Page 16 of Drunk Dialing My Enemy

“That’s why we go! To dog-watch.”

I shake my head. This woman.

“One day I’ll have a dog of my own. When I own my own place.”

I glance at the apartment above the shop where Katie is living. The previous owner of the building had a strict no-pets policy. I never thought of changing the policy when I bought the place…but for Katie, I’d change everything. I’d burn the old building to the ground and build a new one if that’s what she said she needed from me.

“You should get a dog,” I tell her. “I know you won’t let it ruin the apartment. And I could put a little fence in the back so it would have room to run around.”

The look she gives me makes me feel about ten feet tall.Damn. It feels good to be Katie’s hero. I could get addicted to this.

“Are you hungry?” Katie asks me.

More than you know.

“Starving,” I say, wiping the sweat from my brow with the front of my shirt. Katie’s eyes drop to the strip of skin above my waistband that is exposed when my shirt rides up. I don’t miss this, nor do I miss the way those brown eyes turn molten with desire.

So it’s not just me who feels this way.

“Why don’t you go home and wash up and change?” Katie suggests. “Then come back here and I’ll fix you something to eat.”

I smile.

“What?” she asks.

“You said ‘fix’ something to eat,” I explain. “Those Texas sayings don’t die easily, do they? And sometimes you still have that twang in your voice. The way you did when we were kids.”

“What, you think I lost my accent?” she grins. “Just because I went to fashion school for a while in New York?”

“I haven’t heard it come out in a while.”

“Well it’s still here,” she says. “Gets a little stronger the longer I live in Wild Bronco.”

“I like it.”

I want to pull her into another steamy kiss, but I’m quite literally drenched in sweat. She looks pretty and clean in a white tank top and a hip-hugging pink skirt that I’m dying to look under. I don’t want to mess that outfit up – not yet, anyway – so I lean in for a gentle, soft kiss. No other touching, just our lips.

When I pull away, she looks dazed.

“I’ll be back,” I promise her, loading my tools back into their box and throwing it in the bed of my truck.

“See you soon.”

Very soon. I speed home and take a thorough but fast shower. I clean my beard up a little and put on some more deodorant and a fresh set of clothes.

I’ve never worried much about how I look. Still don’t. But Katie matters more to me than anything ever has, and I’ve had exactly twenty-four hours to absorb the things she told me last night when she drunk dialed me. I’m still reeling from the information she gave me. Knowing she’s never had sex, and knowing that I could be –willbe – her first, is causing the pressure to mount.

I was her first kiss and I fucked that up. So if we’re going to have sex tonight, I’m going to make sure it’s a first that she enjoys. That she can never possibly regret.

“That was quick!” Katie exclaims.

I’m standing on the porch of her apartment. The door faces the back of the building and is up a narrow flight of steps. The tiny little porch is lined with potted plants, and fairylights wrap around the rail from the bottom of the steps to the top.

It’s a tiny, cramped little space but Katie’s still found a way to make it homey. I look at the little curtains in the window. They’re faded and patterned with horses. Knowing her, the material came from some old shirt at the thrift store.

“Did you sew those yourself?” I ask her as she lets me inside.

“Of course,” she says proudly.

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