Page 8 of Make Me Stay

But I did relax for the first time since I’d been back in Indigo Valley.

And I tried not to think too hard about the fact that it was withher.

Chapter4

Lexi

Gettingmy butt out of bed the next morning was excruciating.

I hadn’t lied to him that I was a night owl by nature, but that was more on a Friday night, not in the middle of the week. Kai, of course, was whistling as he got ready. At least this time I hadn’t caught him with his ass in the breeze.

Not that it had been a hardship to see his ass, but now it was seared into my brain.

That part wasnota good thing.

I shuffled out of my room when he finally got out of the bathroom. I wasn’t sure if him in a pair of cargos with damp blond hair in careless spikes was much better. His body was a crime.

Especially when I had morning mouth and bedhead.

“Morning, Lex. Want to drive in with me?”

I waved at him. “You go ahead, mister chirpy.”

He laughed as he dipped into his bedroom and grabbed a Murdock Brothers T-shirt in highlighter green. “I made some coffee, if you want any.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and closed the bathroom door. His bawdy laughter annoyed me all the more. Dammit, I was so tired I forgot my caddy.

I waited until I heard him in the kitchen to escape to get it. By the time I was ready to go, he and my brother were long gone. I didn’t need to be at the warehouse until eight, but I liked to get there early to make sure all the guys were at their respective job sites.

And to also make sure there were no fires to put out.

When it came to the project app that Sullivan used, there were a lot of fires. Mostly in the underwear of the lusty women in and around Indigo Valley. He even had jobs out in Saratoga, Ballston Spa, and Malta. That viral video had been the start, but once people got a look at the Murdock boys, there was a lot of word of mouth.

You couldn’t pay for that kind of marketing, even if Sully’s girlfriend, Nora, was a genius.

I cranked the air conditioning against the mid-May heat and headed for the warehouse. My phone rang and I answered it through my car speakers when I saw the name. “Hey, Nicole.”

“Girl, tell me you’re at the warehouse.”

“On my way, why?”

She sighed. “Kai, mister ultimate hotness, is on a ladder out front. That man is too fine for his own good.”

“What the hell is he doing there? He’s supposed to be on a job site. Also, why can you see him?”

“Because I’m across the street at the new breakfast truck. He and your stupidly delicious brother are hanging something up.”

I wished my best friend would just get together with my brother already. She’d been in love with him since we were fifteen. Wyatt had been smart enough to keep clear of her when we were kids. Being eighteen to her fifteen was a no-go, but now that we were in our twenties, she was fair game. And I knew he was a smitten kitten.

“I’m turning the corner.”

“Now you can enjoy the view too.” Then she hung up.

I parked in the lot across from the warehouse. Sullivan hadn’t had the parking lot for the business repaved yet and I wasn’t chancing a nail in my tire.

I grabbed my purse and got out to see Nicole nibbling on a breakfast burrito as she watched attentively. I waved to the chef of The Big Breakfast. “Can I get an egg and cheese on flatbread?”

“You got it.”

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