Page 29 of Five Alarm Love
Tuli clutched his grandma’s jacket in a sweaty fist.Damn it.This situation had become a mess.He needed to get over himself, stop waiting for the perfect moment, and dive right in.He’d waited several months after her breakup last fall, then was about to ask her out when he had his accident.Seemed like it was never the right time or place.
He opened his mouth.Closed it when he glanced at Hunter’s eager and too-friendly expression.Tuli focused on the dude.
For real, what sort of kiss-ass showed up at the community resource management meeting just tohelp?Was this guy going for the Yukon Valley volunteer of the year?
Because pretty sure Tuli, with his social media promotion of the area boosting tourism, was in the running for that award.A shoo-in, really.
Hunter stood tall.
Tuli had been a shoo-in.Until this knob showed up.
“Hey, looks like we’ve got some loitering going on.”Bruce Garrett’s growly voice made the three of them look back as he slowly approached in his typical bow-legged, arthritic gait.
His son, Calvin, had been a victim of the speculators and was lucky to have escaped with his life.Seemed that if the speculators could not access the Ray Mountain-bordered property legally, they had no problem removing the barriers to access.Human barriers.Permanently.Yet another reason for the community to band together in their approach to resource management.
“Hi, Bruce,” Tuli said.
Lou gave a quick wave and a small smile.
“Hmmph.”Bruce glowered under bushy salt-and-pepper eyebrows until his sweet but tough wife, Aggie, stopped and glared at him.Was that a whimper coming from the tough guy?“Um, I mean hi.Aggie says I have to be nicer to people.”
“At least the ones who save your life,” Lou said, brows arched.
Touché.
“She’s lovely, and I love her,” Aggie said, patting Bruce on the arm before heading into the building.
Bruce stuck around.
Lou’s face turned a—yes, lovely—shade of crimson as she looked down at the gravel.
“What are you three stooges doing out here?”Bruce studied Hunter, Lou, and Tuli for several long seconds each.
“Just talking, sir,” Hunter said.
“Mostly plotting world domination.”Tuli shifted his weight off his aching right leg and hoped no one noticed.
Lou’s gaze flicked down, then up to his face.Damn, she was observant.He locked his knees to maintain a stable stance.
Bruce pursed his mouth.“Oh, I know what this is.”He pointed at each of them with a knowing grin.
He puffed his chest out, which would have been intimidating forty years ago, but now made him look like an old rooster wearing a flannel shirt, what with his thin bowed legs and his unruly gray hair.
“I know exactly what this is,” he murmured, half to himself.“I have work to do.”
Oh no.Tuli caught Lou’s eye and gave a slight shake of his head.Say nothing, he tried to telepathically transmit to her.
“What?”Hunter said, obviously not getting the mental message.
“Well, this looks like a love triangle to me.”Bruce crossed his arms and waited.
“Not at all,” Hunter said, pointing at Lou.“We’re cousins, remember?”
“Nothing’s going on with any of us,” she sputtered, shoving her hands in her work uniform pockets and avoiding everyone’s gaze.She squirmed under the attention and Tuli’s gut clenched in sympathy for her shyness.
Tuli thought fast.“You figured it out!What Hunter and I have is special, Bruce.”He leaned his head onto Hunter’s shoulder and batted his eyes.“No matchmaking needed.No judgment.”
Hunter spluttered and tried to shove Tuli away.“No, not—”
