Page 35 of Finding Home
It might just make me want to be nice.
“I just want to do this, okay?” she adds. Her tone is much softer and less demanding.
The rapid change solidifies my theory.
Something has definitely happened in her past. But what?
Fuck. Now I’m here and I want to know.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” she says, ripping the hose from my hand. “I need to wrestle this hose some more and get this side of the house done.”
I look from the hose to her face, unable to say anything back while the aching in my chest intensifies. But her whiskey eyes plead with me to give her this chance.
“If you insist.”
“I do.” She nods.
Avoiding further conversation, I turn around and make my way to the truck. I refuse to look back at her house as I put it in drive, ready to get back to my house.
Everything about that doesn’t feel right.
It feels off.
Which is makingmefeel off.
I’m not someone who’s supposed to care like this. I’m not someone who’s supposed to be curious about the city girl.
I skip going to the ranch for the first time in as long as I can remember to sit on my porch and wonder more about her as she successfully gets control of the hose and finishes the one side of her house.
I give up when the sun hides behind the mountain.
But when my head finally hits the pillow at night, my only thoughts are of her.
CHAPTER 12
SEVEN MILES.
Blair
It may have taken me a whole week, but my house is done and sparkling clean. One would think that being such a small home it would be a quick project.
Wrong.
I found my strength when I felt like I had to prove to not only myself but to my grumpy next-door neighbor, that I could handle this. I saw the look on his face when he noticed me struggling. I stayed awake all night playing it on repeat in my head.
Along with the muscles flexing in his forearm that were staring me in the face.
Guilt consumed me as those thoughts flooded my brain. Thinking of another man the way I thought about Griffin only churned in my gut. Theodore was all I’ve known for so long, and while we’re divorced with no chance of us ever getting back together, it’s still hard to process that my brain is thinking about how hot another man’s forearms are.
All of this only sent me down a spiral of crying myself to sleep.
Not from missing Theodore.
But because of feeling more alone than ever.
I miss my sister back in San Francisco. And I miss…there’s no one else. It’s just Kodi. Because I have no one else. I was alone then, and I’m alone now.
I can do this, though.
