Page 35 of Cody

Chapter 17

Cody

A week had passed since that steamy encounter with Alina in her kitchen, and I still couldn’t get her out of my mind. If Joey Dobson hadn’t interrupted it, I would have ended up fucking her right there against the counter with the Dobson brothers just feet away. I’d wanted her, and when I’d realized that I wanted her for more than sex, I’d quickly shut those thoughts down. It was one thing to want a woman for company and sex, I was used to that, but the feelings that had run through me that morning had been a shock to my system.

Could I change my life for Alina? Christ, it was too soon to be thinking about anything that permanent. We’d just met, and we knew nothing about each other. It had been instant attraction, followed by intense lust. Nothing more. It couldn’t be. I was determined to keep Alina in the same pool Tina and Brandy were in. With that thought in mind, I decided to call Brandy later on that morning. Dinner and a good fuck marathon sounded good. I hadn’t fucked anyone since that day Alina and I had gone down to the brook.

Dinner with Tina the night that we’d run into Alina and Max had been just that. After seeing Alina with Max and noticing how good they were getting along, sex had been the last thing on my mind when I’d taken Tina home. I’d ruined the mood by reliving in my mind my time with Alina at the brook, while trying not to think about her and Max doing the same damned thing together. I’d taken Tina to her house, fought against her attempt to kiss me on the mouth, and said goodnight with a quick kiss on the cheek.

Tina hadn’t been happy with the way our evening had ended. My dates expected my full attention all night.

“Brother?” Max’s voice broke into my thoughts, and I looked down at him. “You zoned out for a minute.”

Yeah, because I’d been busy thinking about a woman I wanted like my next breath, but I was determined to keep my emotions in check. “I’m good.”

We were in the process of cutting down a huge tree at the church everyone crowded into on Sundays. Reverend Collins had been after us to cut it down. It had been struck by lightning the year before and was dying, and it was too close to the church. Our winters were brutal, and trees often came down with the weight of snow and ice, and he was afraid that if it did come down it would land on the roof.

The tree was a huge pine that could cause a lot of damage if left to come down on its own. We’d decided to cut off some of the upper branches before starting on the main trunk. I was working on what old loggers called a widowmaker, or broken branch, secured by nothing but a safety harness.

“I still say we should have brought the bucket truck. You know how King feels about safety.”

“Loggers do it this way all the time. I’m not going that high,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, they did it that way back in the eighteen-hundreds!” he argued.

I powered up the chainsaw and proceeded to cut the branch, yelling out, “Heads up!” right before severing it off completely. It hit the ground with a heavy thud and caused a minor dust storm before settling. That was the third dead branch I’d cut down. I glanced back up the tree. There was another huge branch higher than I wanted to go, but at least it was facing away from the church.

The telltale sound of gravel crunching beneath the tires of a vehicle drew my attention back to the ground. I recognized Alina’s car and watched her get out. She started to walk toward Max, and he met her halfway. Both were smiling. She had something in her hands, and her actions revealed that she was excited. I narrowed my eyes until I could make out that it was her phone.

She pulled something up to show Max. I didn’t like how their shoulders touched as they stood close and talked. How natural and friendly they were with each other. He’d told me he was doing some work for her, and I assumed that’s what they were discussing.

I took a minute to examine her baggy, paint-stained clothes. I knew that she and two of her friends were painting at her store. Her hair was a mess, arranged in a loose style on top of her head, and yet somehow, she still looked sexy as hell.

Max had obviously forgotten that I was there, and Alina hadn’t noticed me yet, so I shamelessly listened in on their conversation.

“They came out to put the mural up today. I wanted to show you how it came out,” she said in an excited tone, handing Max her phone. I wondered how she knew Max was here at the church. “You might need to enlarge it.”

After a moment of concentration, Max nodded. “I like it.”

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