldn’t afford it.

Her personal economy was always such that sexy men were just way too expensive.

But right now, she was immobilized by it. By him.

“Sorry,” she said, suddenly realizing that she was standing there ogling him.

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