Page 16 of Work It Out
“No one. Yet.”
She waited for him to elaborate, but he only stood there grinding his way to a whopper of a dental bill. “Sweetie, I’m going to need more words, hopefully some with multiple syllables.”
Gently, he grasped her elbow and led her around the side of the building, away from the glass front. She braced herself. Her bestie was a six-foot seven-inch Adonis of a teddy bear with a heart of gold and a body by Gold’s. He was not, however, dramatic. So she had a terrible feeling she wouldn’t like what came out of his mouth next. “Okay. Lay it on me. What’s going on?”
“That’s what I want to know.”
She stepped back, partly because that was the appropriate fight-or-flight response to the demonic sound he’d made, but also because looking up at him was wrecking her neck. “Jenny will be here soon. Explain. Fast.”
“She’s here. Nate’s warming her up on the rower. We’ve got bigger problems.” Those massive arms came up and folded over his chest as his scowl darkened a shade or three. “First, he’s hiding something.”
She blinked. “Nate?”
“No, the new guy, Chris or Jake or whatever the fuck his name is.”
She gasped, then whispered, “You do realize God can still hear you.” Blaine was a good Christian boy. He said the occasional “damn” or “hell,” but serious profanity was for souls unbothered by warmer climes.
“Ray, I’m serious. Something’s up with that guy.”
“Yeah. That something is a wicked case of altitude sickness, but Sedona helped. He’ll be back on his feet before you know it.”
Another inhuman snarl rumbled out of his chest. “He already is.”
She waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, worry kicked her in the chest. “Spit it out, Blaine. You’re freaking me out. You seem rattled, and you aren’t a rattler.”
A grin cracked his scowl. “No, but I found one in your office this morning.”
“You what!”
He winced, covering both ears with his hands. “Good Lord, Ray. That pitch was only intended for dogs and dolphins.”
She tried to breathe, but that went about as well as the rest of her day. Living in these mountains presented any number of nature-based challenges; she’d known that going in. They faced heavy snows and crippling droughts, wildfires and floods and everything in between. Those issues barely fazed her.
Critters were an entirely different proposition.
Grossly oversized, hairy-assed spiders weren’t her favorite, but she could wield a shoe with the best of them. Even the stray scorpion was to be expected. Snakes, on the other hand, particularly those of a venomous persuasion, needed to stay the ever-loving hell out of her gym.
“It’s not dry season,” she mused. “I could probably torch the place and get away with it.”
“Uh-huh.”
She wasn’t completely kidding.
“It’s okay, Ray. It’s dead.”
“You killed it?” Eyes narrowing, she asked, “Are we talking snapped neck or decapitation?”
Finally, a genuine smile crossed his face. “I didn’t know you were so bloodthirsty. Is it wrong that it turns me on?”
She ignored that last part. “You know exactly how bloodthirsty I can be. But only when it comes to things that slither. Or people who screw with me about things that slither. Or people who generally piss me off. And if you change the subject one more time, you’re going in the pissed-me-off category. Now, which is it?”
He rolled his eyes. “If you really have to know, I chopped its head off with a metal clipboard. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a small gouge in the flooring behind your desk.” He smiled sweetly. “Now, you can rest easy knowing it won’t slither up your leg while you’re working.” That grin turned rotten. “Of course, that was the small one. I can’t promise anything about the big guy. Last time I saw him, he’d disappeared into that stack of mats in the closet.”
“There’s another one?!”
He cracked up. “Of course not. I wouldn’t leave a poisonous snake running loose in the building. It was just the one, and it’s dead.”
Her heartbeat pounded in her eyeballs. She’d never be able to sleep in there again, which meant she had nowhere to sleep at all. She’d been trying to come up with a better long-term housing solution for days and gotten exactly nowhere. Also, Blaine had officially checked two of her three get-your-ass-kicked boxes.
