“Guess I deserved that.” Her glossy lips lifted at one corner. “I mean, so far, I’ve made fun of your name and choice of dessert and all within hours of meeting you. Not to mention practically begging you to come help with my nasty, gooey sink.”
“Everyone laughs at my name,” Rocky claimed as he followed. “And I did try passing off pre-packaged cookies as dessert.”
Her sexy, husky laugh was the best kind of reward.
“And the sink?” Raegan shot him a wince from over her shoulder as they entered the home’s small kitchen.
“The sinkwaspretty nasty, and there was a definite presence of goo.” He sat the cookies down on the counter to his right. “But you didn’t beg.”
And as far as I’m concerned, a woman like you should never have to beg. Not for a single damn thing.
Rocky wasn’t sure where the overbearing thought had come from, but he thought of those damn locks, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Still, I really do appreciate your help, and I’m totally cool with having Oreos for dessert. Like, for real.”
“Well, that’s good because the brownies I made were so hard, they’d probably withstand the weight of this house.”
Another spine-tingling rasp laced Raegan’s laugh as she picked up two pizza boxes from the island, stacked two paper plates on top of those, and tipped her head toward the black plastic container still there.
“Can you grab the napkins and wings? We’ll have to take these into the living room since I don’t have a dining room table yet.”
“Napkins and wings.” Rocky grabbed the warm container of wings and the small stack of napkins next to it. “Copy that.”
From the corner of his eye, he could’ve sworn he saw a slight stutter in Raegan’s step. But when he looked at her more fully, he found she was already disappearing into the other room.
Quit looking for shit that isn’t there, dumbass.
For once, he decided to listen to his subconscious and focused on the facts as he knew them. And those were that his pretty new neighbor had invited him over for a non-date dinner, and he’d accepted.
With any luck, through nothing more than casual conversation, he’d discover his concerns were totally unfounded, and Raegan was perfectly fine. But something Rocky knew better than most…
Being safe is little more than an illusion.
“So…” The gorgeous enigma put the pizzas down on the basic wooden coffee table. “I kind of forgot to ask earlier what youliked on your pizza, and I didn’t think about it until I was already online making the order.”
Rocky hoped his smile put her worries at ease. “It’s okay. I’m not picky.”
“I would have gone back over to ask, but I didn’t want to interrupt you again, so I just went ahead and got the ones I usually go for.” Leaning over the large boxes, Raegan opened one and then the other.
“A beautiful woman who likes Pepperoni and all-meat pizzas.” Rocky slid his focus from the pizzas back to her. “Howare you still single?”
The presumptuous question slipped right from his tongue, but before he could do damage control and try to take them back, he heard two words that nearly made his heart fall to his feet…
“I’m not.”
He froze save for his wide, blinking eyes. “What?”
“In fact…” Raegan glanced over his shoulder at the locked door behind him. “My husband should be home any minute.”
Feeling completely taken aback by the serious look on her gorgeous face, Rocky opened his mouth to respond, but nothing seemed to come out. Clamping his jaw shut, his mind raced to come up with a plausible, appropriate response.
The best he could come up with on the fly was a rambling, “Oh. I thought...”No, you assumed, asshole.“I didn’t realize you were…I mean, not that it matters. It’s not like this is a date or anything. Obviously,youknow it’s not a date, I just meant…that’s cool.” He shot a quick glance at the door from over his shoulder. “Uh…when did you say he’d be coming ho?—”
Rich, slightly rough laughter filled the room, and it took Rocky a full two seconds to realize…
I’ve just been played.
Blowing out a long, deep breath, Rocky set the wings and napkins down next to the pizzas and plates. With an appreciative nod and a sideways grin, he told her, “You’ve got jokes. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”