Page 6 of Cactus Heart
The corner of his mouth tugged. “Did this town dry up yours?”
I glowered until he held up his hands in surrender. His very strong, very sexy, very big hockey man hands.
“Sorry. I don’t mean to offend you. I’m still getting my footing here.”
He sounded genuine. I studied him for a beat longer, but then relaxed my shoulders. “It's fine. Are you coming to art class or not?”Please say yes.It’d be refreshing to have someone under the age of fifty in my class during the week.
“Well, I was actually looking for your dad. I haven’t seen him in a while and wanted to pay a visit.”
His words were a gut punch. My heart dropped out of my chest, my mind going blank.
God, I’d never get used to this.Ever.
I opened my mouth to tell Levi the truth, but another voice interrupted.
“Little Miss Whynot, why in the hell are you the color of a blueberry?”
Dammit. Had someone cursed me today? What had I done to deserve this?
With a sigh, I turned right as Mateo hopped out of his truck looking like a damn model. Seriously, he should have been in one of those firefighter calendars. Mateo had golden brown skin, dark brown curls on top of his head, a thick mustache begging for a ride, and a smile that made my entire body light up like the Fourth of July.
He wasn’t dressed up like a firefighter right now. He wore faded jeans, a navy T-shirt with the Whynot Fire Department logo that showed off those heroic muscles, and as always, those damnslutty little glasses.They always magnified the crinkles at the corner of his eyes when he smiled at me.
I swallowed hard as he came up beside me with a broad grin and slid his arm around my shoulders in thetotally platonicside hug that was actually going to be the death of me.
Ever since I’d moved back to Whynot two years ago, the two of us had become best friends.
And nothing more.
“Jimenez,” I grumbled.
“Pff.” He ruffled my hair playfully. It took every ounce of control not to lean into his firm hand like a cat. “What the hell did you do?”
I smirked. There’d been a missed opportunity to text him a picture of the messy sink earlier, which was too bad.
That was the thing about Mateo. I wanted him so much more than just a friend, but I just settled for having what I could.
Which was a really sexy, really goodfriend.
“I was going to dye my hair blue. Don’t tell anyone I look like this.”
Mateo twirled me toward him, his hands settling on my hips in an all-too-familiar, playful way.
Platonic.
Completely fucking platonic, even though I’d thought about his hands more than once at night.
“I’m texting the group chat immediately,” he teased.
Dammit. Why did he have to be so cute when he smiled like that? Why the fuck did my brothers have to have hot friends?
“Why are you here, Mateo?” I asked. “Aren’t you on the clock? You’re wearing your shirt. You know I have class to run. Ms. Carlson is probably firing up the pitchforks now since I’m running behind.”
Mateo’s hands fell away and he crossed his arms. “Well, I may have taken a look at your art class schedule after someone mentioned in passing you were going to be teaching fumage.”
Damn. That meant Angie had tattled on me.
Angie ran local dispatch and just loved to be up in everyone’s business. She’d had it out for me ever since I stuck bubblegum in her hair in fourth grade. To be fair, it was warranted. She’d poured chocolate milk all over my art the day before.
