I just needed to get it over with. Feed some puppies or take some pictures or whatever the fuck they wanted me to do.
The sunny-yellow building came into view, a large white-and-blue-and-yellow sign on the black shingles. Something I hadn’t noticed the other night when it was rainy and dark and the flashing lights of the police car distorted everything in sight.
Someone had cleaned up the damage done from the car, but I could still see the mangled fence and the wooden bench that had hooked on to the front bumper. The parking lot was empty, save for two cars parked in the back corner underneath tall, thick trees that shaded the entire space.
Just behind them, I saw a woman crouched on the ground with her hand outstretched. Her hair caught my notice first—red and curly and tied on top of her head in a messy knot.
The air punched from my lungs so fast, like someone had taken a baseball bat to my chest.
It couldn’t be.
A black dog was in the tree line, eyeing her warily, and I sat up in my seat as I turned the truck into a parking spot.
It was the same dog that had darted across the road the night of the accident.
His attention turned to me, and I let out a deep, aggravated breath before hopping out of the truck. The door got away from me, and it slammed more loudly than I’d expected.
At the noise, the dog was gone in the blink of an eye, only some rustling leaves left behind. The woman deflated, dropping her arm with a groan.
“Sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay,” she answered, standing from the crouched position, her focus on the tree line. Tall. She was tall. I drank in the sight of her body, now covered with a baggy T-shirt and black leggings. Ithadto be her. “He’s been cagey all week.”
In the seconds it took her to turn around, my mind spun in a million different directions.
She was here.
Oh fuck, she washere. That meant she worked at the shelter.
She was either going to punch me, or we’d have a great fucking laugh about how small of a world this was. I really, really hoped it would be option two.
What color were her eyes?
Then she shook her head and swept her hands briskly down the front of her leggings before turning toward me with a friendly smile on her face.
God, it sounded cheesy, but she was so fucking beautiful, my lungs stalled for an agonizing second.
When I finally pulled in a breath and thought maybe, just maybe, this community service thing wouldn’t be so terrible, her smile disappeared and her eyes—big and green and thickly lined—went just as cold as my father’s.
Before she even opened her mouth, that gorgeous, kissable mouth I’d fantasized about no fewer than a dozen times in the days since I’d seen her, I felt a sick twist in my gut.
“Youasshole.”
Option one. She was definitely going for option one.
Chapter Three
Remi
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, something that never happened. My ability to stay calm was legend.
So when I started mouthing off, I was either on the cusp of my period, when things like verbal filters were for cowards, or I needed about fifteen straight hours of sleep.
Unfortunately for the giant, muscled meathead with poor decision-making skills, it was a dangerous combination of both.
I don’t know what I’d expected from Archer Evans in the harsh light of day, but it wasn’t this. It was probably a healthy dose of self-preservation that had me fully believing he’d be less gorgeous and less intimidating outside of our weird little fantasy bubble that never should have existed.
A snide narrator’s voice popped into my head:He was, in fact, not less gorgeous.