Chapter 20
“Someone call an ambulance!” one of the crew yelled near her ear, making Zoe wince and wish that she could crawl away, but the overpowering dizziness that she’d experienced just seconds before she’d passed out threatened to once again take over. She decided to take that as a sign not to move.
“I’m fine,” Zoe tried to reassure them, but it came out too muttered for anyone, including her, to understand. She really hoped they understood her because she didn’t want to go to the hospital over her own stupidity.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jared suddenly demanded.
Zoe risked opening her eyes to see if he looked as mad as he sounded and immediately regretted the move as everything spun faster.
“Zoe?” Jared asked, his tone softening as he came closer, she assumed. She wasn’t about to open her eyes to find out.
“Fine,” she said. After taking a deep breath, she repeated it, pleased that she sounded a little better.
“I think she fell on that patch of ice,” one of the men said and Zoe kept her mouth shut, not really in the mood to admit that she’d passed out, hoping that she could get through this without anyone finding out.
“Are you hurt anywhere?” Jared asked as he presumably checked her over.
She shook her head slightly. Hurt? No. Humiliated?
Beyond measure, but she wasn’t hurt. Well, she was freezing her ass off lying on the frozen ground like this.
As soon as she could manage it, she was going to get up, walk back to the office and hide under her desk for the rest of the day or until everyone forgot about this, whichever came first.
“Did someone call an ambulance?” Jared asked, fretting over her.
“Don’t. I’m fine,” Zoe said, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to sit up, knowing that if she didn’t, she’d find herself hauled out of here against her will, further adding to her humiliation.
She opened her eyes to find Jared kneeling next to her on the frozen ground, looking concerned and upset.
“Would you feel better if one of us drove you to the hospital?” he asked softly as he took off his much larger and thicker jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.
She pulled it tightly around herself as she nervously looked around the small group of concerned construction workers that stood around her.
“I’m really fine, guys. Embarrassed, but fine,” Zoe said, giving them a small reassuring smile, hoping it would be enough to convince everyone to walk away.
It wasn’t.
But thankfully, Jared took pity on her. With a long-drawn-out sigh that did not bode well for her, he gestured for them to leave. They did, but only after they made her promise one more time that she was okay.
“Are you okay to stand?” Jared asked.
Her head had stopped spinning for the moment, so she assumed that she was okay. She hoped, at least. Passing out hadn’t exactly been a fun experience.
“You look a little pale, Zoe,” Jared said, putting his arm around her and gently guiding her towards the office trailer.
“Oh,” Zoe said, worrying her bottom lip. She was tired, hungry, a little lightheaded, a bit weak, humiliated, and not really sure that she could show her face around the guys again, but other than that, she was okay. “I’m fine,” she said, giving him what she’d hoped was a reassuring smile.
He narrowed his eyes on her as if he didn’t quite believe her. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“I could drive you to your doctor,” Jared offered, opening the trailer door and gesturing for her to step inside. “Or I can take you to the hospital.”
“I’m really fine. Don’t worry about it,” Zoe said, feeling the first sign that perhaps everything wasn’t exactly okay. A few seconds later when she sat down, her suspicions were quickly confirmed and she did her best not to wince when her butt screamed in agony.
Her eyes shot to the clock. Thankfully, she only had a few more hours to kill before she went home for the weekend and this weekend, she was going to make damn sure that she got some rest. After nearly two months of their “arrangement” Trevor had to be bored with her.
Not that she wanted to end their arrangement.
No, what she wanted at this very moment was sleep, lots of it and a really large icepack for her bottom, and sleep wasn’t exactly something she got when Trevor was around. The man just could not seem to keep his hands off her, Zoe thought.
That didn’t change the fact that the man was killing her.
No matter how many times they’d agreed to take a step back and limit their time together, and those conversations always ended with her on her back, they couldn’t seem to keep their hands to themselves and they’d tried.
They really did, but it didn’t do them any good.
If they weren’t working, she wasn’t at the gym swimming, or he wasn’t watching a game with the guys, then they were having sex.
They had sex in every room, in every position and they couldn’t seem to stop.
As great as it was, she really needed some sleep.
She wasn’t sure that she could keep going at this rate. She-
“Zoe,” Jared said, sighing unhappily, “we need to talk.”
“You owe me sex.”
Trevor didn’t even bother looking up. He grabbed another nail and drove it into the floor as he did his best to ignore Hank’s bitching.
“Did you hear me?” Hank demanded. “Because of you, I didn’t get sex.”
“How exactly is it my fault that you didn’t get laid last night?” Trevor asked, giving up all hope that the man would simply walk away.
“Because you didn’t show up last night,” Hank snapped, sounding truly pissed. Not that Trevor could blame the man. If he had to go a night without sex, and he was pretty sure he’d die because there was no way that he could go twenty-four hours without touching Zoe.
“And you needed me for what exactly? Pointers?” Trevor asked, slamming another nail into the floor.
“Hardly,” Hank said, making a sound of disgust. “When you didn’t show up like you promised, Mandy left because she didn’t want to be a third wheel. Then, Cindy left because she didn’t like the idea of her sister going home alone. So, thanks to you, I went home alone last night.”
“Uh-huh,” Trevor said, gesturing for the man to move back so that he could do his damn job and get home, hopefully on time. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the man had hung back at the bar after the women left and tried to find a bar bunny to spend the night with.
“Look, Cindy is willing to give me another shot. So, I need you to come out with us tonight,” Hank said, still sounding put out and really starting to piss him off.
“Just take this Cindy woman out and forget about finding the sister a date,” Trevor said, wondering why the man was bothering him with this bullshit.
“Because the sisters are close. They don’t like dating unless they’re both dating,” Hank explained.
“Then find someone else to take her sister out. I’m fucking exhausted.
” Which, unfortunately, was true. He was so damn tired.
He had to force himself to focus and move his ass when he was at work.
When he was at home, he couldn’t seem to force himself to rest. If Zoe was around, he had to have her. It was as simple as that.
No matter how much they’d tried, and he’d admit that he hadn’t been trying very hard, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
Before Zoe, he used to think the best way a woman could wake him up was with a stack of homemade pancakes, bacon, toast, and the works.
Now, he looked forward to waking up to the smell of burnt coffee and Pop-Tarts that Zoe shoved at him as she demanded for him to hurry up or starve.
She usually gave him about sixty seconds before she attacked, forcing him to swallow the thick, hot coffee down in one gulp and devour the burnt pop tarts in one bite.
He still wasn’t sure how she was burning them since he’d checked the settings on the toaster a dozen times by now.
Zoe was, without a doubt, the best lover he’d ever had or probably ever would have.
A month ago, that thought scared the hell out of him, but now, he realized it was okay.
Zoe would be his last and best great fling before he found his perfect wife.
Not that he considered her anything more than his bed buddy, but he’d decided last night after the hallway incident that he’d keep their little arrangement until he found his wife.
It would be stupid not to. Zoe was available, great in bed, never got demanding, didn’t pout when he spent time with the guys and did her own thing so that she wasn’t constantly underfoot.
He was going to keep her for a while, he’d decided this morning after she woke him up at three in the morning and demanded that he do that thing that she loved with his tongue, which he happily obliged her with.
Granted, she was a sneaky little thing, Trevor thought with a chuckle.
She was so damn cute when she thought that she was pulling something over on him. Like not mentioning giving Toby away and thinking he’d just forgotten that the damn dog was still around. She still hadn’t realized that they’d both adopted the dog.
About six weeks ago, they’d gone from leaving their doors unlocked to propping them open at night, he added an extra deadbolt to the front door of course, so that Toby could come and go as he pleased.
While Zoe had all the sissy toys for the dog in her apartment, he had, in his opinion and really that’s all that mattered, all the man stuff.
Every now and then, he’d catch her sending the dog a mischievous little smile and knew she really thought that she’d gotten away with breaking one of his rules.
Since he’d decided to keep the dog, this little break in their agreement didn’t really count.
Of course, when their little arrangement was over, a.k.a.
when he decided he’d found his wife and Zoe moved out, he was keeping the dog.
He could just imagine how that was going to go over, but really, the dog needed a man in his life.
“What’s so funny?” Hank demanded.
“Nothing,” Trevor said, hoping the man would just go away and bother someone else.
“Look, I’ve offered to find someone else, but she wants to meet you.
I guess she met you through a friend last year and was hoping to see you again.
Can you please come out with us tonight?
” the man begged, which was really embarrassing.
“I’ll even pay. Please, Trevor, you don’t know how long I’ve waited to take this girl out. If you could just-”
“Fine,” Trevor snapped, anything to get the man to shut the hell up. Plus, a free meal was a free meal. No Bradford in his right goddamn mind would pass on a free meal.
“Thanks, man. You’re a lifesaver,” Hank said, further embarrassing himself.
“Uh-huh,” Trevor said absently as he returned his focus back to getting the floor down before the weekend.
“Hey, did they call an ambulance?” someone yelled. Since it had nothing to do with him, he ignored it.
“No, she went back to the office with Jared,” Hank said as he finally got his ass back in gear and returned to work.
Now that got his attention. “What are you talking about?” Trevor asked even as he continued to nail down the floorboards.
“That tenant of yours,” Hank said, shrugging. “About an hour ago, she fell outside. Mark said it looked like she slipped on some ice, but I thought it kind of looked like she’d passed out.”
He looked up to glare at the man. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that she was hurt?” Trevor demanded, grabbing another nail and driving it into the floor with too much force.
Hank frowned. “Why would I? She was fine and Jared’s looking after her.”
Trevor opened his mouth to tell him that he should have been told, but just barely stopped himself.
As far as the guys were concerned, Zoe was just his neighbor and part-time employee, which is exactly how he wanted it.
Whenever he saw Zoe at work, he gave her a barely-there nod and that was it.
He never acknowledged her in any other way.
When he went into the office, he kept it professional and Zoe did the same.
They hardly went out in public together and if they did, they acted like acquaintances and nothing more.
At first, he’d been a little nervous that Zoe wouldn’t be able to go through with it.
He’d been pleasantly surprised when he realized that she was more than capable of keeping their personal business private.
She never hounded him like his old girlfriends had, never texted him all fucking day, which he truly appreciated, and only called to ask him what he’d forgotten to add to her shopping lists.
“I don’t think she was fine,” John added as he carried in two-by-fours and joined the conversation. “It looked like she passed out. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but she just left the office in tears.”
“She was crying?” Trevor forced himself to ask as he fought back the urge to drop everything and run after her since he had a pretty good idea what one of the problems was, but he forced himself to remain on his knees and grab another board and another nail.
“Yeah. As soon as she was able to get that piece of shit car of hers going, she was out of here,” John said, stacking a pile of wood near him.
“I see,” Trevor murmured, forcing himself to stay right where he was when everything in him screamed to go after her.
“I hope she’s alright,” Rick, an all-around decent guy and someone he suspected had a crush on Zoe, said.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Trevor forced out, not wanting to encourage the guy, especially before he was done with Zoe.