Fisher’s eyebrows slid up an inch.
“She has money from her dad. She’s going to pay cash for it.”
He nodded slowly. “What car are you getting?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll go with you,” he said.
“I don’t need you to go with me.”
“Oh …” Rory wiped her hands again and picked up her phone. “I have to get this it’s … a friend. I’ll be right back.”
I squinted at her odd behavior while she hustled to her bedroom and shut the door.
“I realize this is going to piss you off, but it’s just life right now. If you take me with you, you’ll get a better deal on a car because there will be a male adult negotiating for you.”
“That’s—”
“Sexist? Not fair? Ridiculous? Yes. Yes, it is. But it doesn’t make it less true.”
“You have work.”
He grabbed my stool and turned me to face him, my knees tucked between his spread legs. “I know the boss. I can get the morning off.” He rested his hands on my legs.
I made a quick glance at the closed bedroom door.
“She’ll be in there for a while.”
I turned back toward Fisher. “How do you know?”
“Because she’s talking to Rose.”
“Who’s Rose?”
“Her friend.”
“Were they in prison together?”
Fisher inched his head side to side.
“Oh. Do they work together?”
“Rose is a teacher. She teaches middle school art.”
I nodded, twisting my lips. “She’s probably a client.”
“Yeah, Rory does her hair.”
“Once a social butterfly, always a social butterfly. I’m more introverted like my dad.” When I allowed myself to look at Fisher for more than two seconds, I realized he was looking at me. It was that more than friends look.
“I wonder how long it will take before I no longer want to kiss you.”
Again, I checked her bedroom door while pressing my lips together. “Y-you want to kiss me?”
He grinned while squeezing my legs. “Desperately.”
I don’t know why I thought Fisher had everything on a switch, including his emotions or his attraction to me, but I did. I thought it. I relied on it.
“We’re done. Right?” I punctuated the right with serious doubt like I really needed him to answer me because I wasn’t sure where any of this was coming from.
“I think that was the agreement.”
That wasn’t an answer. He threw it back on me. I was the one who first said things would have to end when Rory came home. I said I didn’t want her to know about us, but he agreed.
He. Agreed!
“Yeah. It was the mutual agreement.” I rested my hands on his hands to slide them off my legs, but when my skin touched his, it wasn’t that easy.
“How’s that leak in the back room?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Should we check?”
Fisher grinned and slid off his stool. I followed him to the back room.
Door closed.
His hands in my hair.
My hands up the back of his shirt, fingers digging into his skin.
Our mouths colliding.
Tongues exploring.
My hum mixed with his hum, vibrating our lips.
We didn’t have an official last kiss, so who could blame us for needing to officially end things … with a mind-numbing kiss.
“Reese? Fisher?”
We jumped apart, breathless and a little disheveled.
“Where’d you guys go?”
Fisher ran a hand through his hair, even though it wasn’t his hair that got manhandled and tangled.
I wiped my mouth and combed my fingers through my hair as he grinned and shot me a quick wink before opening the door.
Fisher and his winks.
“Back here. Reese thought she’d been hearing some dripping noise in the back room, but I think it’s just condensation from the furnace.”
“Oh. Yeah, probably.” Rory lifted the cutting board full of cut veggies and dumped it into a wok.
“Who’s Rose?” I asked. “Fisher said you have a friend who’s an art teacher. How did you meet her?” I hopped back onto the chair as he walked behind me to join my mom in the kitchen, but not before letting his fingers tease the skin on my lower back where my shirt had slid up just above the waistband of my jeans.
I jerked, but Rory didn’t seem to notice.
“Rose. Um …” Rory shot Fisher a funny look. Did she see him touch me? “I’ve actually known her for many years. She was a client of mine when I owned my salon in Nebraska.”
“Wow. Really? That’s cool. And now she lives here too and is seeing you again?”
Pressing her lips together, she nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”
“Nice.”
“Very nice.” Fisher stole a sliced carrot from the wok, and Rory smacked his hand.
“How have the two of you been getting along?” she asked.
I cut my gaze straight to Fisher, but he didn’t give a single glance in my direction. No. He was too cool to act guilty in the slightest way.
“Fine. She’s a bit of a handful at work. We’ve made a trip to urgent care for a nail in her hand as a result of her clumsiness, and she got it in her head that Happy Meals were a good idea for my crew, but other than that … it’s been pretty uneventful.”