Page 72 of I'm Your Guy
“Yeah.”
“When they join glass into a corner like that, it’s called a butt glaze.”
His laugh is so loud that it echoes off the window. “You’re kidding me.”
“God’s honest truth.”
His abs shake as he laughs. “Pass me the pencil? And tell me another one.”
I hand over the pencil so he can mark his end. “For starters, the place where a new building goes up is called the erection site.”
He snickers.
“First they raise the studs.” I wiggle my eyebrows. “And then windows can be double hung, or triple hung…”
He snorts.
“Then there are pipe penetrations. And houses always get either rigid insulation or blown insulation.”
“Wow, Carter. I had no idea that interior design was so interesting.” He gives me a hot smile.
“Just doing my job, sir. Now pardon me while I employ my drill to screw in these brackets.”
He just shakes his head.
* * *
No, seriously, I’m ready to drill. It takes me about half an hour to screw all the brackets onto the walls. And then I start stringing curtains onto the poles and hanging them up all over the house.
Except, of course, for the upstairs bedroom. I’ve been avoiding it because Tommaso is upstairs packing for another trip out of town.
“Hey, Jersey?” I call from the bottom of the stairs. “Do you mind if I hang two curtains upstairs before it gets dark? It’ll just take a couple minutes.”
“Come on up,” he calls. “I’ll help you.”
I ascend the stairs. I only venture to the second floor when he’s not home, and I never linger. I respect his personal space. But the moment I enter the room today, it seems to shrink, and we’re both doing our best to ignore the king-sized bed beside us.
The ladder isn’t necessary for this room. I choose a window and we stand side by side while I make my marks and screw the brackets into the wall. He’s close enough that I catch the clean, sandalwood scent of his shaving soap.
“Looks good,” he says, his voice gruff. “Thanks for this.”
We turn to face each other, and we’re standing too close together for it to feel casual. Or maybe it’s just never casual between us. An electric hum crackles through the air whenever I look at him. It’s real, and we’re trapped inside it.
Tom’s gaze is practically burning me up inside. My fingers itch to reach for him, but I don’t. He made a point to say that he considered me a friend. And I’m starting to realize this man might not have enough of those.
He blows out a breath. Then he sits down on the rug I chose and rests his back against the wall under the window. “Can I tell you a secret?”
Confused, I sink down and lean against the side of his bed. We’re still close—closer than two men usually sit. Unless they’re us. “Of course.”
He doesn’t quite meet my eyes. “It’s obvious that I’m attracted to men in general, and to you in particular. But I’d never acted on it before I met you.”
“Oh.”
Oh wow.
“That’s not actually the secret. That’s just the background information. And I wasn’t lying when I told you that meeting you…” His dark eyes search my face. “…sort of shook me up a little. But there’s a couple of other things going on in my life right now that have me coming unglued.”
“Like what?” I whisper.
