Page 9 of Until We're More
I nodded, soaking it in. “Well, you’re in luck. I just so happen to know how to be bossyandassertive.”
She pressed her lips together as if she had to fight back a laugh.
“What? I do.”
“Oh, I know. But you’ve got it easy. You’ve got your size on your side.” She gestured at me, making a big circle to encompass me from head to toe. “Having all that going on automatically makes people listen to everything you say.”
“That definitely helps. But it doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to be more assertive or that I can’t teach you those skills.”
She bit her thumbnail. “You’re right. I just hate asking for help, especially after insisting I can take care of myself. Which I can.”
“Hey.” I moved from the chair to the spot next to her on the couch. “I know you can. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with asking friends for help. We can get Brooklyn to pitch in, too. Grown men twice her size are scared of her. Even Shane was a little scared at first, though he probably won’t admit it.”
“True,” Chelsea said with a laugh. “Both about people fearing her and about him not admitting it.” She shook her head. “You guys and your massive egos.”
I frowned, becauseIdidn’t have an ego problem, but she kept right on talking.
“And I feel like yesterday’s self-defense class helped, in a different way than I expected. It made me feel stronger, not only physically but also because I managed not to feel self-conscious while everyone was staring at us while we demonstrated. Now I just have to learn how to transfer that to an office setting, although it’s going to take a lot of pushing past my comfort level. I’m afraid getting a promotion is going to be all about faking it till I make it.”
I tried not to let that go to the dirty side in my mind, and I bit back a comment about women not needing to fake anything with me. The temperature rose a couple degrees as I took in her long legs and pink nail polish. There was something sexy about tiny pink toenails.
Don’t eventhinkabout going there.I reached for my water bottle and took another swig. Then I forced my stray thoughts to return to what she needed—make that, to what she needed for her job. “We’ll spend our weekend kicking back and having as much fun as possible, but we’re also going to sneak in a few tips for your job and how to make sure you kick ass and show your boss that you can command a room.”
She nodded. “Okay. Bookstore, movies, and assertive lessons. Pretty sure we’ve planned the perfect day.”
Nowthatwas something we agreed on.
…
Like my movies, I favored books with explosions and violence. But like my plight with both pets and girls, I didn’t have much time for reading. I usually stuck to news and sports, although thanks to Chelsea’s frequent bookstore habit and her tendency to drag me along—originally, it’d been a lack-of-car issue, but then she’d claimed she could use someone to help her cull her pile. Never mind that I blindly pointed most of the time, totally judging books by their covers, and that she ignored my advice on what she should or shouldn’t buy at least as often as she took it. Anyway, somewhere along the line, I’d gotten into this Warhammer 40,000 space marines series. Occasionally I listened to them on audio while I ran, but it’d been a while.
I found a used paperback for half the price of a new one and tucked it under my arm, sure Chelsea would be thrilled I was buying a book. I circled the store one more time, and then made my way to where I’d last spotted a glimpse of her red hair. After her shower she’d left it down, and I’d almost told her it looked good a bit wild, but then thought she might find it strange I’d noticed.
And why couldn’t I stop noticing every little thing about her?
As I rounded one of the shelves, I spotted her. Seated on the floor in the general fiction section, talking to a guy who’d obviously also noticed how good she looked today. He was crouched in front of her, a goofy lovestruck grin on his face. He said something, and she laughed, and a weird pinch twisted my gut.
All protection. Definitely. Nothing that my brother and sister had often accused me of feeling for Chelsea. They didn’t understand that she was one of my very favorite people, and since I planned on continuing to be one of hers, friends was all it’d ever be. Even keeping things to that, I was too rough around the edges for her. Too different. Too a lot of things, but luckily she’d never minded, going so far as to wave off comments about it, from other people and from me.
I strode toward them, and the guy’s eyes widened. He gave Chelsea a nervous smile, straightened, and slowly backed away.Smart choice.
“Seriously?” she asked the second he’d disappeared around the corner, her eyes firing accusations up at me. “That’s the first guy who’s approached me in months.”
I shrugged. “I didn’t say a word.”
She cocked her head and huffed. “Yeah, but you looked at him like you were plotting his dismemberment.”
“Only if he hurt you—call it a fair warning.” Guilt started to set in. I didn’t make it easy for her to have other friends or to date, even as I told myself she’d be better off expanding her circle of people. Another reason it was good she’d taken that job in Denver. “Did you want me to go scare him back your way?”
A noise somewhere between disbelief and a laugh escaped her lips. “It wasn’t even like that anyway. We were just talking about a book series.”
“Sure.” See? She assumed the best about people, naively thinking the only reason a guy would approach her was to dissect plotlines. Hell, we were just friends andI’dbeen roped into discussing books with her.
She sighed, as if talking sense into me about this was a lost cause, and it was. This whole outing further demonstrated why she was better off in another state, where I couldn’t interfere in her dating life, no matter how badly I wanted to. She’d been hurt before, though, and was it so bad to take steps to ensure it didn’t happen again?
“I didn’t mean to be so intimidating. It was an accident.” Okay, it totally wasn’t. “It’s part of my job, and I can’t just turn it off.” That part might be true.
Chelsea shoved a giant stack of books into my hands and then unfolded herself from her crossed-leg position, using my forearm to pull herself up. Her gaze went to the book under my arm, and when she jerked it, I nearly lost my grip on the teetering pile. “You found a book! Yay!”
