Page 28 of Trustfall

“I see.” He smirks.

“So, yeah. See you later.” I push him the rest of the way out of my bedroom door and shut it in his face. It’s a little harsh, but I have never been late in my three years working at EMH, and I’m not about to start because I’m too busy drooling over my hot neighbor. The hot neighbor whocarriedme into bed when I fell asleep in the car. I’m about to start undressing when I notice his boots are still on the floor. I open the door to find Luke standing in the same place, that subtle smirk still fixed on his face. I hand him his boots.

“Thanks,” he says, dropping them on the floor.

I look up at him, about to thank him, but my gaze gets stuck. His hair is still a mess from sleep, and he has a five o'clock shadow that somehow makes his stupidly handsome face even hotter. The slight purple rings under his eyes suggest he didn't get much sleep last night. Despite looking rough around the edges, he's still hot as hell. I snap back to reality, realizing I've been checking him out for way too long instead of speaking.

“Thank you for taking care of me,” I finally say, hoping he didn't catch me staring, but knowing he most certainly did.

“Anytime, Little Wells,” he replies with a wink, then slips on his boots and takes off.

My phone buzzes as I grab it to shove into my bag, but I don’t check it. It’s probably Allie hounding me about what happened last night or Nate reminding me not to steal from work.

As I take the fastest shower known to man, my mind is stuck on two things: how the fuck did I wake up wrapped around Luke Collins? And why did it feel so right?

11

EMORY

It’sone of those chaotic days at work again. Emberfield Memorial is a small-ish community hospital, so we don't usually see as many severe cases as the big city hospitals, but today is an exception. We've had ten severe flu cases from a local nursing home outbreak, a hit-and-run, and an explosion at a nearby chemical plant. The number of patients with third-degree burns has been overwhelming, so we've had to bring in a mobile burn unit from another hospital to help manage the load.

By the time my shift is almost over, especially on a day like today, I usually feel relieved. I love my job, and I can't imagine doing anything else, but there's something special about changing into fresh scrubs at the end of a shift, knowing I've got a cozy night ahead of me at home with the couch, blanket, and a mindless TV show. Today, though, as the clock ticks closer to six, I feel more nervous than relieved. It all started when I finally checked my phone, only to see another text from Jaxon with a new number.

Unknown: I really need to see you, Princess. Give me five minutes.

I deleted it and blocked it again, but it put things in perspective. If I’m strong enough to ignore Jaxon, maybe I’m strong enough to pursue Luke.

It's been three days since I woke up wrapped in a warm blanket of soft skin and muscles. I crave him—there's no other way to put it. We haven't spoken much since that night, just a few flirty texts. We've been like two ships passing in the night. He took on a second job bartending in the evenings on top of his construction work. Since I start my day early, we keep missing each other. But when we chatted this morning, he mentioned he had the night off tonight. That’s when I decided to put on my big girl panties and ask Luke to take the next step.

We haven’t done anything besides kiss that one time and sleep in the same bed, also once, but I want more. For the first time in years, I want to have sex with a man, and that scares the shit out of me. Sure, I’ve been attracted to men since my last relationship. But not once, not one single time since Jaxon, have I felt like I could be sexually intimate with another person. I wish I could be more like Allie. I wish sex wasn’t so tied to emotions for me. But it is. Or was.

When I woke up next to Luke, something shifted inside me. I felt ready to take things further. Maybe it wouldn't be a disaster. Maybe I could do just sex. No strings. No stupid emotions.You’ve had feelings for Luke since you were twelve.The voice in my head is loud, but I push it aside. No—nope. I am going to talk to Luke. Screw my brother. Screw my fear of intimacy. Screw my trauma.

It only tookthe eight-minute ride home for me to talk myself out of propositioning Luke. Morning me must have been crazy to think we'd actually knock on some stranger's door and ask for casual sex. Now, the idea seems ridiculous, and I start to chuckle as I pull into my driveway. At least I'm laughing at myself, instead of Luke laughing at me as he politely shuts the door in my face. I'm still giggling as I turn off the car and get out, but my laughter stops when I see Allie sitting on the front steps, her head in her lap. As I get closer, she lifts her head, and I see the red splotches around her eyes. She looks defeated. I've never seen her like this before. Usually, she's inside cooking dinner or scrolling through her phone, waiting for me to get home. When she looks up, her face is a mess. She's been off for a few days. She didn't even give me a hard time about Luke being in my bed, which isn't like her. I think something is going on with her mom, but she doesn't seem to want to talk about it. I know better than to push Allie to do something she doesn't want to do.

“Hi,” she sighs.

“What happened?”

“Oh, you mean besides my life slowly crumbling into the depths of despair?”

“Yeah, besides that.” I sit beside her on the step.

“There was a leak in the kitchen from under the sink. I was working and didn’t even notice it until there was an inch of water on the floor. The plumber came and fixed the leak, but I called like four water damage companies, and no one can come out until tomorrow. I mopped up everything as best as I could, but the floors are still damp. They need to be professionally dried out.”

“Shit, Allie. I'm sorry you had to handle that by yourself,” I say, feeling guilty. Since Allie works from home, it's usually up to her to sort things out when something goes wrong. She never even calls or texts me about household issues because she knows how chaotic work can get for me.

“Honestly, this is not the worst thing I have going on right now, but I don’t want our floors to get damaged. If the water sits there too long, we will probably have to replace them.”

I want to get into what else she has going on that is worse than our kitchen flooding, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned at work, it’s that triaging is vital. I rack my brain for a way to fix our most pressing issue. Then, I glance at the truck sitting in Luke’s driveway, and it comes to me.Just thought you should have my number too. You know, in case you have a construction emergency.This definitely qualifies as a construction emergency. Or at least construction-adjacent.

“I might have an idea,” I say as I stand up. I march over to Luke’s door, and despite telling myself I wasn’t going to do this, I knock. There’s the sound of some shuffling, and then he opens the door.

“Hey,” he greets me, and it’s so effortless.

“Hi.” I’m both surprised and horrified by how low and raspy my voice sounds. I clear my throat. “Any chance that construction emergency offer still stands?”

“Of course. What’s up?”

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