Page 3 of Head Over Heels

I exhaled a laugh. “When?”

“Okay fine, we haven’t had a slow year since you and I took over. But we will figure this out.”

The thought of heading back into the air-conditioned hotel sounded awful, and even though it was almost dinnertime, I glanced at the thick black watch on my wrist. “We can talk about it later if you want. I think I’m gonna drive back home tonight. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.”

“Okay, but grab some food from the hotel before you leave. You’re a beast when you’re hungry, and I’m not talking to you about anything when you get back until you have food in your stomach.”

“You know I’m in my thirties, Greer. I don’t need my sister to tell me when to eat.”

“Yet you forget to have lunch just about every single day on the jobsite,” she said lightly. “This is why you need a wife, so that babysitting you is no longer my responsibility.”

I rolled my eyes and glanced toward the entrance to the hotel, a flash of gold hair snagging my attention. She wasn’t doing anything other than walking out of the building, but my throat went dry all the same.

When was the last time I’d physically lost my breath at the sight of a woman?

I honestly couldn’t remember.

If it was a movie montage, one of the romcoms Poppy forced me to watch when I was home with her, they’d do something clever in a moment like this. Slow the filming of everything around us. Pipe in some heavy bass music, fill your ears with a sensual beat that left nothing to the imagination of exactly how immediate my response was.

Everything about her looked refined—sleek and tailored and elegant.

Her legs were long and tan, lightly muscled underneath the ivory skirt wrapped around her thighs.

Her hair was pulled back off her face in a severe ponytail, and around her neck was a delicate gold chain that disappeared into the V of her black tank top.

Greer was still talking, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from this woman, especially not as she came within an arm’s length of me and paused. She shielded her eyes from the sun and glanced down the street with a nervous twist of her lips, and then moved her gaze past me to the building just next door.

Because I just stood there—one giant, dumbstruck obstacle in the middle of the sidewalk—I was the next recipient of her attention.

Who had eyes like that?

No one I’d ever seen. Not with that particular shade of dark blue with green streaks in the center.

They couldn’t be real.

I was tempted to ask, but I wasn’t an asshole, and also… it felt like someone jammed sawdust into my mouth while I just stood there and stared at her.

Like an asshole.

“Pardon me,” she said.

My mouth opened, but absolutely fucking nothing came out.

Then she smiled—polite and reserved—and walked past, leaving behind the briefest whiff of clean, fresh scent and disappearing into the tailoring shop just next door to the hotel.

“Cameron,” Greer yelled.

I blinked and found my hand inexplicably rubbing at my chest. “Sorry. Got distracted.”

“It’s fine. Just … don’t beat yourself up, okay? I know you’ll blame yourself if we’re a little lean for a while. But it will be fine. I promise.”

“Right.” I blinked again. “Thanks, Greer. I’ll, uh, talk to you when I get home.”

I continued to stare at the ornate black door to the tailor’s shop, not quite sure what had just happened.

It wasn’t like I was immune to a beautiful woman. But for years, I simply didn’t have the space in my head to take on a relationship.

Blinders went on to everything that wasn’t work or taking care of my parents and siblings.

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