Page 16 of Seasons of Love
I laughed, thinking of the photo I'd taken with my phone of Liam chasing a bee around the garage and Reed chasing Liam. In the end, we managed to capture all five escaped bees and put them in a box.
Reed had a lavender farm outside town, so I was pretty sure he'd just parked his truck in the wrong spot. Bees were known to feel attracted to cars because of the warmth of the engine. Hopefully, they were now in their more natural habitat.
"I didn't think you were shutting down early today," Liam said.
"I'm not, what makes you say that?"
A smile spread on his lips.
"So you're saying you had a shower and changed into clean clothes so you can get dirty again during your lesson with the hot writer?"
I stared at him. "What? No. I stank from working all day, and I don't expect there to be much to do for the rest of the afternoon. And it's just polite to not smell like an engine when you're around other people."
He snorted. "Sure, boss. Whatever you say."
"Besides, how do you know he's hot?"
"I'm straight, boss. Not blind."
He didn't give me time to reply before he waved goodbye and ran out of the garage, saying he'd see me in the morning.
I looked at my reflection in the glass panel of my office. Did it seem like I'd made an effort?
Despite Liam's teasing, the reason I'd cleaned up before Aiden arrived was because I'd once again spilled oil all over me. Give me a bike and I was a surgeon; give me a car and I was a fucking klutz.
The phone in the office rang, but we had a cordless unit in the garage to stop us from getting our dirty hands all over the paperwork, so I walked over to the workbench and picked it up.
"Warren Automobile and Bike Repair, how can I help you?"
The chuckle from the other side made me straighten my back. "Who is this?"
"Hey, babe, it's just me."
"What do you want, Mike?"
I grabbed a wrench from the wall and squeezed it tight in my hand. The cold, hard metal a good reminder of where I was. " Why are you calling?"
My voice was steady enough, so that was good. I put the wrench back when it felt warm in my hand and picked another one.
"You put the phone down on me the other day." His voice was whiny, and it grated on me. Had he always been like this? Had I been so in love that I'd blocked it out?
"I told you I'm not interested in revisiting the past, and I'm struggling to come up with any kind of valid reason for us to be in touch."
"That's really hurtful, bab—"
"Don't call me that. Use my name and tell me what you want, or I'll hang up."
There was a brief silence on the other side.
"Why don't we speak more often, ba—Slade?"
I chose another wrench, but this time I brought it to my forehead. As ridiculous it was, the tools were actually grounding me. Or at least stopping me from blowing a gasket.
"Walking into our apartment, coming face to face with a naked twink, who looked at me as if I was the one trespassing, and then being told you were a good fuck was not, surprisingly, the highlight of our marriage."
"You said you forgave me."
His outraged tone made my blood boil.
