Page 42 of Hello Tease

That was enough to surprise me. “What do you mean?”

“For being a human lie detector, you’re shit at seeing when someone’s into you.” He tipped back his beer bottle, taking a drink. The cold of my own water bottle was seeping into my hands. I set it on the floor next to my foot.

“Tell me what you’re getting at, Hayes.”

He shook his head. “Let’s just say if you were a virgin, her eyes would have popped your cherry.”

I threw a pillow at him.

He chuckled, setting it behind him and leaning back again. “The point is, she’s into you.”

“If she was into me, she wouldn’t have turned me down,” I said. “And I don’t know how the fuck I’m going to live next door and see her dating other guys without losing my damn mind.” I got up, unable to sit still anymore, and paced his living room in front of his giant TV.

Hayes leaned forward, setting his beer on the coffee table. “Knox, you see everything as black and white. Just because she’s not ready yet for a relationship doesn’t mean that she never will be. You gotta give her time. She’s fresh out of a divorce, and from what I’ve heard, it was not pretty. He cheated on her, while she was on bedrest. Lied about it. And then she found out about it when his mistress stopped by the house when she was supposed to meet him at a hotel.”

My jaw dropped, and I sat back onto the couch, unable to stand. “How did you know that?”

Hayes shook his head. “How does anyonenotknow something in this damn town. I overheard a couple of my guys talking about it. Sure, it’s a rumor, but if it’s even halfway true, she’s been through it.”

I was so stunned I couldn’t speak. I just pictured Larkin, the woman I was so quickly falling for, going through that. It made me want to punch her ex and then hold her and make sure nothing bad ever happened to her again.

Hayes said, “People don’t take down their walls because someone is nice. Plenty of shitty people look nice at first. If she had a wall a mile high, I wouldn’t blame her. The only way to earn the trust of someone who’s been burned is to show them who you are, and each action you make will take down that wall, brick by brick.”

His words washed over me, and I stared at my brother, shocked. He definitely didn’t act like the philosophical one of us. “Where did you come from?” I asked.

He smirked. “Spend enough time with women and you learn a thing or two, whether you want to or not.”

I rolled my eyes at him again. “Thanks, Hayes. I needed this.”

“Of course. Now get out.”

“What?”

He stood up. “Mindy might still be awake for round two.”

That was so Hayes. I gave him a half hug, and then went outside, by some miracle, feeling better than I had when I walked in.

I knew what I was going to do.

I was going to prove myself to Larkin, brick by brick.

22

LARKIN

After overthinkingand second-guessing myself for hours, I fell asleep, monitor on my nightstand, blankets pulled tightly around me. But it wasn’t Jackson’s crying that woke me this morning. It was the sound of water running in the kitchen.

My eyes widened and I jumped out of bed, worried Emily had wandered to the kitchen, trying to cook or make one of her “potions” without me.

But when I rushed in, I found Knox in a spotless kitchen, Jackson on one hip, a dish being rinsed in his other hand.

In fact, every room I could see in this tiny house looked tidier than it had since I’d moved in. Leftover moving boxes were gone, blankets in the living room were carefully thrown over my couch or folded in a basket. Even the floor was clear of crumbs under my bare feet.

I stared in awe at Knox and then caught the time on my microwave. It was past nine, the latest I’d slept inmonths.

“Knox... what... is going on?”

Jackson reached for me, and I took him in my arms, still in shock. Knox handed me a mug full of coffee and said, “I know you said the last thing you needed was more messes to take care of. So I thought I would give you the first thing you needed. A fresh slate.”

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