Page 13 of Forgotten Dreams

“Yeah, but…” I start to say, as my hand goes to the stem of my martini glass. I turn it with my fingers and look down at it. “There is a girl code that says you don’t date your best friend’s ex. The whole bros before hos but hos before bros.” I don’t even understand why I’m so bothered by this. Fine, he was good-looking, he made me smile, and his humor made me laugh, but seriously, I’ve known him for a whole hour.

“I mean, for sure,” she counters, pushing away from the table, “but does it count if she was in love with someone else the entire time she was dating him?” She picks up her glass. “Talk to her and tell her how you feel. I’m sure she’ll tell you it doesn’t go against the girl code.” She walks away from the table, leaving me by myself.

I watch Everleigh walk over to Brock and wrap her arms around his back before he looks over, and she gets on her tippy-toes to kiss his neck. I look over and see that Lilah is plastered to Emmett’s front as he looks at her, saying something, pushing her hair over her shoulder before smiling and kissing her through his laugh.

“Funny running into you here.” I hear his voice and blink once before looking over to see Caleb sitting next to me. His musky smell invades my senses as I fight to put my shield up.

“Why is that?” I ask.

“I didn’t know you and Lilah,” he says, and I smile tightly, “knew each other.”

“Yeah,” I reply, keeping the conversation short.

He puts his arm on the table, leaning forward. “Good news.” He looks at me with his golden-brown eyes. “We start work at the house tomorrow,” he informs me, and my eyes go big.

“I have a group of guys coming down, and we’re going to be finished by the time you move in.” My hand goes out, and I squeeze his bicep, feeling the softness of his sweater under my fingers and the tightness of his arm.

“Are you serious?” I ask, and he nods.

“Very serious.” He smiles at me, my hand feeling the heat from his arm. “We start tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. Someone has to be there to let me in.”

“Are you ready to go?” Lilah asks, and the minute I hear her voice, my hand flies away from him.

“Yeah.” I nod, pushing away from the table. Standing up, I pick up my glass and finish what’s in it before placing it back down. “Ready,” I confirm as I move away from Caleb, the palm of my hand itching to touch him again. “Thank you.” nodding to him and turn to walk away.

“Bye, Caleb,” Lilah says, and I look over my shoulder at him as I walk away.

His eyes are fixated on me as he does a chin up, and my mouth waters. “See you soon, Sierra.”

Chapter 7

Caleb

“We are going to be there in five minutes,” my cousin Theo tells me when I pick up the phone. He was my right-hand man when I was back home. I mean he was technically my right-hand man since we were in diapers, but we lived two hours away from each other. Until he decided to move near me after college. Ever since, we’ve been attached at the hip. When I decided to move here, he thought about coming with me, but he wasn’t sure just yet. In the past couple of months, he’s been back here every other week to help me, and I know this job is perfect for him. It’ll keep him in town long enough to allow him to make the biggest leap and come join me. Or at least that is what I’m hoping for.

“Sounds good,” I say, getting into my truck and putting on my aviator sunglasses. The sun is so bright today with not a cloud in the sky. “I should be there at the same time, maybe a couple of minutes later.”

“We’ll start to unload things until you get there.” This is why I need him to be here and working with me. He would do things without me telling him to do it. Also, he’s the only one who would be able to tell me to my face that things can’t be done like I think they can.

“See you then.” I disconnect the phone and pull out of my driveway before making my way over to Sierra’s house.

My head goes back to seeing her at the bar, sitting there with Lilah with her hair tucked behind her ear. I stood at the bar and tried not to look over at her when Brock was talking to me, but I pretty much failed miserably when he said, “Are you fucking listening to a word I’m saying?” While he was going on and on to me about the crane I needed for the roof of the barn, I should have been paying attention to what he was saying. Instead, my head was in the clouds, thinking about the woman sitting not too far away from me.

I tried to stay away from her, but when everyone was chitchatting at the bar, I made the mistake of going over and sitting down with her. I told myself I was doing it so I could update her that we would be starting on her house. In reality, I just wanted to talk to her. She was standoffish right off the bat. Totally different from when I met her at her house a couple of hours before. I thought there was a flirty vibe at her house, but at the bar, it was a straight this-is-never-going-to-happen vibe.

Now I’m pulling up right behind Theo’s truck as I see him, Frankie, and Nino unloading all their equipment. Frankie and Nino have been with us for a couple of months and are young, so going out of town is a treat for them. I grab my phone and the keys before jumping out. “Hey,” I say to Frankie, who is grabbing his tool belt in one hand and his toolbox in another.

“No one is here yet. Door is locked,” he explains, then looks back at the house. “Is this place even safe for us to be working in?”

I look up at the house. “She looks worse than she is,” I tell him, and he nods, walking away as Theo comes to stand next to me.

“I don’t know what the fuck you just signed us up for,” Theo accuses, just as a car parks behind my truck, “but you owe us big-time.”

I look over, seeing the car door open. One brown high-heeled boot comes out of the car before she steps out, closing the driver’s side door while I take in her whole outfit. She’s wearing black jeans with a thick, loose-knit, long-sleeved brown sweater that goes past her hips but is tucked in on one side. The sleeves look like they are rolled twice. She looks at me before coming to me, the sound of her heels getting louder as she gets closer. “Morning,” I greet with a smile, and she turns to look at the guys waiting at the front door.

“Am I late?” she asks, pressing the button on her phone and seeing it’s a bit before eight. “I thought you said that you start at eight.”

“No,” I tell her, wanting to get closer to her and see if her lips are as soft as they look. The wind blows her blond hair in front of her face, and she turns her head to get it away from her. “The guys just got here.”

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