Page 12 of This Time Around
A deep chuckle rumbled from Tucker’s chest after I stayed silent for too long. I wished it sent tingles up my spine like Andy’s did, but the only thing I could offer him was friendship.
“I hope the two of you sort your issues out soon so the rest of us can stop holding out hope that a certain coffee shop owner could return their feelings.”
“Us?” I asked dryly. He made it sound like he was the president of the Milo Miracle Fan Club. I am pretty fabulous, but I suspected that Tuck was grossly exaggerating my appeal to the residents of Blissville. “Tuck, I wish I could feel differently. I really do.”
He crossed the expanse of the room and stood in front of me. “Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you. I know you can’t help who your heart wants, and I want you to be happy. Even if that’s not with me.” Tuck placed a big hand gently around my neck and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I closed my eyes to keep from crying.Fuck! Why couldn’t I be in love with this guy?
“You are one of a kind, Tuck,” I said when he stepped back.
“That’s what my mama says.”
“She’s right. Someday, you’re going to find a guy who deserves all the amazing things you have to offer him.” I handed him the box of pastries then made a large hot chocolate to go. Tuck kissed my cheek when I passed it to him. “Get some rest, okay?”
“That won’t be a problem. Think about what I said,” Tuck told me as he headed for the back door. “Life is precious, don’t waste it.”
Not long after Tucker left, I heard horrendously loud hammering going on upstairs. Now, Andy had worked on those upstairs apartments for a solid month and had never made that kind of noise. It was almost like he was prodding me to come upstairs and confront him. The longer I stayed downstairs the louder he got. No matter where I went in the coffee shop or bookstore, he seemed to be directly above me, pounding away. Yeah, I was hot-blooded and horny as fuck by the time my last frayed nerve snapped. Luckily, it was midmorning when I’d finally had enough. The early rush was over and both the coffee shop and bookstore were fully staffed when I slammed out of the back door of the shop and let myself in the separate entrance for the upstairs apartments.
The crisp air wasn’t enough to cool me down as I tromped up the steps loud enough to alert Andy that I was coming. I found him in the same apartment as the night before when he was putting up new two-by-fours to frame the separate rooms. I was shocked by how much progress he’d made since I was up here the previous night. Andy was down to the last few studs that would create a master bedroom.
“I’m here now, Andy. You can knock it off. Most guys would call or text, but you bang and bang and bang until I can’t take it anymore and come up to confront you. That’s some passive-aggressive bullshit, Andy.”
“You’re a self-centered little prick, aren’t you?”
Ouch!I had to admit that stung hard. “I am not.”
“You think everything is about you, don’t you, Milo? Maybe I have other things going on in my life that don’t revolve around you. Do you ever think about that? Maybe those issues are what’s causing me to take out my frustration on these innocent pieces of wood.”
My anger vanished instantly. Had the situation been less serious, and I wasn’t so worried about him, I would’ve offered to let him work out his frustrations on my not-so-innocent wood, but not with a hammer. “What’s wrong, Andy?”
“It’s not your concern, Milo. Nothing about me should concern you.”
I always heard that the truth hurt, and boy, did it ever. “I don’t want to be angry anymore, Andy. I want…” I was afraid to voice what I wanted because he had every right to laugh in my face.
Andy’s shoulders slumped as the fight drained right out of him. “I don’t care what you want anymore, unless it has something to do with this project, Milo. You are a paying customer after all.”
His words lashed at my soul and stole my breath away. I could feel my face heat with humiliation. “Just try to keep it down, okay. It’s hard for people to cozy up to a book and a cup of coffee with all the banging going on. It hasn’t been a problem up until now, so that’s why I came up here. I won’t bother you again, Andy.” I turned and headed back out the way I came.Don’t cry, Milo. Don’t cry, Milo. Channel Peach and hold your head up high.I’d made it through the apartment and almost reached the hallway before his strangled voice stopped me.
“Wait.”
I stopped but I didn’t turn around. I wouldn’t be able to look at him without breaking down. I didn’t realize how badly I wanted to bridge the chasm between us until it was too late. Andy had made it very clear that my time to do what was right had passed me by while I was too busy trying to provoke him into making the first move. I was a fucking idiot and had no one to blame but myself. I stood and waited for his final verbal ax blow to strike me down. When the words came, they weren’t at all what I had braced myself to hear.
“Are you and Tucker a thing again?”
Like a bad case of herpes, my anger came roaring back. It obliterated my urge to cry and gave me the courage to face him with my head held high. “You’re such a liar, Andy. At least you’re good at it now. I’m not sure if I should applaud you or be upset. You really had me convinced that you were angry about something besides thisthingbetween us, and that I no longer meant anything to you. Oh, I mean a whole lot to you if you’re asking me about Tucker.”
Andy narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You’re not going to answer my question, are you?”
“Afterthislittle stunt?” I asked incredulously. “Hell no. I won’t make it that easy for you.”
“Nothing about you is easy, Milo. You make me fucking crazy.”
“And you’re welcome,” I said sassily, before I pivoted and returned to work.
I should’ve felt happy that the hammering was less obnoxious, but my brain was still restless when I joined Maegan for lunch in her small office at the back of Curious Things. Nothing between Andy and me was resolved, we continued circling one another, and I didn’t see an end in sight. I poked at my Caesar chicken salad instead of eating it, not unlike how I took a stab at Andy every chance I got instead of kissing him.
“What’s going on, Milo?” Maegan asked.
I glanced up and looked into her worried green eyes. “I was going to ask the same about your eyebrows, Mae.”