Chapter 5
Chapter Five
GYPSY
Ibrushed the hair back from Holly’s forehead, my stomach pitching as I took in the rosiness in her cheeks and her glassy eyes. “How you feeling, doodlebug?”
I’d been in the middle of my shift at Fresh Foods when the school called to tell me Holly had come down with a fever and I needed to come get her.
Unfortunately, I’d already used up all my sick days when each of the kids was hit with the flu during the winter, so I was out the rest of the money I’d pull in from that shift.
My manager might’ve have been a clueless kid, but at least he was nice enough to let me off work without so much as batting an eye.
Holly’s bottom lip poked out in a pout. “Yucky,” she answered, breaking my heart.
“I know, honey, and I’m sorry. I’m gonna try and make you feel better, okay?”
She squeezed the stuffed teddy bear I gave her for her second birthday tighter.
That bear had seen a lot over the years—so much, in fact, that I’d had to reattach multiple limbs, and none of the stuffing inside of it was original.
It was missing an eye that I hadn’t been able to sew back on because, unbeknownst to me, Holly had swallowed it, and it was never seen again.
It was matted with stains that no amount of washing could get rid of, but she loved that damn thing and wouldn’t go anywhere without it.
“Okay,” she whimpered pitifully, and I climbed from her bed to go in search of some children’s Tylenol to hopefully bring down her fever.
I dosed her with medicine and tucked her tight into her bed so she could sleep, hoping and praying she’d be better when she woke up.
I always stressed when one of the kids got sick.
Mostly because I hated seeing them in pain, but also because it meant time off work, which meant lost wages, which meant they had to do without even more than they already did.
With unexpected free time on my hands—a rarity in my life—I decided to get a little house work done while occasionally ducking in to check on Holly.
I was in the middle of hand washing the breakfast dishes stacked in the sink since our dishwasher broke months ago when a knock sounded on the front door.
Figuring it was Odette bringing Raleigh back, I called out, “Come on in, honey. My hands are covered in dish soap.”
The door opened, but the clomp of footsteps was far too heavy to be Odette’s. That telltale prickling started at the base of my neck and moved across my scalp, the pins-and-needles sensation causing goose bumps to spread across my skin.
“Well, that’s a much warmer greeting than I got from you the other night.”
I shot around so fast that I slung soapy water across the kitchen. “Marco,” I squeaked in astonishment.
“Gypsy,” he returned with a crooked grin and a wicked glint in his eyes.
“What, uh….” I couldn’t think straight. It was as if the space shrank when he was standing inside of it.
Our house had a lot of problems—dingy, cheap countertops, threadbare carpets with questionable soft spots beneath—but the kids and I did everything we could to make it feel comfortable.
The furniture might not have been nice or new, but at least it was comfortable.
As crappy as the place was, I wanted it to feel like home for all of us.
It was important to me that our home reflected our personality; that was why the walls were painted purple instead of a nice, neutral color and it looked like a rainbow vomited on the gazillion throw pillows and blankets scattered about.
And at that very moment, with Marco standing inside my front door, I was seeing my home through his eyes. And as much as I hated it, I couldn’t stop wondering what he thought of it.
“You’re here. Why… how… why?”
He ducked his head in an attempt to hide his amusement, taking a few seconds to school his features before looking back up at me.
“Well, babe, the how of it is easy. I just got in my car and drove here. And the why is because you were complaining about your water heater, so I’m here to take a look at it.
” My mouth fell open in shock. “Oh, and your brakes.”
A nice, subtle warmth started spreading through my chest. Then the confrontation between the two of us from a few days ago popped into my head, and that warmth shriveled up like an old lemon.
“I didn’t ask for your help,” I replied bitterly, turning back toward the sink.
“Gypsy.” The tone in that one word made me stop and forced my attention back to him. Our eyes locked, and I felt a zing shoot through my body so strong it winded me. “You might not have asked, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna help anyway.”
“Fine. Then what if I said I don’t want your help, huh?”
He shrugged lazily, closing even more of the distance between us and hitting me with a cocky smirk. “Same outcome.”
“You’re an insufferable ass,” I clipped, even though the smell of his cologne had penetrated my senses and was making my head fuzzy.
“Well, being the insufferable ass that I am,” he started, his voice low and bewitching, “I’m going to help you.
” He lifted his hand, toying with a strand of my hair before tucking it behind my ear.
His fingers traced along my jawline and down my neck, sending a ripple of want straight to my core. “Whether you like it or not.”
I pasted on a mask of indifference in spite of the eruption of butterflies deep in my belly. “You know, you might have been swaying me—and that’s a really big might—but then you had to go and ruin it by being a bossy, arrogant jerk.”
A voice in my head screamed, Danger! at the intensity in his eyes, and gut instinct told me that my mouth had just gotten me in big trouble.
“You wanna think I’m a jerk, I’m okay with that. But I held a beautiful woman in my arms the other night while she lost it because she has too much on her plate. If I can help you, I’m going to.”
God, I didn’t want that to have the impact on me that it did. “Why—” I had to clear the lump suddenly forming in my throat. “Why do you care?”
Marco’s heat soaked into my skin as he placed his palms on the counter on either side of me, leaning in so close that he was all I could see. “Because the attraction you’re feeling right now isn’t one-sided.” I sucked in a gasp so hard my chest expanded. “Not even close, girasol.”
I could have sworn he was about to kiss me, and in that moment I really, really wanted it. Then Holly’s tiny voice said, “Gypsy?” and the bubble around us cracked and splintered, crashing around my feet in a million tiny pieces.
Sidestepping Marco, I put some much-needed distance between us. It was impossible to think straight when he was so damn close.
Hurrying over to Holly, I crouched down and brushed her damp, sweat-matted hair from her forehead. “Hey, doodlebug. You okay?”
“I’m thirsty.”
The flush had faded from her cheeks, and her skin was cool and clammy now that her fever broke. But that didn’t mean she was totally out of the woods yet. “Okay, honey. Let’s get you some water.”
I stood, took her hand, and turned toward the kitchen only to meet resistance when she tugged me back.
“Holly?”
She tipped her little chin in Marco’s direction, her big, honey-colored eyes wide with curiosity. “Who’s that?”
“Oh, uh….” My attention ping-ponged back and forth between the two of them. “This is my friend, Marco. Marco, this is my little sister. Holly.”
“What’s a gear asshole?”
At her question, my eyes bugged out, and Marco let out a loud snort. “What?”
“That’s what he called you,” she said. She shot Marco a steely glare that I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at. “You called her bad word. That’s not nice.”
“Oh, no! Sweetie, he didn’t call me a bad word,” I hurried to explain. “It was just—”
“Girasol, sweetheart,” Marco answered for me, moving close to my baby sister and lowering to her height. “It means ‘sunflower’ in Spanish. It’s a compliment.”
Holly’s head tipped to the side in adorable confusion. “Why do you call her that?”
“Because of all that gorgeous blonde hair and those pretty eyes. She reminds me of a sunflower, and don’t you think sunflowers are beautiful?” His answer made white-hot sparks of lust shoot through me.
She nodded, her lips parted and her eyes wide like she was in awe. “Yuh-huh.”
“Well, I think they’re beautiful too. Just like your big sister.” He tapped the tip of her nose with his finger. “And you.”
Oh my god.
I couldn’t do this. My world felt like it was spinning out of control. My belly dipped and rolled like I was mid-drop on a roller coaster.
“Come on. Let’s get you that water and get you back to bed. You need to be resting. Marco, the water heater is tucked back in my closet, just through there.” I pointed to my bedroom at the end of the hall.
Those hazel eyes were so dark with lust they glued my feet to the floor. “All right, babe.” He reached up and caressed my chin. “You need me, you know where to find me.” Then he disappeared down the hall and into my bedroom.
Shaking off the jittery, flustered mess Marco reduced me to, I looked down to Holly with an overly bright smile and tugged on her hand again. “Come on, doodlebug. Let’s get you taken care of.”
After getting Holly her drink and getting her back to bed, I walked out into the hallway, pausing to take a bracing breath and trying to drum up my courage to head into my bedroom where Marco currently was.
I moved forward like my feet were mired down in thick mud. Stopping just outside the threshold to my closet, I looked down at Marco as he crouched in front of my shitty water heater. “How’s it looking?”
He slowly rose to his full height, the muscles in his back flexing and stretching his tee as he turned to meet my eye. I was quickly starting to realize there wasn’t anything this man did that wasn’t sexy. Even him standing up made me swoon. I was so screwed.
“Turned out to be an issue with the pilot light igniter. It was an easy fix.”