Page 44 of Rough and Rugged

Lloyd: None of my business, one way or another.

Nowhe was going to act like he was minding his own business?

Me: Damn right. Plan to work extra tomorrow to make up for the time I’ll have to waste fixing Gemma’s car in the morning.

Lloyd: Not sure how that’s different than today. Or yesterday. Or the day before.

He had a point. We were working ourselves into the ground. I shouldn’t have accepted Millie, even though we had room, but I couldn’t turn her away. Maybe I needed to give some more thought to hiring someone. It would mean accepting some – not all – of the money from Gemma, but it would give Lloyd a break now and then and give me a jump on training someone for when he eventually hung it up.

Me: Go to bed, old man. You need all the beauty sleep you can get.

Lloyd: Nah, this ugly mug gets me all the ladies I need. Go talk to yours.

Not mine, I almost typed back.Not really.

Not that I needed – or wanted – Lloyd’s opinion on that. Which I was certain to get if I opened that door.

Me: See you tomorrow.

I started toward the door, retraced my steps to grab some things for Gemma to change into, then headed back out to the front room to spend the first evening in recent memory alone with my wife.

Chapter Six

Gemma

I’dmakeanabsolutefortune off that darn “men in gray sweatpants” calendar if Caleb was on the cover.

The thought popped unbidden into my head as Caleb reappeared from wherever he’d gone. His just slightly too long hair had dried with a hint of curl and his t-shirt and sweatpants fit him to perfection. With his bare feet and his beard and something that was simply Caleb, he was so sexy I nearly stared. I caught myself just in time, tearing my eyes away from him to glance down at the notebook in front of me, before looking back up at him. I felt a telltale heat in my cheeks and prayed he didn’t notice.

From the look he gave me, I wondered if he did.

“Whatcha working on?”

What was I… I shook myself out of my Caleb-induced haze and glanced back down at my notebook.

“Oh… um, that thing we talked about earlier.”

Caleb’s jaw tightened as he stopped across the table from me.

“That calendar? The mountain man thing? Aren’t those guys usually half naked? I’m not sure about my wife photographing other half naked men.”

I straightened, surprised by the heat in Caleb’s words.

“No one ever said they’d be half naked, although that’s a great suggestion.” Caleb clearly did not see the intended humor in my statement. “Besides, if my husband was on the cover...”

My heart thumped a little as I said the word “husband.” I’d rarely called Caleb that, just as I’d rarely heard him call me his wife. Even though I was teasing him, it felt intimate somehow.

Caleb scoffed at that as he shook his head.

“It would be a failure for sure.”

I leaned back in my chair, shaking my head at him in return.

“The majority of women over the age of 18 in this area would completely disagree.”

“They also all think I’m the village idiot now, so…”

My heart grabbed at his words – so many people underestimated him since his injury – but I kept my response light.

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