Page 5 of Never and Always
His lips curled. “Besides, I told you what it would take for me to wear a uniform.”
I glared daggers at him. Oh, I remembered. He’d told me he’d wear it when I wore a flannel shirt, with nothing else, and crawled to him. The asshole.
“You try to vex me on purpose, don’t you?”
His smile widened. “Vex? Does anyone still use that word? Do you mean piss you off?”
Now, I growled.
“Dylan, you apologize to the nice lady right now.”
The mother was standing nearby with her contrite boy.
The dark-haired Dylan rubbed an arm across his nose. “Sorry I dropped my marbles and you almost fell over.”
I dragged in a steadying breath. I would not take out my frustration with Everett on a tiny boy. I crouched, keeping my knees together so I didn’t flash anyone inappropriately.
“It’s all right. I’m not hurt. Accidents happen, but we do have to learn from them so we can avoid them happening again.”
His cute little face scrunched. “I shouldn’t have run, and I shouldn’t have opened the bag inside.” He sighed. “Like Mama already told me.”
I nodded. “That’s a good idea. It sounds like your mama knows what she’s talking about. Want some help picking up your marbles?”
The boy grinned at me. “Yes.”
“Dylan,” his mother said with a long-suffering huff. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, please.”
I scooped up marbles, handed them to Dylan, and then felt a prickle on the back of my neck. I looked up and saw Murray watching me with a strange look on his face. I nabbed a few more errant marbles and rose. “Don’t you have leaky pipes to fix?”
“Yeah. Catch you later, big city.” His grin widened. “And I don’t mind literally catching you, either. You seem to be making a habit of falling into my arms.”
My eyes narrowed, but before I could fire back, he turned and sauntered across the lobby.
I watched him go. The first time I’d met him, I’d slipped on a wet floor and he’d caught me. So annoying.
I suddenly realized that my gaze was on his ass. A muscular ass that filled out his jeans oh-so well.
That’s when I noticed the boy’s mom was watching Everett’s ass too.
I cleared my throat. “Right, let’s finish collecting those marbles.”
Chapter 2
Everett
Heading into the maintenance workshop, I couldn’t get the scent of Piper Ellis out of my senses.
No doubt it was some expensive perfume, but she always smelled like a bouquet of flowers with an undertone of sultry jasmine.
With a shake of my head, I pushed through the door. She was always wearing tight skirts and skyscraper-high heels. They did amazing things to her long legs.
Quit thinking about her legs, Murray.
Piper was smart, driven, opinionated, and a city girl.
The last thing I needed was high maintenance in my life.
