Page 40 of The Best Laid Plans

Chivalrous displays aside, I wasn’t ready for that.

But when Mack took a step around the side, Burke planted his feet and gave him a look so deadly, so cold, that Mack stopped in his tracks. His throat worked on a swallow, and then he cast a desperate look backat me. “What did you tell him? I didn’t hurt you. I just didn’t want you to leave; it was supposed to be flattering.”

Burke growled, his hands tightening on the crowbar.

My chin rose an inch. “I told him the truth. I wanted to leave because you were a horrible date, and you tried to stop me from getting in the car.”

He huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “Trust me, I never would’ve asked you out if I’d known you were such a frigid bitch.”

The first swing of the crowbar shattered the back windshield, and there was a spectacular crunching sound as hundreds of glass pieces fell into the bed of Mack’s truck.

My jaw hinged open. Mack’s head reared back in shock.

“Want another one?” Burke asked.

“You’re fucking insane,” Mack shouted. “I’m calling the cops.”

Burke took that as an invitation to take aim at the passenger door, even as Mack climbed in and had the engine roaring to life. The crunch of metal was so very satisfying, and I covered my shocked laugh with one hand. Mack was shouting curse words and insults at Burke, who honestly just looked ... terrifyingly in control.

“You ever come back here, I’ll take this to your balls,” Burke yelled over the roar of the engine.

The tires squealed as Mack backed out, and once he’d turned in a sharp U, they left a track on the driveway.

My hand still covered my mouth as I tried—tried and failed—to process what the hell I’d just witnessed.

Burke’s chest heaved as he tried to calm down, and after a few moments, he dropped the crowbar on the ground with a noisy clatter.

“You ...” I said, my voice trailing off.

He glanced back at me, the color in his cheeks deepened. “What?”

I blinked and took a step toward him. “You don’t even like me.”

His brows bent in. “You drive me nuts,” he barked. “You constantly leave full coffee mugs sitting around, and half the shit you do makes no sense to me, and you have awful, awful taste in furniture. I hate just about everything you want to put in that house.”

I set my hands on my hips. “I have great taste.”

Burke took a step toward me. “But I don’tnotlike you,” he said gruffly. “What I don’t like is men who treat women like that. Who are disrespectful and pushy. I have a sister, and when I found out her ex-husband called her a bitch in front of their kids, I hopped on a plane across the country, walked into their house, and broke his fucking nose.”

My heart fluttered. A ridiculous kind of flutter too. “Oh,” I said weakly.

Silence dropped between us, thick and heavy and sweet.

Burke’s eyes were so intense that it was hard to hold on to that gaze with my own, but I did.

When he chose his next words, I knew he’d thought them through before a single one passed his lips. I could see that in his eyes too.

“You’re my partner in this,” he said. “So no matter how much we bicker, or how much we disagree, I will always have your back.”

I would not cry.

I would not cry.

My chin quivered.

“Charlotte,” he warned.

“That’s just ... one of the nicest things a guy has ever done for me.”

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