Page 34 of Major Love

But the second that I saw it I instantly called her, shoulders hunched as I sat on the back step, so fucking ready to hear her voice.

And when she didn’t pick up, I thought that it was just a bad cell connection. But when I tried her again in the evening and there was still no response?

That’s when I took it asshe’s otherwise engaged.

I drop the yard equipment beside the doorway and try to ignore the way that my heart is thundering, draining the last of my morning coffee and trudging back toward the kitchen.

I pour out the remains from Casey’s coffee machine and gulp down the whole mug. Then I set it hard on the countertop, my eyes sliding over to my phone as I brace my palms on the wood.

Fuck it.

I grab the phone in one hand and instantly swipe up to reread Sunday’s message.

SUNDAY:Hey, just letting you know that I’ll be out of your way this morning if you were thinking of coming to Casey’s for the yard thing. Hopefully see you around soon! Sunday x

I swipe my tongue over my bottom lip, my left hand in a death-grip around the counter-top, as I try not to focus on the fact that she said she’d ‘hopefully’ see me soon.

Or the little damn kiss at the end of her message.

My thumb hovers over the keypad for about thirty seconds straight before I growl and shut the whole thing off, stuffing it in the side pocket of my cargo pants.

And then a thought infiltrates my mind before I have the sense to stop it.

Was it Beckett?I think to myself.Did he take her out for the night?

I rub a palm down my jaw.

Did they do something more?

I torture myself with the thought for fifteen long seconds before finally shaking it off and swiping my wrist against my forehead.

No way,I think to myself.She’s way too good for him.

I wash up the mug and grab my shit from the back of the cabin, eyes staring blankly at the front door so that I don’t glance at the guest bedroom that Sunday is staying in.

The bedroom whose door has been ajar all weekend, only the hint of a crumpled bedsheet visible from the hallway.

A crumpled bedsheet and that soft robe I caught her wearing the last time that we saw each other.

I mean, there’s no denying that she looked fucking beautiful when I saw her that morning…

Dangerous territory, man.

Especially when she might have just spent the night with your employee.

I shake my head, clear my throat, and haul open the front door.

And then I release a sharp inhale as scalding liquid shoots up my sternum.

I drop every piece of equipment that’s clenched in my fist, tugging the soaked fabric of my shirt from where it’s now clinging to my swollen pecs.

“Fuck,” I exclaim, grimacing when the liquid burns my thumb.

“Oh my God!” Sunday gasps breathlessly. “I am so, so sorry!”

At the sound of her husky voice my gaze flashes down to meet hers, and I search her beautiful eyes for a second before refocusing on my shirt.

“It’s nothing,” I murmur, “you didn’t know that I was about to open the door.”

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