Page 32 of Here & There

Maybe because, unlike him, they mostly don’t really see me.

Now, Mac’s rough fingers brush against an exposed strip of my skin as he rights me, and I’m shocked at the skittering of heat that dances across me from his touch.

Okay, Mac is hot. Very hot. And the way he lost it on those guys? I quite enjoyed seeing him turn into a caveman like that. My feminism flew right out the window. But this heat I’m feeling with his hands on me? With the way I feel like he could pick me up like I was any other girl? I need to squash it. Fast. Mac’s a nice guy. That’s all. A really out-of-the-way nice guy. But I see how he’s like that with everyone, despite his gruffness.

And I’m going to be working with him.

And apparently living with him too, at least for the next week.

He’s standing so close to me I feel my knees brush against his shins. But his eyes are locked on mine.

“Long way down.” His voice is so low it thrums through me like I’m a stringed instrument he’s playing. My pulse skips upward, my breathing suddenly shallow.

It’s then I realize his hands are still wrapped around my waist, radiating heat through me. When his thumb gives an absent stroke against that little strip of bare skin, I suck in a breath.

Mac immediately steps back, removing his hands.

What did he say? It’s a long way down?

It takes me a minute to realize he’s talking about the distance from his truck to the ground.

“For some of us,” I croak, much too late.

The minute I’m out of the way, Nate slips by me, making a beeline for the door. Oh God. It only lasted a second, and he couldn’t see my face, but the poor kid still got a front-row seat to me ogling his dad.

I need to chill. I think of Richard’s face.

That works fast.

“We’ll start in ten!” Mac calls after his son.

Nate ignores him, opening the front door to a barking, happy dog. Mac looks almost longingly at the kid as Nate kneels to give her love.

“You’re good with him,” I say.

At Mac’s skeptical expression, I say, “Really. I wish my parents had given me the space to be a teenager. It was lesson after class after club. I didn’t have time to be pissed off with them.”

Mac pulls my suitcase out of the back. “I just wish I knew what the hell I was doing.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. He’s a good kid. He’s the one who found me in the water.”

God, it’s embarrassing thinking about the other day. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how I went from breakdown to here.

Nate disappears inside the house, and a moment later, the adorable chocolate lab comes bounding out to us, angling her body so she walks with us to the door.

Of course Mac’s dog is perfectly trained.

“Tink, right?” Her ears perk up at her name. “Such a good girl!” I say, unable to resist squatting down and scratching her behind the ears. She can’t seem to help herself; she lets out another bark.

“Tink!” Mac says.

“It’s fine,” I say.

I lean into Tink. “Don’t worry about him.”

I feel Mac watching. “We never had any pets,” I say, standing up. “Actually, that’s not true. My sister had a rabbit.” I say it before I think about follow-ups. Mac must see the panic flare in my eyes because he doesn’t say anything. He just looks me in the eye like he’s fine if I say something or nothing at all.

Or he’s just being nice. God, what’s wrong with me around him?

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