Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“Baby,” my mother said when I went to reach for my handle, making my head snap up to her.
“That right there is a good man.” That was so unexpected; I felt the words make me jerk backward like she had slapped me with them.
“I know it is hard for you to believe they exist, honey. And I know I am very much at fault for that.”
That wasn’t even the least bit fair for her to take that on. “Mom, that’s…”
Her hand raised, palm out. “I don’t mean I created trust issues for you, Kenz.
But maybe in teaching you to be so strong, so self-sufficient, I maybe neglected to tell you that a man, a good man, can be very much worth your time, worth letting down your guards, worth making some time for.
So since I haven’t shown that to you, I am telling you that that fine-looking man with the giant arms and the kind eyes, he’s good and he is worth your time. ”
“How do you even know…” I started, shaking my head at the way she just seemed to have some kind of mom radar at times.
“Please,” she snorted, shaking her head. “If I were twenty years younger…”
“And on that note,” I said, giving her my first smile in a week. “Thanks, Ma. For forcing me to do this. I know you’re right.”
“I always am,” she agreed as I let myself out. “Have a good day. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
With that, she drove off.
And I had to turn and face Tig.
He had been looking down at his phone when we pulled up, but when I turned, his focus was on mine.
And it was intense. How had I never noticed how he seemed to take in every bit of me at once before?
Maybe because the times we were near each other were usually full of more important things to focus on.
But I found myself frozen in the spot for a long minute before I forced my legs forward.
He straightened, pushing off the wall and slipping his phone away.
“When the fuck was the last time you ate anything?”
Startled, I jerked back a little.
Then, it came back.
Me.
I came back.
It was that fast.
“Well, good morning to you too, Tig,” I said, sticking the key in the lock and going inside, sucking in a deep breath, internally freaking out about all the little things I forgot to consider before. Like caution tape. Like blood stains. Like fingerprint dust.
But when I flicked the light on, there was nothing.
Actually, there was the distinct smell of bleach and disinfectant that didn’t belong. Cass and I had decided that we would sacrifice the luxury of a cleaning crew, doing the cleaning ourselves, because it afforded us the extra cash to open Luxe in a better part of town.
So the clean smell was out of place since Cass was missing and I hadn’t been in.
“After the cops released the scene, I cleaned up,” Tig offered an explanation without me having to ask. “Didn’t want you walking into that when you came back.”
That was too good.
A part of me wanted to be mad at him. I wasn’t a clingy woman, but I was at least mildly insulted that he did the run and hide thing after one kiss, one dry-humping session. That was chickenshit. And it was insulting. It was also unprofessional since I was paying him to be around.
So, him being sweet and thinking of something like that? Yeah, it made it impossible to hold onto the anger.
“Thanks,” I offered, moving in, putting my purse on the desk and moving around to the back of the store, going through the motions of opening.
As the minutes passed, I was more and more aware of how much business I had lost by wallowing, by hiding away. It was going to be a tight month. Generally, Luxe was always in the black. There hadn’t been a ‘just broke-even’ month since I first opened.
And Cassie, well, she would have been pissed at me for that.
We put everything into the store.
It was a slap in her face to let it fall by the wayside. It wasn’t like I had been out personally tracking down leads, actively trying to find her. I didn’t have those skills. No, I had just been lazy and completely submerged in misery.
It wasn’t a good enough reason.
“Kenz,” Tig said, his voice seeming to hold some sort of warning for reasons I couldn’t say.
“What?” I asked, coming out of the back, finding him standing by the desk, brow raised.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I had half a bagel for breakfast.”
“And before that?”
“If you must know, not much was staying down,” I informed him, going out front and flipping the open sign on the door.
“Kenz…”
His voice was sad, a sound that seemed out of place coming from such a big, intimidating-looking man.
It seemed to pierce somewhere inside, making the place I had locked up my resentment and disappointment toward him away crack, allowing the vulnerability to leak out.
Which explained my next comment.
“Where have you been, Tig?”
The silence after I spoke was heavy and long enough to make me turn, lifting my chin a little like my mother always did. Haughty, one of my exes called it. Maybe it was, but I would always prefer looking confident than unsure of myself.
His gaze was focused on me, completely unreadable.
“I needed to focus, honey. I couldn’t… I couldn’t come to you without fucking anything to bring to you.”
Because he thought Cassie was a wedge between us.
“Tig, I know I came to you guys with this, but this…” I waved a hand out, not quite wanting to say it out loud, “this isn’t on you.”
“I get that, Kenz, but I also know that I can’t try to start something here with that between us.”
Start something.
I didn’t imagine that.
He said that.
So he hadn’t stayed away because he was being a pansy about it, regretting it but not having the balls to tell me.
He was staying away because he was worried I would think less of him because he couldn’t find my missing best friend.
Never mind the fact that the entire NBPD couldn’t find her or who took her or Breaker’s woman or anyone else they might have outsourced to.
He was taking the burden onto his own shoulders.
Sweet? Sure.
Misguided? Absolutely.
It hadn’t even crossed my mind to think less of him because he wasn’t some kind of superhero. He was only a man. He could only do so much.
But it truly said something that he saw it that way, that he wanted to try to ‘make it right’ before starting something.
That wasn’t something I was sure I had ever come across before.
It was refreshingly accountable, mature, and strong.
Weak men didn’t take on burdens unless they had to. Strong men, well, apparently they did.
There was no mistaking that for what it was, for what my mother had called it just a few minutes before—good.
Maybe good was enough of a reason to step out of my comfort zone, to give him a chance.
And seeing as I had never really been a ‘wait on a man’ kind of woman, I moved across the floor toward him, letting my hip brush his as I moved behind the desk and put my purse underneath, waiting for him to turn, and then cut to the chase myself.
“What are you doing today?”
His brows drew together before he waved an arm around. “Keeping an eye on you.”
Perfect.
I felt my lips curve slightly.
“Okay. Then how about you keep an eye on me across the table at Famiglia tonight?”
Realization was a slow-climbing thing on his face.
And when it moved from his eyes to his lips, they twitched slightly.
“Are you asking me out?”
“Are you surprised? Do I seem like someone who can’t take what she wants?”
To that, the smile spread, his giant hand raising and rubbing his jaw a bit sheepishly, his mind going exactly where I thought it would—to me grinding on him the week before.
“No, honey, I don’t think that is a problem you are afflicted with.”
“So are you going to take me out?”
“You gonna make me take you home and sit around for an hour while you get all dolled up?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely. And probably more like an hour and a half. Reese can lend you a book.”
To that, he chuckled. It was a low, deep, rolling sound that did all kinds of wild things to my lady bits.
“I got one request then.” At my brow raise, he smiled again, all white teeth and charm, making my belly do a completely uncharacteristic flip-flop. “Some of that perfume of yours.”
To that, I laughed, finding it easier than I thought I would, given the circumstances. “As if I would leave home without it.”
—
It was just after five when I decided to call it a day, having to field questions from customers who knew Cass from the shop and wanted updates and to give their condolences—all things that slowly but surely wore on my nerves and heart.
Tig and I had shared sporadic conversation during the day, between my phone calls and customer-helping.
After about the third woman eye-fucked Tig, I found myself swelling with a feeling that, while not uncommon for me, was strange given the fact that I barely knew Tig. I had no claim to him. But there it was, the swirling sensation in my belly that made me snippy and angry.
Jealousy.
I didn’t want them eye-fucking him because I had somehow claimed him as mine.
Completely irrational? Sure.
But true nonetheless.
So I was definitely in the mood to get things moving when I locked up and followed Tig to his SUV, where he helped me in because he was one of those guys, got in, and drove to my apartment.
He planted himself on the sofa, occupying himself with his phone while urging me, “Go HAM, honey. I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait.”
And with expectations like that, well, I had a lot of work to do. Especially given that I had foregone makeup that morning and hadn’t bothered with other basic essentials—like eyebrow grooming or shaving—in a week.
I got all that squared away, beat my mug into a date look, meaning heavy on the smolder and light on the lipstick, so it didn’t insinuate I didn’t want to be kissed in case he smeared it.
I was buried deep in my closet when Reese came in without knocking, as she almost always did, a mug between her hands as she moved to my bed.
“So he’s not your type, huh?”