Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Rush cleared his throat. “Peter is an old friend from my early days in San Francisco. He was in for one night last night on a work trip, and I invited him up for a good time.”
“A very good time. We were at the little brewery last night,” Peter said. “And then we came home and kept drinking, and then we saw the sun start to rise, and, well, that brings us to now.”
The little brewery. Jade Brewery was one of the biggest, nicest places in the whole town, and this guy was calling it “little.” I realized I didn’t really like Peter, even though I barely knew him and had no logical reason to have an opinion.
“I’ll be getting out of your way now,” Peter said. “Rush, goodness, it was so nice to see you again. Please call more.”
Peter squeezed his arms around Rush before giving me a breezy grin and heading out the front door.
I lifted an eyebrow at Rush. “Were you… sending me a thirst-trap shirtless photo while you were in the middle of a hookup with another guy, this morning?”
Rush looked down, shaking his head. “It’s not like that, Shawn.”
Just then Nathan and Charlie walked in, tools in hand.
Rush was watching me like he was trying to gauge my reaction. Awkward. Awkward as hell, even though there was no reason it should have been.
I gave him a polite smile and went back out to the van to haul in a few more tools, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my chest. I took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. I was never going to be that guy for Rush, and I had to get used to it. I was never going to have a wild, long night with him and then leave sometime past sunrise looking tired and sexy and satisfied.
I was here to make this house look like a million bucks, and that was it. Everything felt simpler when I just focused on my work.
“This place is perfect,” Charlie was saying when I stepped back through the front door. “You two didn’t tell me it was so cute.”
Rush had brightened up. “I think we can do great things with this house.”
“I was expecting an old shack, but this place has mega potential.”
Rush nodded. “She’s going to be a beauty after you guys are done with her. I’m sorry I didn’t finish moving the patio furniture yet. I was just telling Shawn I didn’t sleep at all last night.”
Charlie chuckled. “Oh, you too?” he said. “I also barely slept.”
“Rough night?”
Charlie let out a long sigh. “Well, I’m single again, and I’m not happy about it. But I’m glad to get my mind off of things today. Maybe get my mind off things tonight too, in the form of a much-needed one-night stand.”
“My favorite. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble with that,” Rush said.
Charlie turned to me. “The house is just as cute as its owner,” he said, turning back to wink at Rush.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
It was already bad enough that I’d witnessed the end of Rush’s all-night sex bender. Now I had to watch Charlie bat his eyelashes and flirt with him, too.
It was for the better, though. I needed to rip the Band-Aid off at some point, and put my silly crush to rest.
“All right,” I said. “First thing’s first. The back deck. We can move all that patio furniture off in about thirty seconds, by the way. Don’t worry about it.”
He finally looked at me again. “Thank you, Shawn.”
“Say goodbye to your back deck, though,” I said. “All that wood’s getting torn out this morning.”
He threw his hands up in the air. “Rip ‘er out,” he said. “That wood is more rotting splinters than anything else. We’re definitely going to need to start from scratch out there.”
Within another twenty minutes, we’d gotten all of our tools out to the backyard and we started some good, old-fashioned hard labor. It hit the spot perfectly. Tearing up old wood, getting sweaty, and enjoying the chilly morning air in Rush’s tree-lined backyard were the only things that got my mind off of everything else.
After taking a catnap inside for a few hours, Rush got back up and headed off to the brewery for his work day.
Just forget about him and get back in the game, I told myself as I worked and worked all morning.
I resolved to have fun—lots of fun—on my date with the guy from the app tonight.
I was taking this new guy to the brewery, anyway, and I was going to make sure to flirt my ass off, or die trying.
Later that night in the brewery, it was only about thirty minutes into my date that I realized I was striking out for the millionth time in a row.
And I was only one drink in before I realized I didn’t care about being “good” anymore.