Page 4 of Surprised By Love

He walks to the back of the car, takes off his jacket and places it on top of the back seat beside Amelia, who gives him a quick side eye, then looks back to her show. The rain creates a polka dot pattern on his shirt and I’m mesmerised for a moment, watching as the shirt gets wetter and wetter.

He pushes up the sleeves of his Henley past his well-toned forearms. I never thought forearms were sexy, but damn. Now I do.

He pulls out the spare tire and brings it over to me. “Can you hold on to this?” he says, as the rain slows to a drizzle.

“Sure.” My voice is raspier than I would like, but I’m trying hard to swallow, and it’s proving to be a tad bit difficult. I need to get it together. It’s not like I haven’t seen forearms on a sexy man before. Ok, well maybe not this sexy.

I reach out and place my hand on top of the spare, holding it still. I watch as he crouches down, using the jack to raise the car higher, removing the lug nuts.

I can’t help but notice his jeans hugging his nice round and, from what I can tell, firm ass.

I’ve sworn off men… for now. I want to get things settled at the house, get Amelia into school. But it doesn’t hurt to look. I smile and look around as if I’m about to steal something, then tilt my head slightly to get a better view.

Right at that moment, he turns his head and looks up at me. My head jerks upright. His mouth curving slightly upward and he looks back at the tire and removes it.

Heat rises to my cheeks. I take a slow, deep breath, trying to contain myself. Calm down, Sam, get ya shit together… just act normal. I’m more nervous than before he caught me staring at his ass.

He stands up, turns around, and smiles. Passing me the flat tire, he takes the spare from my hands. He crouches down again, puts the spare in place, and replaces the lug nuts.

My cheeks burn and all I want to do is crawl under a blanket and die. The car lowers onto the new tire and Josh stands and turns towards me. “I’ll take that,” he says, as he reaches for the flat. Lifting it up, he places it into the car, lowers the floorboard, and begins placing the boxes and suitcases in the back.

My lips part slightly as I stand there watching him. I can’t take my eyes off him. His white shirt is now soaked, and it sticks to his body like cling wrap. Not only does he have a nice butt, but I can tell he has a six-pack. His shoulders and back look strong, but those biceps are bulging as he lifts the heavy totes.

I blink a few times and shake my head. Okay, enough is enough. You don’t want him to see you drooling. I wipe at my face in case I’m actually drooling, although I can’t tell since my face is wet with rain. I collect myself and ‌help him load the car.

It only takes a moment to finish loading the car when we both reach for the last suitcase.

Our hands touch and I look up to see him looking back at me. A surge of electricity shoots through me, and I jolt my hand back and straighten. I feel something I haven’t felt in such a long time. The rain stops and the sun peeks through the clouds, as if giving me a sign.

“Oh, sorry,” I say.

He smiles at me. “It’s alright, I got it.” He lifts the last suitcase and places it on top. “Is that everything?”

I look around to make sure we haven’t missed anything. “Yes, thank you so much.”

Josh reaches for his jacket and notices my daughter’s hazel eyes staring at him. She’s now turned around on the seat and is watching us through the back of the car.

“Hi, there!” he says to Amelia with a smile.

“Hi.” She waves.

Josh looks back at me. “Alright, looks like you are all set here,” he says, pulling the hatch down.

“Again, thank you. Who knows how long I would’ve been trying to get it changed if you hadn’t come by? I haven’t seen a car drive by since I got on this road.”

“Doesn’t surprise me. This road only leads to a few small towns, not much traffic.”

“I can pay you—”

“Don’t be silly.” Josh grins. “You get that tire replaced soon. You don’t want to get stranded without a spare.”

“I will. Thank you again.”

“Not a problem. You take care,” he says, as he flings his jacket over his left shoulder and heads towards the SUV.

“You too,” I yell back. I can’t help but take another look at his butt as he turns and walks away. Wondering if I’ll ever see that man again.

Josh

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