Page 7 of Lumberjack DADDY
“What? Me? Nah,” he replies. “She came into the store the other day.”
The way his eyes linger after her and the tone in his voice send a flash of irritation and possessiveness that cut through me like a scythe. I don’t like the way he’s looking at her.
“She renting a cabin from you?”
“Yep.”
“Huh. She told me she was staying down at the Pines,” he says.
“Guess not.”
“And I thought we shared a moment. I thought we kind of connected.”
Yeah, she lied to you about where she was staying. That’s a real strong connection there, kid. I want to say it, but don’t. I’d rather not extend this conversation any longer than necessary. I just want him to get back into his truck and get the fuck out of here—and to stop leering after Emery the way he is.
“Anyway, I think that’s it,” I say.
He tips me a wink. “I’ll tell you what, I’d love to share a connection with that fine piece of ass. Am I right?”
My jaw clenched, and my hands curled into fists at my side, I glare at him. “You really should learn a little respect, kid.”
He puts his hands up. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean anything by it. It was just guy talk.”
“You should go now.”
His eyes slide to the woods behind me as if he’s trying to steal one last glance at Emery. I take a step closer to him, my eyes burning with anger. Travis licks his lips and then nods.
“Yeah. Sure, man. Whatever,” he says. “I’m going.”
I wait until his truck is rumbling down the road before I turn and stare at the woods behind me. I don’t see her anywhere, which I’m both glad and disappointed about. Once I’m sure Travis is gone, I carry all the boxes into my cabin, thinking about how I need to place a call to Jonah and let him know to keep an eye on his boy.
I really didn’t like the way he was leering at Emery, and it’s not just because I had a sudden and inexplicable flash of overprotectiveness. That’s part of it, of course. But there was something in the way he was staring at her that made me feel a little… uneasy. I don’t know Travis well; he’s only been working for Jonah for a few months, but the way he leered at her bothered me. A lot. There was just an unsettling vacancy in his eyes I didn’t care for.
As I’m putting my canned goods away, a knock sounds at my open door. And when I turn, I feel my heart lurch in a way I wish it hadn’t. Emery is standing in the doorway, her face flushed and dotted with sweat. I clear my throat and try to ignore the way her t-shirt, now heavy with her sweat, sticks to her skin, outlining her full, round breasts tantalizingly.
“Something broken?” I ask.
“No. Nothing like that,” she says. “I just… that guy you were talking to…”
Despite my best efforts to stave it off, a wave of jealousy crashes down over me. It’s stupid. I know it’s stupid. I have no claim to this girl. I don’t want to have any claim to her. And yet, hearing her even reference another man sends a lightning boltof jealousy crackling through me. I find I don’t like it any more than I liked the way Travis leered at her.
“Yeah, what about him?” I ask.
“He’s the guy from the market in town, right?”
“Yeah.”
“What was he doing here?” she asks.
“Why do you want to know?”
She clears her throat and shuffles her feet, dropping her soft brown eyes to the floor. The girl is obviously uncomfortable about something. She draws in a breath, then raises her gaze to me. Her jaw is clenched and her chin tilted up in something like defiance.
“Because if he’s here a lot, I think I need to find somewhere else to stay,” she says firmly.
“And why’s that?”
“When I was in town picking up groceries the other day, he just… he made me uncomfortable,” she admits quietly.
