Lucky Baby (Crescent Cove 11)

“I had a thought about that too.”

Her brow arched. “I’m listening.”

I jammed my hands into my pockets. “Good. And if you hadn’t come in half-cocked, I would have been happy to discuss things with you.”

“I’m just…” She fisted her hands under her arms, emphasizing her stupendous chest.

Don’t look, asshole. Eyes up.

She dropped her arms to her sides in frustration. “I’ve been fielding texts from Luna all day about this bonfire thing today. And I come here and see…this.”

I took a step closer and gently gripped her upper arms. “I got you, Ruby. Everything will be ready for tonight.”

Her nose wrinkled. “I wouldn’t hate it if you weren’t ready, so we could cancel.”

“So, you’re really mad about the thing tonight and not the site.”

“No. That’s some chaos squared over there, Thor.” She wiggled out of my hold. “I’m just not good with people.”

“Cancel then.”

“I can’t. She did all these things. Ordered food, for God’s sake. I thought it was just going to be sitting around the fire with some tunes.” She nodded toward my truck. “Like what you’re playing. That’s cool.”

My lips twitched. I didn’t think a smile and a laugh would go over well with the tension emanating from her in waves. “We already started cleaning up for tonight. Don’t worry.”

She tucked her hands into her jacket pockets. “I don’t like not knowing what’s going on here.”

I cracked my knuckles, considering. If I didn’t give her something, she was likely to keep stopping by and distracting me. And while the idea of her distracting me in several creative ways didn’t bother me one bit, the reality was I could not be trusted with that kind of situation. She was already living in my head far more than she should.

Far more than any woman had since…ever.

“Tell you what. I’ll send you two daily vids of what’s going on. You know, on your phone.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Right. Only the pretty parts, I bet.”

“No.” I folded my arms. “Okay, probably one will be internet share-worthy. But then I’ll give you a panoramic view of the big and the ugly.”

“Acceptable.”

I rocked back on my heels. “Just like that?”

“What? We hashed it out.” She punched my arm. “We’re good. Now I gotta get back. You can show me the barn so far though.” She went around me and headed for the water.

Dealing with this woman gave me fucking whiplash.

I blew out a breath and followed her. I was always watching her ass walk away from me. I wondered what it looked like under those jeans. All firm with that little jiggle that made me want to take a bite.

Damn. Focus, Lucky.

I scraped my hair back and retied my bun. I would be sacrificing some time to show her around, but at least it would calm her down.

By the time I caught up with her, she was surrounded by a trio of posturing boys.

“Miss Burns, you can see how much stuff we hauled out over here.” Stone was puffing out his over-pumped chest. He kept licking his lips and his gaze bounced from her wildly snapping hair to the ground.

The kid didn’t have a chance with Ruby.

“You can call me Tish. Looks like you guys have been busy.”