Page 50 of Resting Beach Face
“For you, it is.” I traced his lips with the tip of my finger. “It’s small and it’s almost hidden, but I see it.”
Our eyes met and held. Declan swallowed hard and stepped back. My hand fell away from his mouth.
“Sorry,” I said. “I was just?—”
“Being you,” he said. “Come on, let’s go find what we need. You have the list?”
“Yep.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened the list we’d made for our first shopping trip. “We can check out the appliances first, since you’ll probably need to order what you want?”
Declan nodded. “Lead the way.”
Dyck’s didn’t have the large supply that a big-city store would, but he had several reasonable models of refrigerators, stoves, and dishwashers. Declan proved my theory about him right when he spent nearly an hour going over the pros and cons of every feature each model had.
I was gonna throttle him if I hung around to watch, so I slipped away to complete some other parts of the shopping trip. I wanted to get some wood cut to replace the rotten boards in The Roost’s floor. I’d need a hand sander and sandpaper, as well.
I’d wait on the sheetrock until I could talk to Gray, one of the new boaters at the resort. He’d helped with a few houseremodels before taking the job with Swallow Adventures, and I was hoping to pick his brain—and hopefully get his help with a few of these projects.
I got what I needed and was on to the painting supplies aisle when I spotted Danny Wray on his tiptoes, stretching to reach the paint pans on a higher shelf. I left the cart at the end of the aisle and sidled up alongside him.
“Hey, shorty. Need some help?”
Danny sent me a glare that surprised me. “No.”
I started to raise my arm. “I can?—”
Danny pushed my arm down, hissing, “You’re ruining my plan. Just move along unless you want to be my consolation prize.”
Consolation prize?
I followed Danny’s far-from-subtle head nod toward the end of the aisle. A large, hulking man was studying packets of hardware a few feet away. His skin was smooth and dark, standing out in our whitewashed Ozarks community. Buthot damn,he was gorgeous.
“Who is that?” I whispered.
“My dream man,” Danny said. “He works at the new Hot Buns Bakery.”
“Ahhh.” I’d only seen the woman who ran the front of the shop. “And Jasmine is…”
“His sister, obviously,” Danny said. “Now get out of here!”
Danny gave me a little push, then swatted my ass when I took too long to get moving.
“Okay, I’m going!” I whirled toward the end of the aisle with a laugh, right into a glowering Declan, who was standing by our cart, watching me with narrowed eyes.
“Hey, Dec. Figure out what you want yet?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he said sharply.
“The appliances…” I winced. “Sorry for ditching you. I just couldn’t take all the analysis. I’m more the type of guy who sees what he wants and just goes for it.”
“Clearly,” he muttered, gaze shifting over my shoulder. “Are you and Danny…”
He trailed off.
I blinked at him, lost. His gaze focused on something behind me. I looked back to see the hot baker pulling down a paint pan for Danny, who was fluttering his lashes and making the big guy blush. Surely, Declan didn’t think…
“Me and Dannytogether?”I barked a laugh as I turned back to Declan. “No, of course not.”
“I don’t mean a relationship. I know you don’t do those.”
