Chapter Eight

Wyatt

I was pretty sure that Zoey started every day searching her closet for the outfit that would most drive me to distraction and give me an unforgiving hard-on. Given that I was sitting with her brother the hard-on issue was the biggest—pun intended. When we sat down and ordered, I had to fight the urge to look across the room at Zoey and get my raging, apparently teenage, hormones under control. Unfortunately for me, every so often her laughter rose up above everything else. Maybe the room was quiet enough to hear her or maybe I had the ability to zone in on her sound.

“Where the fuck is your head?” Riley sat back folding his arms across his chest giving me that hard look. He must’ve said something that I missed.

“I don’t know, man.”

“Is it that Harper chic?” Riley nodded his head toward the girls. “She’s pretty hot and seems…” he waved his hand in the air like he was trying to find the right word, “available.”

But I’d started shaking my head before he finished his sentence. “I’m not interested in Harper.”

“Then I can be.” Riley dove into the burger the waitress had set in front of him. “You coming to help set up the shop today.”

I sighed. “Yeah, for a while. I told your sister I’d help her move some furniture later.” Riley stopped chewing to give me his soul-searching look. “Fuck you.” The thing about knowing each other so long and serving in some very dangerous situations was that Riley didn’t need to vocalize his thoughts for me to know what they were.

Instead, Riley dropped the burger back in the basket then finished chewing before he spoke. “Listen. I’m not trying to be a dick here. The idea of you being interested in my sister thoroughly grosses me out.” I snorted. “Seriously. You’re a good guy and you wouldn’t treat her like shit or a one night stand because I’d fucking kill you and you know it. But she had a dickhead boyfriend in college so I just want the absolute best for her. She doesn’t need some guy messing with her head. Especially not an asshole that’s spent more of the last decade out of the country than in. You got me?”

Of course, I got him. He’d just said all things I’d told myself since seeing Zoey again. “Out of the country” was code for the shit we’d seen and done. Not about actually being overseas. Only I didn’t know about the asshole boyfriend.

No. I’d focus on Riley and the garage. When my best friend said he was leaving the military after six years, it took me by surprise. Now I knew that whatever happened with Zoey and the asshole ex-boyfriend was probably part of it. Then once I saw that there was life on the outside, something no marine I knew ever admitted out loud, I’d wanted that.

I’d dreamed of Zoey many times over the last few years but that had nothing to with me not re-upping. I’d wanted the possibility of a life where I wouldn’t be shot at or shoot at others but Zoey had also been on my mind.

After lunch, we worked in the shop in practical silence the entire afternoon and even I had to admit it felt good to be near tools again/ The smell of oil and grease hung in the air even though the shop was sparkling fucking clean.