Page 43 of The Love Duet
“Jesus Christ, it’s the man’s first day of work,” Pepper drawled out.“Can we give it another week before we ask him to start sacrificing himself for the sake of my love life?”
“I’m just saying, it’s not a bad idea,” Laurie chuckled.
“Don’t forget to clean up when you’re done, gentlemen,” Pepper said before heading out to go deal with Kenneth Query.
As soon as Pepper and Laurie cleared the room, I turned towards Wilmar.“Is this Kenneth Query a real problem or...?”
Wilmar shrugged.“He’s not dangerous, if that’s what you’re asking.He just...he’s one of those entitled pricks who are used to getting their way, and he thinks that Pepper’s the type of woman that can be bought or tempted with money.”
“She doesn’t seem like that,” I agreed.
“She’s not,” he replied.“Pepper Milo is as far as you can get from a gold-digger.”
Not wanting to examine my jealousy too closely, I said, “Well, I guess we better get back to work.”
“Good thing that the pizza can go with us,” Wilmar chuckled.
Yeah, good thing.
~
Pepper~
A month later, things were looking up for all of us.The cameras in my house brought a comfort that I had taken for granted before, Leah was in Colorado with Tullie, helping him set up his new home after getting the promotion that we’d all known he would get, and Josiah was still working at the shop, doing his best to earn his keep.
I’d also gotten some serious satisfaction when I’d found out that my attacker, Timothy Sharpe, had a long criminal history before he had decided to knock on my door.According to the police, he’d been visiting some friends in Macon, and he’d been driving by the shop when he’d seen me locking up, then had assumed that I’d have some kind of money on me or at home.It’d been a simple crime of opportunity, and my sense of security was paying the price for something that Mr.Timothy Sharpe couldn’t care less about.Thankfully, his history had sent him to jail for a couple of years, and there was some small measure of comfort to know that it hadn’t been personal.
All-in-all, everything was going well, except for one minor hiccup, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore with each passing day.While Josiah was insistent on still sleeping in the shed, with no other choice, he continued to knock on my backdoor each morning and use the downstairs bathroom, and whenever he walked out in a towel because he’d forgotten his clothes or something, it was hard not to drool all over the place.For being homeless, Josiah Austin had not let himself go, and though he’d probably been thicker in his military days, he was still very well kept, and my lady bits were noticing more and more these days.
I also found myself feeling guilty every time that I ogled the man.Josiah had a lot on his plate, and the last thing that he needed was for his boss to have the hots for him, which I did.Over the past month, he had proven to be a hard worker, team player, and he was surprisingly kind for someone so rough around the edges.
There’d also been the whole incident on payday.The second that I had handed Josiah his check, he had tried to hand it back, insisting that he owed me.We had argued for a good hour before the stubborn man had finally set his pride aside to be pragmatic.After making it clear that I’d consider us even when he got back on his feet, he’d had no choice but to take the check, and a part of me wished that I’d kept the damn thing.When he’d gone missing the following Saturday, sadness had gripped my heart at the thought that he’d fled, but he hadn’t.
Nope.
Instead, Josiah had shown up that evening with a brand-new haircut and shave, and it’d taken everything in me not to climb him like a spider monkey.To say that Josiah Austin was gorgeous was an understatement, and knowing that he had all those masculine military vibes just added to his appeal.A girl was safe with Josiah, and if that wasn’t one hell of an aphrodisiac, then I didn’t know what was.He had also gone to the thrift store in town to buy some ‘new’ clothes, and with both Josiah and Wilmar both working for me, I was going to have to start beating the women of Macon off with a stick.
The man was also proving to be very versatile.After training with both Laurie and Wilmar, I’d had him train with some of the part-timers, and once Josiah had learned everything that there was to know about how we did things at The Flower Shoppe, the man had started taking the initiative, even helping with some of the building maintenance.In fact, everything was perfect right now, but that didn’t mean that I still wasn’t prepared for one of his episodes, something that I’d been researching on my own time.When and if the time came that Josiah fell apart, I wanted to be there for him with some inkling of knowing what I was doing.Helping a veteran through a flashback was entirely different than patting your friend on the back after her boyfriend broke up with her.
“Are you about ready, Boss?”
I glanced up from my desk, finished with most of the paperwork for the day.“I am.”
Though no one at the shop knew that Josiah was homeless, they knew that he didn’t have a car and that we carpooled, so Wilmar and Laurie were comfortable with leaving when they could, knowing that I had Josiah here with me.
“Well, if you don’t mind, I was hoping that you could drop me off at the city library on your way home,” he said, and I hated how the tip of his ears always turned red when he was asking me for something.
“Sure.”
“I finally found an online support group that might work for me,” he said, explaining himself, something else that I didn’t like.“The library offers free computer use, and so I was going to speak to someone about reserving one weekly or...or maybe twice a week.”
Making sure not to look at him, I glanced down at my desk, busying myself with shutting down my computer and tidying up a bit before we left.“You know, I have a home computer at my house.You can just use that one.”
After a brief second of silence, he said, “I already use your bathroom, washer, and dryer, Pepper.I think that’s enough.”
Unfairly using my ace for moments like this, I said, “Well, considering that my life is worth more than the use of my shower, washer, and dryer, I disagree.”
“Pepper, look at me,” he ordered, and I did because that voice of his could probably make me do anything that he wanted me to do.“Your manipulation isn’t going to work forever.”
