Chapter Nine - Summer
CHAPTER NINE
Summer
Grayson and Brooks have been working on this counter for the last 3 hours and it’s now 7PM and Grayson has to go back to his pub and relieve the staff there so they can go home.
“Thank you for your help Gray, will you be okay getting back?” I ask.
I’m extremely thankful Grayson was here today, because between arguing with me and taking phone call after phone call, Brooks barely got anything done and Grayson finished sanding that counter more or less by himself.
Grayson gives me an ‘are you serious?’ look, and I take that as a no to my question and I chuckle as I bid him goodnight.
I wave as he leaves out the front door of the shop, closing it behind him. Even though it was way too warm earlier, it’s a lot cooler now, especially with the breeze coming off the sea.
I shiver at the change in temperature, rubbing my arms to ward of the chill, and turn back to Brooks. He’s already looking at me from his place on the sheet covered floor. That was the one good idea he had today, to put an old sheet down to minimize as much of the mess as possible.
“So…” I breathe.
“So.” Brooks’ voice is deep and gravelly and he has that look in his eye again and for some reason it makes me nervous. Previously when he had that gleam in his eye, I matched the sentiment but Grayson was also there, and now we’re alone, I’m not so confident.
“I’m hungry.” My inner war is interrupted by Brooks’ words.
The gleam is gone, but a contemplative look has replaced it. I let out a breath, silently thankful that it means he’ll go home.
“I’m going to order pizza, what toppings do you want?”
I frown, not expecting him to want to stay and order pizza when he could just go home.
He pulls himself up from his seated position to his knees, leaning over to reach his phone from where he placed it on the bottom step of my staircase after one of his many calls. His eyes once again linger on the door at the top and I don’t want to try and decipher what that means.
I don’t move from where I’m standing, contemplating my choices. I can’t ask him to leave, we’ve reached a point where we’re not actually angry at each other, I don’t think. I think we’re just faking it at this point for the bit and I don’t want to go back to there being animosity between us. But eating dinner with him sounds like torture, in so many ways.
I want to, despite not getting along we… get along, but at the same time, subconsciously, my brain will be yelling at me to get out.
I take a deep breath and with my mind made up, I answer, “Pepperoni, please. ”
It only took the pizza 20 minutes to get here once Brooks had placed the order and in the meantime we tidied the place up a bit. And by we, I mean I tidied the place while Brooks took another phone call. He’s very secretive about it, leaving the room every time so that I can’t hear.
Not that I want to eavesdrop, but still, its suspicious.
I grab a sheet we have yet to ruin and spread it out in the middle of the room and set the pizzas down after paying the delivery boy. The floor is the only surface available apart from the counter and I’m sure as hell not going to risk getting grease marks on the freshly sanded surface.
I open both boxes and wait for Brooks to come out of the small kitchen out back. When I first saw the kitchen and realized that all the appliances were all still in there and in working order, I admit I did a few fist pumps by myself knowing that was one less thing to worry about.
He appears 5 minutes later, shocked to see me sitting with the pizzas in front of me.
“You should have come and got me when they got here, I was going to pay,” he says, pointing at the pies. He walks towards me, throwing his phone on the counter on the way past.
“Think of it as a thank you for helping. I know you didn’t sign up for it, and I promise this will be the last time your assistance is requested.”
As he goes to sit down, I notice him wince and readjust the way he bends to keep his leg straight. “Are you okay?”
He nods and sucks in a breath through clenched teeth. “Work injury, its inconvenient to say the least. Bending down to sand that thing has not helped it in the slightest.”
Well, now I feel terrible. “I’m so sorry, if I’d had known I wanted of let you help me out. ”
He waves it off. “My shoulder’s fucked too but I need to use them both to keep the muscles strong.”
He grabs a slice of pizza and demolishes near enough half of it in one bite.
“Regardless, that promise wasn’t for nothing. I asked Fred not to ask anyone else to help out on my behalf,” I say, grabbing my own slice.
“He didn’t ask me,” he replies around a mouthful of pizza, “I offered because Gray needed my truck and that fucker aint driving her ‘round.”
He’s on to his second slice now while I’ve only just finished my first bite.
“Well, thank you anyway, it was very nice of you to do so considering we’re not that fond of each other.”
“You don’t like me?” he asks with a frown, his head cocking to the side, reminding me so much of a lost puppy. He puts his slice down and finishes his mouthful, looking at me as if no ones ever said that to him before.
I shrug. “I just assumed from most our interactions we weren’t reaching the friends category anytime soon.”
He sighs, rubbing his hands on his dusty jeans, “I have a lot going on right now and however I came across, I don’t think it’s really about you.”
I huff out a laugh. “You don’t think?”
A small smile appears on his face and it makes my heart jump a little.
“I know it wasn’t about you. I think I just needed an outlet and you were just there. I’m sorry.”
I throw the crust of my pizza back into the box closest to me, rubbing my own hands on my dirty overalls. “That’s okay, I was the same when we first met. Can I ask what it was about? ”
He considers me before answering, “My sister, Lennon, is getting into trouble and I don’t know how to help her, especially while I’m away for work.”
I nod slowly, thinking about my response. That wasn’t what I was expecting him to say.
“Also these injuries fucking suck,” he adds with a laugh which carries barely any humor.
I give him a sympathetic smile, “I really am sorry,” and then I realize what he said, “Wait, Lennon! She works at the bookstore?”
Brooks raises a thick brow. “Yeah, you met her?”
He’s back to eating another slice now, half the pie gone already. For a second, I’m mesmerized by the way his throat moves when he swallows and the movement of his arm as he goes for another slice, the way his muscles move under his tanned skin.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
The way this man makes me feel is unpredictable and unprecedented and not entirely unwelcome.
Brooks clears his throat, and my gaze moves from his body to his face, noticing the smirk that starts appearing. He raises a brow, amused “You met Lennon?” he repeats.
I can feel my face and chest turning red at being caught staring.
No, but seriously, what the hell is wrong with me!?
I nod slowly, really wanting the floor to swallow me whole. “I bumped into her, she already knew who I was,” I mumble, picking up my discarded crust and pulling it apart into tiny pieces to give my hands something to do.
Something about this man just bypasses all defenses and I hate the reaction my body has to him. My mind is so conflicted and lost in thought that I don’t hear what he says next until he repeats my name. “Summer?”
“Sorry, what did you say?” I ask.
“I asked how she knew you?” He’s frowning now, “You okay?”
“Yeah, sorry,” I clear my throat, “Alex said it’s just because you helped me out when I first got here.” I shrug, trying to overcome my embarrassment at being caught looking at him, and trying to ignore the conflict in my head about how I shouldn’t be jumping into something like that right now.
As he eats more pizza and I continue picking at mine, we continue talking and he tells me more about himself.
He asks for a napkin which I don’t have down here so I get up to go grab some from upstairs. As I reach the bottom of the stairs I turn to ask Brooks if he want’s a drink while I’m up there, only to find him right behind me, making me jump.
In the same moment his hand comes up to grab the hand rail of the staircase but I flinch, moving to cover my face with my hand.
It’s an automatic response and it catches me, and Brooks, off guard., leaving him looking at me concerned.
I haven’t had that kind of reaction in a while, not since just after leaving my ex, and maybe it’s because of the situation, where it’s just him and I and he’d made me jump, caught me off guard and it just made me subconsciously react.
I feel my body getting warm in embarrassment and my eyes and the back of my throat start burning.
“Are you okay?” he asks. He takes a step closer to me and I, embarrassingly, take a step back only to trip on the step behind me, causing him to reach a hand out to prevent me from falling, bringing me in close to his body.
A tear falls, a betrayal in the worst way, and before I can wipe it away, Brooks notices.
“Hey, whats going on?” His concern opens the flood gates and I don’t even know why.
The more I look at his concerned expression, the more the tears seem to fall until the point I have to cover my face and try to calm down.
I feel arms come around me and gentle shushing and it makes me cry harder.
Maybe its the culmination of all my feelings finally coming to a head; the mixture of the embarrassment — of being caught looking at Brooks, of flinching away from him — the realization that I am apparently not completely recovered from my ex, and maybe the small amount of homesickness that has cropped up. Brooks’ attitude when he first got here didn’t help with the latter either, even though he apologized… sort of.