Page 28 of Fight For Us
He studied my face with a raised brow and that only annoyed me more. “Alright Tiger. Just looking out for you.”
A crash from the kitchen caught our attention and we hustled out the door to help.
Toward the end of my shift I spent a few minutes tidying the prep area in the kitchen. Empty mixing bowls filled with onion and potato skins cluttered the counter, so I made myself busy cleaning them up before moving on to the trail of crumbs scattered around the toasters.
“Isn’t your shift over?” Wes turned from the stove and pressed his back against the counter.
“Almost. Figured I’d help clean before I go.”
“You don’t have to.” He sounded exhausted.
I tossed the handful of crumbs I scraped into the trash and faced him. “You almost done for the day?”
“I don’t know. Depends on how busy we get.” He blew out a breath and rubbed his shoulder, clearly hurting.
“Do you ever close up early?” I asked. Sunshine was always open. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I figured they needed the money to keep the place going. Restaurants like this one probably didn’t bring in loads of income. But at what expense?
“Couple times a year.” He winced, digging his thumb into his shoulder. I couldn’t take watching him hurt anymore.
“Turn around.” Tossing the rag I’d been holding onto the counter, I stepped up to him, making a twirling gesture with my finger.
He narrowed his brows. “What?”
“You heard me. Take off your coat, too.”
He chuckled. “Damn, Tiger. At least buy me dinner first.”
“Shut up and do as I say.” I smacked his arm playfully and was reminded how solid it was. Not only his arms. All of him. His body was built like a tank.
He slipped off his coat and turned, leaning his palms on the counter. Even with him slouching I felt like I was facing a brick wall. I stood on my tiptoes, ignoring the way my pulse began to speed up and placed my palms on his shoulders.
When I squeezed gently he hitched a breath, the muscles of his back expanded in front of my eyes. “This okay?”
“Yeah, Tiger. It’s—uh—more than okay.” He turned his head to glance at me and I could see that some of the tightness left his face. That handsome freaking face. I dug in a bit, kneading what felt like rocks under the tight layers of muscle. “Mmm.”
“Sorry! Did I hurt you?” Holy crap why did that sound send heat straight through me. I pulled my hands off him, although that didnotsound like a pained groan. It was for sure a pleasure groan. A hot pleasure groan.
Clearing his throat, he stood straighter. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“Okay. Because you groaned and everything and I wasn’t sure… so I stopped and—”
Wes’s body started to vibrate before a laugh burst out of him. “You’re adorable, Tiger.”
I smacked his brick wall of a back. “Jerk.” He stretched his neck from side to side and laughed again. “Also no more groaning. It’s weird and I thought I hurt you and—Wait. Why are you still facing the counter?”
“I think you know why.” His laughter died down and that gravelly voice was back. That voice that made heat rush into my cheeks.
“I don’t.”Oh.Wow, I was dense. “Ah.” I patted his back. “I’ll just give you a minute to—um—calm down.”
“Might take more than a minute. But yeah, good plan.”
“Old ladies, rainbows, poodles… um—shopping?” I listed off whatever nonsense came into my mind. Wes chuckled and shook his head.
“Are you trying to list unsexy things?”
“Is it working?”
“Yeah, Tiger, it’s great.” His voice was filled with humor.
