Page 7 of The One Who Got Away (Murdock Brothers #4)

Eloise

“Earth to Eloise.”

I blinked out of my death stare on the door. “Sorry.”

“You good?”

I sighed. “Sorry, Jessie. I’m just distracted.”

“Have something to do with a certain Murdock brother?”

I blushed. “No. Of course not.” I picked up our scraper and tidied up the counter from the last rush.

I threw the bits in our composter and started on the usual refills.

Bite Me was open from ten in the morning until six.

Most of the time it was only me and Jessie working with a part timer who floated in a few shifts a week.

“Sure.” Jessie elongated the word as she disappeared through the swinging door. She came back with a Self-Saving Princess and handed it to me.

I sighed. “Man, that bad?”

“Girl, you have a whole luggage set under those eyes. If you don’t want me to attack you with my cosmetics bag you best get some sleep.”

I tore off a chunk of the brookie and nibbled. “I can’t sleep. Gus freaking kissed me.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Really? About damn time.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

She just rolled her eyes and ignored me as a customer came in.

Another five people came in and that was the end of me asking questions until we weren’t buried in cold cuts and sub rolls. When I noticed Cam Murdock at the counter my breath caught. I looked around for Gus.

“Hey, Eloise. I heard you were back in town. How are things?”

“Good.” I pasted on a smile. “Same town, same peeps.”

“Ain’t that the truth. It’s a good thing, though.”

I nodded. “Speaking of same. A Loaded Bun?”

He laughed. “You know it. Extra sauce and peppers for me.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Dripping?”

“That’s the one.” He folded his arms on the bakery case and peered down into the glass. “Is this new?”

“Yeah, we’re swapping some stuff with Sweet Beat. She wanted to sell some premade sandwiches.”

“Dang. Mercy’s stuff goes so fast I usually can’t get in there before she closes.”

Sweet Beat never had the same hours every day. Mercy Hart didn’t care -- once the cases were empty, she was out of there for the day. It always kept her product in high demand.

“Well, grab it while it’s there. I have one Back in Black & White left.”

He grinned. “Mine.”

“You got it.” I bustled around and added an extra scoop of sauce and peppers on his spicy Italian sausage. A mound of cheese and a quick trip into the oven had it toasty and ready to go. I rang him out. “You were doing a big job with Gus right?”

He nodded. “Yeah, he had to go out to Rochester. It was the only place that had a few big screens for the basement part of the job.” Cam held up his blistered hands.

“I’m in sanding city with bookcases.” His dark eyes were so much like Gus’s, but there were more crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

His hair was sandy like most of the brothers and fell around his face in shaggy layers.

“Ouch.”

“I deserve this.” He pulled the foil wrapped hot sub forward and the bakery bag. “You’re the best.”

“See ya later.”

“K-i-s-s-i-n-g.” Jessie said on her way by then bumped me out of the way.

“Wrong Murdock.”

“See. I knew it.”

I groaned. “Shut up. There’s no kissing.”

Okay, so there was one kiss. It was more like one of those butterfly kisses I read about in books. The almost kisses that were more of a tease of something more.

I tipped my head back with a strangled groan and ducked into the back for a big gulp of my water. I’d been reliving that kiss for days now. Three very long days where I’d only gotten a morning and a night text from Gus.

Sometimes, like today, it came with a photo.

Gus:

Morning. Saw this and thought of you.

And it was a photo of the sunrise over the houses where he was working.

I’d immediately sketched them with my iPad for the storyboard I was working on for a game.

I didn’t have anything else to do in the long nights that was for sure.

Story Brook Valley had been an idea I’d had for ages.

I was usually too exhausted after working at Everest Games to work on my own code, but I always had my iPad handy.

The bright scenes made me happy at the very least. But I had dozens of them. Enough to start coding them into a workable world. It wasn’t a fast paced first person shooter style game, this was made for hours of lazy play. To go on adventures and build a cozy town from the ground up.

I hadn’t told him about the game.

I hadn’t told anyone. I knew indie game designers were everywhere these days, but it had been safer to work for a company. They had the money and the resources to work out the bugs of an intense code. But I’d learned a lot from my time in the corporate space and maybe...

I shook my head and went back to prepping for the last rush that would start around dinner. People stopped in after work to pick up easy dinners especially since the heat of summer still wouldn’t let up even at the end of September.

I cut tomatoes on the slicer and filled the lettuce bin, bringing both back out to the counter. Jessie had taken care of the last of the mini-rush and was cleaning up.

“Oh, thanks. I was about to go do that.”

“No problem.” I tucked them into their slots in the large stainless-steel grid and closed the lid.

“So, what’s got you restless, El?”

“I’m just...”

“Thinking about a certain beardy boy?”

Uncertainty buzzed under my breastbone.

“C’mon, kid. Just spill.”

I looked around, but there was no customer to save me this time. “He kissed me the other night then my mother interrupted. I’m not sure if it would have gone any further. But he kissed me. I’m so confused.”

“The guy has had the hots for you for years. How do you not know this?”

I frowned. “He friend zoned me ages ago. Hard .”

She shrugged. “That was then, I guess.”

“But why would he do that now?”

“Who knows with guys. That’s why I switched teams long ago, baby doll. Not that women are any easier to be sure, but at least I generally understand them.”

I laughed. “Maybe it was just the wine.”

“Maybe.” She shuffled sub rolls from the bottom of the bread case to the top for easy reach. “We’re down to just a few Italian Stallions.”

“Got it.”

“Maybe he’s just ready this time. Are you?”

I sighed. That was the million-dollar question.

The last run of the night started, and it was crazy enough to stop my spinning brain. We were out of sub rolls and down to thick cut sourdough sandwiches by the time we closed out. We had to actually lock the doors at five minutes before six because we were nearly out of food.

Jessie sagged against the door after she flipped the sign to closed and turned off the neon Open light. “I might actually have to hire another part-timer. Carly isn’t fast enough to deal with what we’ve got going on lately.”

“I know. I don’t know if it’s just the nice weather or what?”

“I don’t know, but works for me. I’m going to do a triple batch of bread for tomorrow.”

“Good idea.”

“Why don’t you take you and your luggage home. I’ll clean up.”

“I’m good.”

She shook her head. “I’ll just blast my music and get it done.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Get out of here.”

I was too tired to argue. She was right, my dark circles were crazy. Every time I tried to sleep my mom either came in to talk, her voice all watery with tears, or I stared at the damn glow-in-the-dark star stickers on my ceiling.

I couldn’t even blame it on my night owl status as a game designer. I actually worked better in the daytime.

I liked cuddling into my bed at night with my e-reader or a TV show.

My cozy aesthetic was top tier.

Well, it would be if my mom let me change anything in my room.

It was my room dammit.

Living in the past wasn’t good, but I couldn’t talk. For the last week I’d been living in nostalgia land with Gus. First with dinner then my dreams. Then him telling me to think about the kiss.

What was I to think about?

Did that mean he wanted to try us out now?

I wasn’t sure I could handle jumping from friends to bed friends with Gus. That would screw me up way too much when it stopped.

Or did he mean he wanted more?

Ugh. Annoyed at myself, I snagged the bags of trash on my way out the back. I tossed them into the dumpster and dug for my keys.

“You should know better, El.”

My heart slammed as I looked up, dropping my keys back into the bottom of my bucket bag. “Gus.”

He pushed off my car where he was leaning. “Can’t come out distracted like that even in Indigo Valley.”

I licked my lips. “Yeah, well I had stuff on my mind.”

“Yeah? Maybe me?”

I dug deeper and finally found my keys. “Why would I?”

He stepped in my space and slid an arm around me. “A few reasons.”

My breath stalled in my chest. I struggled back. “Are you playing with me?”

His arms went iron strong. “Not in the least.”

“Why now?” My heart went haywire. Could he hear it?

I wanted to drag the words back because maybe it was better not to know.

Instead, I went on my toes and connected with his mouth. I didn’t want excuses or recriminations right then.

His other arm rose and his fingers cupped the back of my head as he turned me just right and dove in. I hummed into his mouth. Best friends didn’t kiss like this.

A line from Bridget Jones swirled in my head. “Nice boys don’t kiss like that.”

And then there was no thinking.

He kissed me like there was no air in this world other than the kind in my lungs. He held me so damn tight that I had problems making new oxygen. But who needed oxygen when a man kissed like this? When Gus kissed like this…

I stopped sagging there like a hung fish and curled one arm around his neck, and gripped his belt with my free hand. He smelled like sunshine and that foresty aftershave he wore. He tasted like Dr. Pepper and home.

It was enough to make me step back.

Instead, he pulled me in again. “Not done,” he said against my mouth.

Then he emptied my brain right there on the alleyway near Hope Street.

Where anyone could see us.

By the time he lifted his head, I was literally humming.

I slowly opened my eyes—afraid it was all a wild daydream. He was grinning down at me with that crooked smirk. I smoothed my fingers up from his belt to his chest. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He brushed his nose along mine. “Have anywhere to be?”

I licked my lips. My mom was expecting me. I had half a dozen texts asking when I was off shift even though she knew my schedule. She knew where I was every minute of the day. “No.”

Guilt swallowed me directly after.

She needed me.

“What?” He tucked his fingers into my back pocket making my body hum.

I sighed. “I should check with my mom.”

His dimple winked. “Okay if I come?”

“You sure you’re ready for that? Things have been...” Suffocating. Overwhelming. Tissue boxes over-runeth sad.

“Sure. How about we pick up a pizza?”

“You don’t really want to hang with my mother.”

“I want to hang with you. Melody is part of the deal. I’m good with that.” He stepped back, slipping his hand around mine like it belonged there forever.

I let him lead me to his truck instead of my car. He opened the passenger side and crowded into me. His fingers gripped my hips and I yelped as he lifted me onto the seat. The heat in his eyes had my heart hammering again.

What the heck was going on?

He moved into my open legs. Nerves bloomed in my stomach. I was sweaty from working all day and probably smelled like Italian dressing.

“What’s wrong?”

“I smell like an Eye-Talian.”

“One of my faves.” He lightly gripped the tops of my thighs.

“Look, I don’t want to?—”

He leaned in and silenced me. The kiss was a little harder this time. My brain literally fell out and rolled away down Hope Street. When he sweetened it at the end before breaking the kiss, I was a damn mess.

“I’ve wanted to do that since we were fifteen. Hell, thirteen if you want me to be honest.”

Thirteen? We’d all gone to the same school, but I couldn’t remember much about him in elementary school. Suddenly an old memory of the first day I met him shimmered into my chaotic thoughts.“Relay Day?”

He laughed. “You remembered.”

“I remember tackling you.”

“So do I.” He grinned and brushed his thumb along my lower lip. “Pretty sure you activated my hormones that day.”

“I was so clumsy. I got boobs out of the blue.”

“Oh, I know.”

I giggled. “They stopped growing quick. They just got in the way a lot that year.”

“They’re perfect.” His other hand brushed my ribs, but didn’t move higher.

My breath shuddered and my nipples tightened. Thank goodness for my heavy-duty sports bra. “What took you so long?”

“I had my reasons.” He cupped my face.

A horn blared. “Hey, you ever giving up that spot, buddy?”

I flushed as Gus stepped back and flipped off whoever it was.

I laughed. “Gus!”

“It’s my cousin.”

“Oh.” I hid my face in his shoulder. “I’ll order the pizza.”

“Deal.”

He shut the door and I buckled my seatbelt with trembling fingers.

I didn’t know what the heck was going on, but I was more than ready to find out.