Lucky Baby (Crescent Cove 11)

“Not the right prick.”

“Believe me, I’m not looking for that one either.” She tried to back out of my hold.

I pulled her in tighter and just wrapped my arms around her. She was stiff as a damn board, but finally, she melted into me.

She laid her cheek against my chest and sighed. “Okay, maybe this doesn’t suck.”

We swayed a bit in the cold barn before I let her go. “How about I show you something good?”

“I told you I wasn’t in the mood for another prick, Thor.”

“So says the woman reaching for me at four in the morning.” I slid my hand down to clasp hers. “C’mon, you’ll like this.”

She laced her fingers with mine. At least we were making a little progress when it came to her dealing with my need to touch her all the time. She only wiggled away when she was feeling extra thorny.

I drew her out of the barn and over to her detached garage. The matte black steel doors were down, but she also had a side door access.

Her usually long stride slowed until I had to practically drag her to the door.

“What’s wrong?”

“You didn’t do anything to my garage, did you?”

I braced my arm across the door. “Why?”

“My garage is exactly how I like it. Exactly.”

My stomach sank. Well, I was too far into it now. I opened the door and accepted my fate. Not much else I could do.

I turned on the light switch and she rushed in.

“What did you do?”

I leaned my shoulder against the doorjamb. Her garage had been cluttered, which was weird since she was so organized in the house. I waited for the creepy music from Sleeping With the Enemy every time I opened her cupboards. All the cans were face out and in alphabetical order.

But in here, she had tables lining every wall with tools. How the hell did she find anything?

“I kept it all in the same order from e

ach table, just put them on a peg board so you could see everything. I replaced the rickety tables with tall, thin ones that you can use to organize all the parts you have everywhere.”

She did her usual twirl. I was convinced that was how she took things into her brain for processing. The problem was, it usually resulted in her blowing a head gasket.

“But that’s not how I like it. I won’t be able to find anything.” She stalked back to me. “Why would you do this?”

“I did it to make your life easier. Because I know you’re an organized freak who likes order. Except here for some reason.”

“I didn’t ask you to touch in here.”

“No. I did it because I care about you. But you wouldn’t know how to say thank you even if someone yanked it out of your tonsils.” My chest heaved and hurt hit lower than the anger. Which pissed me off even more. “You know what? Me and Butch are staying at my place tonight.”

“What?” The squeak in her voice mollified me a little, but I was too mad to shake it off.

I left her in the garage. Butch was running around Joe’s feet as they played keep-away with her beloved avocado.

I gave a sharp whistle and her fluffy white ears perked. She immediately zipped my way with her toy in her mouth, her tail wagging like a feather duster. I scooped her up and set her in the truck. “Looks like it’s just us tonight.”

As the tightness in my chest eased a fraction, I shot a look over my shoulder. Tish was waiting in the doorway of the garage, her arms tightly folded over her breasts.