Page 27 of The Edge of Summer
“Wasn’t planning on it.” Jodi hums, but she doesn’t say anything. “What? I’ve just had a bad morning.”
She raises a brow. “I thought you didn’t want to talk about it?”
I rub my temple. “Did you do that on purpose?”
“Depends.” She grins brightly. “Did it work?”
“You’re a pain in my ass. You know that?”
To this, she simply shrugs. “It’s what I live for. Now hurry up and spill.”
“The kitchen sink at the pink house sprung a leak this morning. Clara asked me to go over and fix it.”
“Ah,” Jodi says, pointing a finger at me, “that explains the wet t-shirt contest submission.” I glare, but all she does is laugh. “Wait, the pink house… That’s where that pretty young thing is living, isn’t it?”
I know exactly where she’s going with this. It’s the same direction my mind has been sprinting since I showed up at the house this morning. Hell, probably since I first saw Delilah.
“No.”
I set my coffee on the desk and then rifle through the bottom drawer where I keep a change of clothes. It isn’t often that I need them, but they come in handy for moments like this when I don’t have time to head home to change. I stand and pull my t-shirt, still wet, over my head. I replace it with a dry one, and then I set the old one aside to air out.
“No, as in, I’m wrong? Orno, as in, you don’t want me to be right?”
“No, don’t go getting any stupid ideas,” I amend.
Jodi takes another pull from her coffee. Despite the fact that she doesn’t have any children, she pulls my mom’s signature look off really well. The one that calls you on your bullshit without so much as a word. When she uses it on our rookies, I find it amusing, but when she turns it on me? Well, I don’t like it quite as much.
She shrugs. “I just heard Forrester and Greenaway talkingabout her earlier. She seems to have madequitethe impression when they saw her at Dockside the other day.”
Quite the impression indeed. Delilah seems to have made her mark on the whole island in the short time she’s been here. You can’t step one foot outside without hearing about the restaurant’s new waitress. With the exception of Gordon, everyone is singing her praises.
But something about some of my guys talking about Delilah and theimpressionshe made on them makes an unfamiliar feeling unfurl in my chest. Whatever it is, I don’t have time for it, so I stuff it away. If I’m lucky, it won’t crop up again.
“I don’t think I care who the guys gossip about, Booth,” I say. “So long as they get their jobs done.”
Jodi hums again. “If you say so…”
Thankfully, my phone begins to buzz, saving me from this god-awful conversation and Jodi’s scrutiny. When I flip it over,Momis splashed across the screen. She is usually good about not calling when she knows I’m working, which means my mind immediately jumps to a potential emergency.
“Mom,” I say. “Everything okay?”
“Hi, sweetie,” Mom says. “Everything’s perfectly fine. I just have a little favour to ask you.”
If this favour includes Delilah, she can count me out. I’ve had my fill of that woman for today. The memory of her nipples straining through the thin fabric of her shirt while they brushed against my chest is still at the forefront of my mind. The root of a good portion of my frustration this morning, if I’m honest.
“Okay…” I say warily.
“You know those donations Carole was collecting for the department? Well, she needs you to go pick them up this morning.”
“Does it have to be done this morning? Can’t I swing by later?”
Mom sighs. “Luke, you know Carole. If you don’t take them now, she’ll misplace them, and then you won’t see them until next spring.”
Carole Dramus is a household name on the island, but she is also known to be synonymous with the wordscatterbrained. I love the woman, and she means well, but sometimes it’s hard to work with her.
I tip my head back with a sigh. “Fine. I’ll head there now.”
“Thank you,” she says. “Now I have to go. I have to finish breakfast before I head into town to do some shopping. Love you!”
