Page 41 of Control (Everyday Heroes 3.50)
Tomorrow.
That’s all I’ll allow myself to think about.
Because I don’t deal in anything after that.
I can’t.
I won’t.
Then why is my mind wandering there?
Chapter Seventeen
Desi
Knock-knock. Knock-knock-knock.
“I don’t want any,” I yell over my shoulder as I bend to pick up Disco from where he’s barking and wagging his tail in his kennel.
“I’ve heard that before,” Reznor murmurs as he walks in the back door without being invited and rests a shoulder against the doorjamb.
It’s much easier keeping my attention on Disco and the collar I’m putting around his neck than looking at Reznor.
We haven’t talked since the other night. It’s been a few days, and yet I fear if I look at him, defeat will be written over every part of my body. The kind of defeat that tells him he’s right, I’m wrong, and oh yeah, can we have sex right now to make up for my stupidity?
“What do you want?” I ask without looking at him while I coo over Disco and head toward the front of the house. “Here you are,” I say when I enter the main area of the grooming shop. Jeff is texting someone on his phone. He looks up when I enter, a smile wide on his lips when he sees Disco. I turn, surprised to see that Reznor stayed in the other room.
“Thanks. Ah, you look handsome as ever, Disc,” Jeff says as he takes him from me.
“He was great per usual. That hot spot under his front arm looks better too.”
“I thought it looked better so that’s good to hear.” Jeff hands a check to me, and I place it in my drawer. I half expect him to have one foot out the door when I turn back around, but he’s standing there staring at me like he has more to say.
“What is it?” I ask.
“You’re beautiful.”
“Ah, that’s sweet.” But I’m suddenly uncomfortable. When Reznor said the same comment, I swooned. But with Jeff, there is no swooning. No nothing.
“I’m telling you, the offer still stands.” A warm smile. “We were—”
“Good luck with that,” Reznor’s voice says from behind me, making both Jeff and me jump.
Jeff’s smile fades as he takes in Reznor with his shoulder against the doorway, eyes burning a hole into him. Jeff gives Reznor the fuck you lift of his chin in greeting. “Hey.”
Reznor doesn’t say a word, but rather waits with a slight smirk—perhaps saying fuck you right back.
“Reznor, this is Officer Jeff Nelson—”
“Reznor Mayne,” Reznor says, cutting me off and making his own introduction. “SFPD Swat Commander.”
And the gauntlet has been thrown down, the pissing match commenced. But Reznor doesn’t move from his spot against my wall, and Jeff stares at him for an uncomfortable space of time before he realizes he’s the odd man out in this situation, when I’m more than certain he thought this whole interaction might go the other way. After all, Reznor is in my house and clearly isn’t a client.
“Well, uh,” Jeff says with a quick shake of his head before looking back at me, “thank you. Disco looks great as always. I’ll uh...I’ll talk to you later, Des.”
I smile softly at him. “Talk to you later.”
I wait for the door to shut behind him before I reprimand Reznor for his testosterone-laced claim that I never gave him the right to make.
