Chapter 16
Natalia
Turned out I didn’t need to call Damon when I got home. Because the asshole was sitting on my couch when I unlocked the front door.
Startled, I jumped back. Hunter, who was close behind me, caught me and immediately shifted so I was behind him.
Every muscle in his body tensed as he growled, “Who the fuck are you?” Hunter was not a man I’d want to meet in a dark alley.
Damon stood and glared right back. “Damon Valente. Who the fuck are you?”
I squeezed Hunter’s shoulder. “It’s fine. This is Damon. I just didn’t expect him to be in the house.”
Hunter responded to me by speaking to Damon. “He shouldn’t be. How’d you get in here?”
Damon was such a smug asshole. “I own the building. We have keys to all the apartments. Who is this guy, Nat?”
Feeling the need to diffuse the situation, I stepped back in front of Hunter and tried to play it off. “This is Hunter Delucia.”
Damon overtly sized him up. “Yeah? I’m the landlord but also a friend of Nat’s husband, Garrett.”
I put down my purse and corrected him. “Ex-husband.”
Hunter closed the door behind him and walked to extend his hand to Damon. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Hunter was going to make nice. I should’ve known he just wanted to get closer to get his point across.
He waited until Damon’s hand was in his and looked him straight in the eyes as he spoke. “You shouldn’t be in here when Natalia’s not home.”
“Nat doesn’t mind.”
“Actually, Damon, I do.”
The two men were still hand in hand, but it was more akin to the shake before a prize fight than an introduction. Concerned at the tension in Hunter’s face, I diverted attention to the problem at hand. Although something told me Hunter would not think the problem at hand was the kitchen sink.
I walked to the kitchen and opened the double cabinet doors beneath the sink, revealing the now-half-full bucket I’d put inside.
“It’s filling up even without running the water. It’s worse when the water’s on. The first time it happened, I didn’t realize until my feet were getting soaked. It had filled the cabinet and leaked out in less than a minute. So I’m guessing there’s a hole somewhere or something.”
I let out an unsteady breath when the two men released their shake and Damon walked to the kitchen. He put his hand on the small of my back, with his fingers splaying down mighty close to my ass, as he stood next to me. I reached around and quietly removed it.
Damon turned on the water and crouched down to watch beneath the sink. “Your seal is leaking. Strainer is old and corroded. It needs a new one and some putty.” He stood and twisted the water back off. “I’ll pick one up and come back tomorrow morning to install it.”
Hunter stood in the doorway, his shoulders occupying almost the entire space. “I’ll take care of it.”
Damon turned. “It’s part of her lease. Landlord takes care of plumbing, electrical, and heat. Plus, I promised my friend I’d take care of his wife while he wasn’t around.”
Hunter’s eyes flicked to me and then to Damon. His jaw was set rigid. “Ex-wife. And you can let your friend know, Natalia is being taken care of just fine.”
Damon’s face heated. But Hunter was younger, bigger, stronger, and his tone left no room for negotiation. Pissed, he turned his attention to me. “Don’t waste my time if you’re going to have someone do the work yourself.”
The door slammed shut a minute later. Hunter ran his fingers through his hair. “Sorry about that.”
“Sorry? I seriously doubt that jerk will be sniffing around anymore. I can’t thank you enough.”
“Guy’s a dirtbag.”
“He certainly is. I think if I’d met Damon the same day I met Garrett, I might have thought twice about my ex-husband’s character before the truth smacked me in the head a few years later. You can tell a lot about a person by meeting their best friend.”
Hunter nodded. “I agree.” He caught my eyes. “For the record, I think Anna’s pretty damn great.”
God, this man could melt ice with those eyes. “Derek’s pretty awesome, too.”
***
Even though I’d told him I would call a plumber to fix my leaky seal, Hunter insisted it wasn’t a big deal and he could fix it easily. So while he ran out to get what he needed, I cleaned everything out from underneath the sink and decided to bake him brownies. They were already out of the oven and halfway cooled by the time he returned—even though the store I’d told him about was only up the block.
He had two bags when he entered. “Smells good in here.”
“I made you brownies. You’ve spent time helping Izzy and bought me dinner on your birthday and lunch today. You’re going to repair my sink. Not to mention that you drove me around California and let me stay at your house. It’s the least I could do.”
“It’s not necessary.” He reached to the plate, grabbed a brownie, and stuffed it in his mouth. “But if you’re in a giving mood, I can think of a few other ways you could repay me.”
Before I could respond, he shook his head. “Wow. I really can’t seem to stop my mouth, even when I try. I hope you were being honest when you said I’m not like that Damon asshole.”
“You’re nothing like that dirtbag,” I assured him. “I’m glad you’re back to your normal, perverted self. That half hour you practiced self control was awful.”
Hunter unbuttoned his shirt and winked. “I knew you liked my dirty mouth.”
Wearing just a white T-shirt, he got ready for the sink repair. He dumped the contents of one of the bags on the counter and opened a bunch of plumbing parts individually wrapped in plastic bags before setting them on the floor where he’d be working. As soon as he laid down and stuck his head in the cabinet, Izzy’s cat appeared from nowhere and ran across the room—jumping on and over Hunter during his random chase of air. The sudden pounce on his abs made Hunter jolt upright, and he whacked his head on the cabinet as he sat up. “What the hell was that?”
I walked over and picked up the crazy feline. “Sorry. Are you okay? That was Izzy’s cat. He doesn’t come out often. He’s shy.”
Hunter rubbed his head, then raised his eyes to the cat in my hand. His eyes widened. “Does he…have one eye?”
I petted the top of its head. “Yeah. He was a stray that Izzy used to feed when she lived with her mom. Must’ve gotten into a fight and lost it at one point. He doesn’t have a tail either.”
“That’s one ugly cat.”
“Hey, be nice. Catpernicus has feelings, too.”
Hunter arched a brow. “Catpernicus?”
“Izzy’s into astronomy. We call him Cat for short. He likes to sleep in the closet. Poor thing digs himself under the discarded teenage clothing heap in her room. I think he probably had it rough on the streets.”
I dug my nails into the top of Catpernicus’s head, and he pushed up and licked the inside of my wrist while starting to purr.
Hunter grumbled, “Lucky pussy,” and went back under the sink.
Fifteen minutes later, my sink was fixed.
“I really can’t thank you enough.”
“No problem.” Hunter washed his hands and grabbed the other bag, which I now noticed was still full.
“Did you buy extra parts in case you needed them?”
“Nope. Got a flat-head screwdriver?”
“Sure.” I went to the junk drawer and pulled one out as Hunter emptied the contents of the other bag. Inside was a Baldwin lock and key set.
“Changing the lock on your front door while I’m at it, so that asshole can’t help himself inside while you’re in the shower one day.”
I’d never thought of that. But now that he’d said it, I was glad he was doing it, because I wouldn’t sleep tonight with that idea planted in my head.
“Wow. Yeah. Thank you. That’s great.”
***
“I should get going.” Hunter polished off the beer I’d given him after he’d finished fixing my sink and changing my door lock. Since Izzy had texted that she was going over to her friend’s after the boys’ basketball game, I didn’t have anything I needed to do for the rest of the afternoon or evening.
“Do you want to stay and watch a movie or something? I could make you a late dinner since we ate a late lunch?”
Hunter crossed to where I was standing to toss out the beer bottle, then brushed a lock of hair from my face. “I should go.”
His hand lingered on my cheek, his thumb stroking my skin as our eyes locked. God, I wanted him so badly I ached. I longed for his other hand to cup my face the way he had during the kisses we’d shared. It was so intimate, so passionate. But as always, fear kept me from telling him that or acting on my feelings.
Hunter read the fear in my eyes and nodded with a sad smile. “I definitely should go.”
We walked to the door in silence. When he opened it, a sense of panic washed over me. “You’re going to Mom’s for dinner tomorrow night, right? She invited you?”
“She did. But I’m going to tell her I can’t make it. You should take your date, instead.”
My date. I had zero desire to take Marcus to Mom’s. In fact, I had zero desire for Marcus. Unlike the man who stood in front of me.
“Will I see you again?”
“I’m here for two months. If you need anything, give me a call. Plus, I’ll check in on how Izzy’s stats improve.” He held out his hand for the first time, instead of kissing me like he’d done every other time we’d said goodbye. “Friends, not fucking?”
It wasn’t exactly as enticing as sex, not love, but it was what I could handle right now. I put my hand in his. “Friends, not fucking.”