Page 65 of Almost Perfect
She practically jogged to the entryway and grabbed her coat. Before she disappeared out the door, she leaned back into the living room and hit me with those dark eyes. “Thanks, Wyatt. Breakfast was delicious.”
I only nodded, still too flustered by her comment moments ago to say anything. If I did speak, I’d ask her to stay or wait or something awkward that showed how much I wanted to be around her.
The door shut behind her, and Warrick popped out of nowhere, beaming like he’d orchestrated everything.
“Oh, man, you are in trouble.”
I sent him a glare, and he trotted off down the hall to his room while I puttered in the kitchen, cleaning up from breakfast and muttering to myself about nosey little brothers and popstars who’d be the death of me.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Calla
Iended the call with Kristoffer right as Warrick pulled up. My PA was just doing his job, but an hour on the phone was enough to send anyone into a draggy, irritated mood.
Not his fault, and it was long past time since I’d only e-mailed and texted with him for the last week—we were long overdue. Especially with Rad still banging around, complaining about my telling him I’d speak to him when I returned to LA and not a minute sooner, and the press continuing to speculate on where I’d gone, he’d needed to circle the wagons and catch me up.
In an attempt to shed the frustration that thinking about my reality bred, I inhaled slowly, then pushed out a breath and stretched my arms over my head before grabbing my coat. The call had distracted me enough that I’d forgotten to get nervous about this littlelet’s make friendslunch Warrick had set up.
“All set?” He pushed my door open from his seat on the driver’s side of his SUV and smiled over at me.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I shut my door and buckled in, but my eyes immediately snagged on Wyatt shoveling the walkway of his house. “Hey, can you pull over to him?”
“Sure thing.”
We rumbled over snow, which I realized had gotten much deeper since I’d walked to breakfast this morning, and came to a halt next to Wyatt. I rolled the window down, and he looked up after tossing a shovelful of snow.
Those blue eyes hit me in the chest—made it twist.Whew.He was the one working hard, his chest rising and falling, but just looking at him made me feel like I was adjusting to the altitude all over again.
“Thanks again for breakfast,” I said, needing some excuse to talk with him.
“Plans for dinner?”
My stomach flipped. “Not yet.”
“Come over around seven, if you’re free.”
Holywow, his serious mountain man look was doing it for me like crazy this morning. He wore his usual jacket that made his eyes pop from the contrast, but he also had on thick work gloves and wielded that shovel like a pro. No hat, and with those worn jeans on his legs, he looked at ease in the setting of mountain and ranch home. He was rugged and handsome and just… honestly kind of dreamy.
“I’ll be there.”
He stared back until the window rolled up between us, and Warrick’s chuckle made me break eye contact.
“You two are something,” he mumbled, then cranked on the staticky radio.
“We’re…” I’d started to say friends, but that didn’t cover it. Warrick and I were friends, definitely. But me and Wyatt?
“Speechless. See?” He glanced and me and shot a cheeky grin before turning onto the main road.
“Not speechless. Just not totally sure what’s going on.” Admitting that felt more than a little dangerous. Plus, I knew very well where Warrick’s loyalties lay.
“Well, I’ll give you the brotherly spiel now and save us the embarrassment later.”
“Uh, okay.” Where was this going?
“Let me start by asking you this. What are your intentions with my big brother?”
A laugh tripped out of me. “Uh. Um, good ones?”
