Crave (The Gibson Boys 3)

“Hey. You home?” Peck’s voice calls through the house.

My hands go from my scalp to my cheeks as I listen to his footsteps grow louder across the hardwood floors. “Yeah.”

He enters the kitchen but stops quickly. Scanning the room, he settles his gaze on the sandwich. A snicker pierces the air as he takes a couple of steps toward the table and deposits the black bank bag with a thud.

“It was a good night.” He wraps his hands along the back of a chair. “The register was off ten dollars, but I think it was my fault. Nora got busy, and I had to serve a couple of yuppies from Chicago. They got me talking, and I fucked up the math. I think.” He scratches his head. “Anyway, I put the money in outta my pocket so it wouldn’t look like it was Nora.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to add to your problems tonight.” The chair is whirled around, and Peck sits his ass down. “Nora told me she put in her notice.”

“Yeah.”

“You replacing her?”

“Already did.” My feet are heavy as they trudge across the kitchen. Ignoring Peck’s curious gaze, I take my time in pulling out a chair and getting situated across from him. “Do you know Navie Barnes?”

“That would be a negative.”

“She starts tomorrow.”

Peck wipes his hands down the front of his pants. “Are we feelin’ good about this?”

“I’m not feeling good about jack shit.” I hang my head. “I knew Nora would quit. She kept saying she wasn’t going back to school, but I knew she would and then would feel terrible about having to quit at the last minute. So I hired Navie a couple of weeks ago to start tomorrow.”

When I lift my head, Peck is grinning.

“What?” I ask.

“Just glad you have it figured out. That’s all.”

“One thing out of a million.”

His grin pulls wider. “What else you got goin’ on?”

I stand and turn to face the window over the sink. It’s so dark out I can’t see a damn thing except for the security light at the cemetery a ways down. Just as I’m about to find a comfortable mental distance between myself and this mess with Hadley, Peck moves. It reminds me there is no ignoring it. At least, not for now.

“Well,” I say, referring to his question. “I have Spencer Eubanks coming by this week.”

“Over that building on Ash Street?”

“Yeah.” I turn to look at him. “He’s not really hyped on letting me do a land contract on the place. Probably for the same reason the bank wasn’t either.”

“You know what? That’s bullshit. You’re trying to do something good for this town.”

“I guess this is why small towns fall apart. A guy like me—not on the town board, not a commissioner, no one fancy—can’t be trusted.”

Peck laughs. “I’d trust you over any of those guys all day, every day.” He laces his fingers together and rests his forearms on his knees. “Ready to talk about Hadley?”

“What?” I ask, my head spinning. “That’s some whiplash.”

“I feel like I warmed you up some. Did a little foreplay. Too soon?”

“If that whole thing was your idea of foreplay, this explains why Molly doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

He raises up, his hands pressed on his heart. “That wounds me.”

“Shut up.” I laugh.

Peck drops his hand and laughs too. “Hadley looks good, Mach. Funny as hell. You should’ve seen your face when she said that line about the panties—”

“Thin ice, Peck.” I have to turn away. It doesn’t seem right to face him when memories of Hadley in her panties are streaming through my mind. The way her narrow hips round around to her ass and the way—

“Dude, I don’t even want you to turn around. I get it.” He cackles. “I gotta go. I’ll leave you here to wonder what she’s doing tonight.”

“Oh, I know what she’s doing tonight.”

“What?”

“She’s at Cross’s house.”

“For now.” Peck heads for the door. “Who knows what she might do later?”

“You know something, Peck?” I shout after him. He’s screwing with me. I’m ninety-percent sure. But that leaves ten percent, and that’s ten too many. “Peck!”

“No, I don’t know anything.”

“I mean it.”

“So do I.”

I scurry to the doorway just in time to see him at the front door. He looks over his shoulder with his hand on the knob.

It’s a struggle not to grab him by the back of the neck and shake him a little until I’m sure he’s being honest. “If you know something, I want to know.”

“You’ll just go apeshit,” he says.

“You want to see apeshit? Watch what happens when I find you tomorrow after I hear about it, and make no mistake, I will hear about it.”

Peck slides his hat around, his blue eyes twinkling. “I don’t know a damn thing other than you’re too easy to wind up.”