Page 13 of Small Moments
Chapter Eleven
Mike was acting weird, Rin thought as she followed him up to his place above the garage. Actually, if she were being honest, he looked constipated. His invitation had probably been spontaneous and now he was regretting the spur of the moment idea. She should probably put him out of his misery and make an excuse to leave. After all, the need for a shower was a ready-made reason to head back to The Cedars and, at the moment, completely true.
The problem was, she didn’t want to leave. She was curious to see where he lived. Letting her see it, however, could account for his discomfort, she realized as soon as she walked through the door. Mike, it turned out, was a bit of a slob. The large loft-style space didn’t smell offensive, but it was definitely in need of tidying. The sink in the kitchen held dirty dishes, the floor had a trail of dirty clothes which Mike immediately started to gather in his arms. His large bed was unmade and the dresser had several open drawers with clothes hanging from them while the coffee table in front of the couch held three empty beer bottles.
Mike shot her a sheepish look. “Sorry. I wasn’t actually planning on company.”
Rin was about to assure him it was fine when her eyes were caught by what was hanging on the wall above his bed. She let out a gasp of delight. “Are those real?”
Mike turned away from his rushed clean-up job to see what she was talking about and chuckled. “If by real you mean do they light up, yes, but I don’t think they actually make real lightsabers.”
Rin blushed and let out a little chuckle. “Do they come down? I mean, can you play with them?”
Mike waved a hand toward the wall where the lightsabers were crossed over his bed and grinned. “Knock yourself out.”
With an excited little hop, Rin moved to the mounted display, doing her best to ignore the rumpled bed, and carefully lifted one of the lightsabers off its hooks. It was heavier than she had expected, and she needed both hands to lift it into position. Touching the button on the handle, she gasped with delight as the lightsaber lit with a bright green glow. “This issocool.”
She heard Mike chuckle as he continued on his mission to neaten his place and a bit of devilry had Rin moving toward him as he scooped up the empty bottles from the coffee table. Lightsaber held before her, she lowered her voice as deeply as possible to imitate Darth Vader and quoted, “It is useless to resist. Don’t let yourself be destroyed as Obi-Wan did.”
The look on Mike’s face was priceless: a combination of shock and awe as the bottles clanked loudly back down on the table and he let out a loud burst of laughter. Then his face went remarkably tender and all thoughts of playing fled Rin’s mind as Mike reached out and cupped her cheek. “Has anyone ever told you how amazing you are?”
Rin’s breath hitched in her chest. The way he was looking at her, his eyes moving over her face and then focusing on her lips, she knew he was going to kiss her. She licked her lips in anticipation and the heat that entered his eyes sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine. Right at this moment, she couldn’t think of a single thing she wanted more than to taste Mike’s kiss.
It was not to be. The shrill ring of a phone startled Rin and had her jerking back from Mike as if she’d been caught misbehaving. The abrupt movement left her fumbling and she nearly dropped the lightsaber.
Mike ran a frustrated hand through his hair and blew out a breath. He shot her an apologetic look. “I need to get that.”
Rin nodded and turned away so that Mike wouldn’t see how bright her cheeks had become with embarrassment and no small amount of disappointment. Returning the lightsaber to its place on the wall, she listened with half an ear as Mike told whoever was on the other end of that call that he’d be right there. So much for dinner. Rin let out a disgruntled sigh.
“That was Triple A.” Mike said moving briskly to grab a coat and pull it on. “I have to go do a wrecker call.”
The look of longing on Mike’s face as his eyes collided with hers acted as a balm for Rin’s bruised ego, so she did her best to paste a smile on her face. He didn’t return it, instead he let out a little growl of frustration. “Listen, I don’t know how long I’ll be, but feel free to make yourself at home. The pizza is in the freezer, pan, plates,” he waved a hand haphazardly toward the kitchen area, “they’re all there, go ahead and use whatever you need.”
He shot her another look of regret and shook his head. “If you’re not here when I get back, I’ll see you tomorrow at the gym after work?” He didn’t let her answer as he let out a loud sigh. “Dammit, I didn’t even get a chance to hear how your first day went.”
Another growl rumbled out of his throat and Rin walked over to him and laid a calming hand on his arm. “I had a great day at work, and yes, I’ll see you tomorrow at the gym. Go save whoever is stranded and be careful.”
Mike gave her a grateful glance, leaned in to drop a quick kiss goodbye on the top of her head and then he was out the door.
Rin stood in the middle of the apartment for several minutes staring at the spot where Mike had disappeared. The male made her incredibly happy. In fact, she smiled more with Mike than she had in a very long time. He was sweet, hard-working, and smart. The fact that he was a pleasure to look at was just a bonus. In the short time she’d known him he had opened up his gym to her, taught her how to drive, and now, opened up his home. And he asked nothing in return. The thought had her wanting to do something nice for him.
Looking around the space, she grinned. Wouldn’t it be nice for him to come home to a clean apartment, and crawl into a freshly made bed? Absolutely.
Rin’s stomach growling reminded her that it had been a long time since lunch, so she set about pulling the frozen pizza out of the freezer and set the oven to preheat. While she waited, she started picking up the bottles that Mike had left on the coffee table and then went to refold the clothes hanging out of his dresser drawers.
One of those partially open drawers didn’t have any clothing hanging out but when Rin tried to push it in, she discovered it was stuck. With a frown of annoyance Rin gave it a hard heave to dislodge it. The thing popped loose so fast that she lost her balance and pulled the drawer clean off its runner to land loudly at her feet. Money. Lots of money. Rolled up and rubber banded into several bundles.
Rin just stood there and gawked at all that cash as suspicion washed over her like icy water. Okay, so maybe Mike didn’t like banks. That wasn’t exactly a far-fetched idea, so why did her brain immediately assume that he was involved in some sort of illicit dealings? This was Mike after all. Kind, sweet, generous Mike; he was as far from how she would picture a drug dealer or thief, or any criminal for that matter, as one could get.
Feeling guilty for thinking badly about him, even for just a moment, Rin quickly put the drawer back into its slot and slid it home with a bang. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Except she couldn’t stop wondering the entire time she ate her pizza, or washed up the dishes, or straightened up Mike’s bed. The thoughts continued to roll through her head like an out of control roller coaster. The worst thought, by far, occurred to her as she laid down in her own bed at The Cedars: What if Mike was on the fur trader’s payroll?
