Page 56 of Dove
Reverie kept an arm around my shoulders, still hugging me to her side as she purred, “You, too, Josh.” Her eyes perused him up and down. “Always a pleasure.”
I pinched her side, and she yelped, which had Josh suppressing a chuckle as she turned a scowl on me.
She waved a hand at him and whispered loud enough for him to hear, “You didn’t tell me he looked likethatnow!”
My face burned, and I refused to look at Josh. If she didn’t shut up, she was asking for more than a pinch. I shot her a wide-eyed warning but, all she did was smirk, like she knew exactly what she was doing.
She probably did. Rev had always been way too invested in my crush on Josh. I would have wondered if she wanted him for herself by the way she fixated over it, if she hadn’t been obsessed with Zeke the moment she’d laid eyes on him.
“You should’ve called,” I told her, guilt tugging at me. I hated that I couldn’t drop everything to hang out with her, but I couldn’t leave Josh to do this by himself. “Josh and I are in the middle of?—"
“Nothing pressing,” Josh interrupted, and while I could still feel the flush on my face, I risked a look at him now that I wasn’t completely beet red. “We were almost done here anyway. I can finish it up. You go on ahead, catch up with Rev.”
“You’re the best, Josh!” Rev all but praised, but I hesitated. We had a much larger portion of the fence done than not, but he’d still struggle to do the rest of it by himself.
I shook my head, turning to Rev. “Let me finish this and then maybe?—”
Before I knew it Josh was in front of me, his hands tight on my shoulders, turning me to face her car.
“No.” The warm puff of his objection caressed the shell of my ear, and I swallowed, throat running dry. “I got this. Go with Reverie.”
I took an obedient step toward her Jeep, watching as my friend pulled herself up into the driver’s seat.
“What about the rest of the chores?" I asked, stalling.
“I can handle them, too. Don’t worry.” His hands pressed along the curve of my shoulders, urging me forward. When I planted my feet and refused to budge, he let out a huff. “Don’t fight me on this.”
It didn’t feel right saddling him with all the chores just because Rev unexpectedly showed up. She gazed at me through the windshield, eyes volleying back and forth between us, likelyjumping to conclusions I wasn’t a hundred percent certain I could deny.
Even if all I wanted to do was sit down and make up for lost time, there were responsibilities I couldn’t just dip out of.
“I can’t let you?—”
Josh’s low growl cut off my feeble protest.
“Dove.” The weight of his hands slid from me and my beathing came easier. Until one of them skimmed down my spine to prod low at my back. “Go. With. Reverie.”
His tone left no room for argument, and I grew hot, thighs pressing together at the ache that formed between them at his commanding tone.
The hand at my back pressed harder, slipping lower until I could feel his fingers grazing the tops of my jean shorts, curling in a tease just under my T-shirt that had ridden up at the base of my spine. His fingers were hot along the soft skin there and just a hair away from dipping inside my waistband.
I all but crawled into her Jeep after I rounded the front at lightning speed, my face on fire as I kept my head down, unwillingly to risk even a glance at Josh. Not when the touch of his hand still throbbed along my lower back like a brand.
Rev put her Jeep in drive the moment my door closed, throwing a jaunty wave out her window to Josh as we drove away.
When he was nothing but a speck in her rearview mirror, she let out a low whistle.
“What?” I pretended I had no idea what she was alluding to.
When she pulled up to the front of our house, she threw her car into park so fast I rocked forward from the sudden stop.
When she turned to face me, her hazel eyes were gleaming with anticipation.
“Tell meeverything.”
We settled in the kitchen. Rev was in need of some caffeine since the jet lag was getting to her, and I needed something to do as I struggled to get my frazzled thoughts in order.
When the coffee was freshly brewed and poured, we sat across the kitchen table from one another.
