Dylan (Bachelors of the Ridge #1) (7 page)

“A solid name.” Garrett tipped his chin at the dog. “I’m telling you, he chews up one thing, and I’ll kick your ass, dude.” The puppy hobbled over to Garrett, who finally noticed the leg. Instead of petting the dog, like I’d expected him, Garrett tipped his head back up to the sky and sighed. “Of course, he’s missing a leg. Now I can’t even get pissed at him if he
does
destroy something.”

Dylan and I smiled at each other, and all three of us grabbed a handful of bags from the bed of his truck to carry into the house, the excited yips of Leonidas following us inside the house.

After feeding a ravenous Leonidas from his new metal bowl in the laundry room, I took him outside and showed Dylan how to help him get used to the routine of waiting by the back slider that led into Garrett’s yard. Given that he had squatted to pee twice in the grass since we arrived, and hadn’t had a single accident inside, I had to guess that Leonidas had lived in a house, at least for a while.

Dylan opened the slider for me and we walked back into the family room. Garrett was sprawled out on the couch, watching us underneath creased brows. Leonidas sniffed around the edge of the area rug that covered the hardwood floor, making his way around the heavy coffee table until he reached Garrett, who held out his hand to be checked out.

“Okay, fine. He’s pretty cute.”

“He’s handsome. And rugged,” Dylan corrected, taking a seat in the chair next to him. I tugged on the hem of my shirt, not sure if I should sit too. No, I should leave. They’d probably think I was weird if I stayed.

“So Kat,” Garrett said, “where’re you from? What’s your story? How’d you get to this place in your life where you’re helping strange men adopt three-legged dogs?”

Definitely should leave. Pushing out a tiny smile so he didn’t see how viscerally uncomfortable the questions made me, I rolled my eyes. “Not that you’re being nosy or anything.”

“Come on, make yourself comfortable,” Garrett said, sitting up on the couch so there was room for me on the other end.

“No, I really should get home.”

“Boring.”

“Garrett,” Dylan sighed. “You could at least ease her into your obnoxious personality in small increments.”

“Also boring.” He winked at me, and I felt a blush hit my cheeks. It had been my curse my whole life, a shining beacon anytime I was embarrassed or angry or breathing. Dylan chucked a throw pillow at Garrett, who caught it easily and lobbed it back, hurling a horribly dirty name at Dylan while he did it. While they ragged on each other, I stood on the periphery, like I always did, watching the easy back and forth, the effortless way they interacted and suddenly felt tears clogging my throat.

Neither one of them noticed when I started blinking rapidly and turned toward the kitchen so I could get my purse. Leonidas followed after me, leaning up against my leg when I searched for my keys with shaking hands.

The warm press of his little body steadied me, but also made me feel a little silly. It was no wonder I couldn’t do this—make friends in any other way than the surface and superficial. I couldn’t even stand in the same room and not feel completely overwhelmed with envy at their ability to exist together comfortably.

“Hey,” Dylan said from behind me. “You’re heading out?”

Taking a second to make sure my face was composed, I nodded, then turned with a bright smile on my face. “Yeah, it’s been a long day.”

He tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and gave me a sheepish look that made his forehead wrinkle up. His forehead
wrinkled
and I wanted to die at the sexiness. I needed away from this man like an hour ago. “Yeah, I guess that’s my fault.”

“No,” I rushed to say, “not in a bad way. I was glad to help.”

Garrett walked up next to me and dropped a heavy arm around my shoulders, squeezing me into his side. “Nice to meet you, Kit Kat.”

“That’s so unoriginal,” I said, pulling away from his embrace, completely terrified that one friendly hug would send me straight into uncontrollable waterworks. So I looked back at Dylan while I hooked my purse over my shoulder. “Remember, if he wakes you up in the middle of the night, he probably has to go. So take him out.”

He saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”

I leaned down to drop a kiss onto Leonidas’ head and then straightened, only to find them both trying to wipe smiles off their ridiculously good-looking faces.

Embarrassment probably should have been the feeling that swamped me, but surprisingly it wasn’t. I did something that made them both smile, and maybe it was sad that it warmed me as much as it did. Then I supposed I was sad.

I waved and turned to leave.

“Hang on,” Dylan said and I paused, looking over my shoulder. “You know, some of Garrett’s friends, well, my friends too I guess, are coming over on Friday night to have beer and play some cards. You should come. If you’re not busy, that is.”

My hands felt clammy at the invitation and I looked between the guys. Garrett’s eyebrows lifted briefly, but he didn’t say anything.

“You’re … you’re inviting me to your guys’ night?”

“If you want to come, then yeah. No pressure, just hangin’ out.”

A warm ball pressed against my chest, filling me with so much, so quickly that I almost looked down to see if it was a physical thing crawling into my skin. I’d probably have panic attacks the entire drive over, but they were just so kind, I couldn’t say no with them watching me the way they were. Blinking rapidly, praying I didn’t start crying, I nodded at him.

“Sounds good. What time?”

Dylan looked at Garrett, who just shrugged. “Any time after seven is fine.”

Gripping the strap of my purse with both hands so I didn’t fling myself at both of them for hugs, I smiled. “Okay. I’ll see you guys on Friday then.”

“See you Friday, Sprite.”

* * *

“
W
hat are you doing there
, man?” Garrett asked from behind me. The sound of Kat’s rust bucket car faded as she pulled down the street, and I didn’t turn right away to answer. Probably because I had no idea what to say. The invite had been a total impulse, the look in her eye all night while she watched me and Garrett practically screaming at me that she was lonely.

“What do you mean?” I went with playing dumb, keeping a blank look on my face when I finally turned and walked back into the family room.

“You trying to get into her pants?”

“No,” I said with a firm look. “She’s like ten years younger than me. And she works for me.”

“Okay,” he conceded easily, plopping into the couch across from me. “Then you’re trying to adopt her or something. Because I have never known you to be friends with a chick.”

Scratching the base of Leonidas’ skull where he lay on the floor next to my chair, I thought back over the whole day. Maybe it was the novelty because, like Garrett said, I’d never had female friends. Not really. I had women that I spent time with because we worked together, they were dating or married to my friends or married my brothers, or they were Casey’s friends.

“I can’t peg her,” I admitted, sliding past the fact that I’d been trying to all day. “She’s sweet, you know? But there’s something … I don’t know, sad about her. Couldn’t you see it?”

“I don’t think I was looking as hard as you were.”

“It’s not like that, Garrett. Trust me, I’d admit it if it was.”

He leaned forward on the couch, clasping his hands between his knees and fixed me with a serious look. Garrett wasn’t serious often, so it was enough to make me pay attention, not brush him off like I so desperately wanted to.

“You see this tiny little thing with big, sad brown eyes and you want to try and fix whatever it is that’s making her look like that.”

“I’m not—” “

“Just hear me out.” He held up a hand. I nodded. “You came from that big ol’ family, where you got to be big brother to Casey, and the fun single uncle for all your nieces and nephews, which probably made you think you were flying under the radar with your family.”

I shifted in the chair, feeling uncomfortable at how accurately he’d nailed it.

“You’re probably going to get bored here, real quick, because you’re not working as much and you don’t have that role to fill to anyone here. But don’t try to fix Kat because you need a replacement project.”

“Okay, Oprah, I’m not trying to fix anyone. She was nice to me today, and I don’t know if she’s got any family around here. Just trying to be nice back. Quit reading shit into it.”

He didn’t look away for a second, probably gauging my honesty, and ugh, it made me twitchy. But I didn’t drop his gaze, finally raising my eyebrows so he’d look away.

“Fine,” he said. “And you’re right, she totally avoided my questions about where she’s from. Maybe she’s hiding from a jealous husband. Maybe she’s on the run from a murderer. Or she
is
the murderer.”

I sighed. “You are so exhausting.” My phone chimed from the coffee table, and I leaned forward to grab it.

“I’m going to go meet Cole at a place he wants me to see.”

He nodded, then looked down at Leonidas, who was flipped onto his back and sound asleep, legs twitching out to the side. “Does this mean I have to babysit?”

“Have fun, Uncle Garrett.”

“I absolutely will not have fun.”

“Okay, well, good luck with that. I think I’m going to go buy a house.”

As I was walking out the door, Garrett yelled, “If he chews anything, I’ll kick your ass!”

F
riday night
, while the guys were gathered around the TV watching a Rockies game, I heard a timid knock on the door. Leonidas heard it too, his fluffy little head poking around the chair. When he tried to scramble toward the door, his good front leg slipped on the hardwood floor and he crashed forward in a heap.

“Get your legs under you first, man. It’s a lot easier to walk that way,” I said as I scooped him up under my arm. He wiggled in my grasp, but I could feel his tail thumping against my side, so I figured it was just excitement. When I pulled the front door open, Kat stood framed under the circle of light from the fixture next to the door, her brown eyes wide in her face. Clutched against her chest was a giant—and I meant
giant
—white, plastic bowl. The top was wrapped in aluminum foil, which crinkled when she shifted her grip.

“I made potato salad,” she blurted out, blinking rapidly at me, but not walking through the door. “I’ve never made it before, and maybe you guys don’t even like it. Not everyone likes mustard, you know. Or potatoes. And we don’t even need to eat it. You know what? I can just leave it in my car.”

She turned to march back to her car, but I snagged her elbow and gently pulled her into the house. “Kat,” I said when she wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Thank you. I’m sure it’s delicious.”

“It’s probably not.” Her eyes were still firmly trained on the bowl while she set it on the kitchen counter. I swallowed a laugh. Her nerves were like a physical presence separating us from the rest of the group. But there was something so endearing about it, and about the way that she’d obviously dressed up to hang out with us. Her skirt was a blinding orange, cut short and fit tightly around her slim hips. Her tank top was zebra print, and matched the strappy black and white sandals that wrapped up her shins. She must have done her hair too, because the messy strands looked a bit more uniform, held back by a bright pink headband.

“You look very nice,” I said carefully, as I typically made it a habit to not compliment the appearance of women who worked for me. But I couldn’t help it. She looked like a fluorescent highlighter, bright and blindingly fun in the masculine space of Garrett’s house. Her face whipped up to me, a lop-sided smile of gratitude spreading over her face.

“I’ve never been to a guys’ night.” She shrugged, finally looking more at ease. “It was either this or my Broncos jersey and yoga pants. I decided to embrace my role as the lone feminine presence.”

Then she looked around the counter, saw the lack of any real food beyond what she’d brought along. Her face flushed and she blinked away from me again. So I shoved Leonidas at her, and the distraction worked. She cooed and cuddled him, laughing delightedly when he tried to climb up her shoulder to sniff at her headband.

Garrett ambled into the kitchen and ruffled Kat’s hair. “Hey, Sprite. How’s it hangin’?”

Kat narrowed her eyes, shifting Leonidas in her arms. “I’m not positive how to answer you. Don’t men ask that question in regards to their penis?”

I choked on the sip of beer I’d just swallowed and Garrett froze, staring down at her with a mixture of horror and amusement. “Yes we do, Kat. And the fact that you just said that out loud means you are welcome at guys’ night for the rest of your
life
.”

She beamed up at him, the wide smile taking over her face so completely that her eyes crinkled around the edges. While Garrett loaded up a plate of her potato salad, the rest of the guys wandered in. I introduced her to Tristan, Michael and Cole, who all gushed appropriately at the amount of food she’d brought. From where I was leaning up against the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen, I watched her cheeks pink up with pleasure and her body language relax as she chatted with them.

Her comfort was making me feel better, like I’d accomplished something. But I still didn’t think that made Garrett right, that I was trying to ‘fix’ Kat because I had more time on my hands. Even if he wasn’t right though, his voice still niggled at the back of my mind.

“So, Kat,” Michael said during a lull in conversation, “are you originally from Denver?”

She hadn’t answered all my questions the other night when we were at PetSmart, so I watched her face over the rim of my pint glass. And I saw it. The fidget in her hands, the shift of her shoulders, the way she averted her eyes for just a second.

“Nope.” Kat didn’t elaborate, just smiled prettily at him and took another serving of potato salad. Garrett and I made eye contact briefly and he lifted his eyebrows like,
see?
“Is the game back on yet?”

Cole answered her, and everyone made their way back into the family room. Garrett gestured for Kat to take the chair, the one that he normally sat in, and she instantly refused, plopping onto the floor where Leonidas could curl up next to her.

I didn’t join them immediately, just stood in place, tapping my fingers along the side of my glass. Kat wasn’t a project, and she wasn’t a mystery that I needed to solve. If she wanted to keep her background close to the vest, that was her prerogative. It didn’t necessarily mean she was lonely and it definitely didn’t mean that she needed me to swoop in to make her life better.

Her life was probably wonderful. I nodded my head and wandered in to join them, winking at her when she smiled up at me. In fact, over the next two hours, I managed to almost convince myself that Kat was the least lonely girl I’d ever met. The guys loved her, and she seemed to bask in their comradery. She was just private. Nothing wrong with that.

And up until she finally stood to leave, I
almost
believed that. Walking with her to the door, I gave her back the clean (and completely empty) bowl that she’d brought with her. When she took it in her hands, Kat stared down at it for a second.

“Do you,” she started, glancing up at me briefly before looking back down at the bowl, “do you think they just ate it to be nice? Because even I know I brought way too much.”

“No,” I said sincerely. “They ate it all because they’re gluttonous pigs.”

She laughed and the airy lightness of the sound made me smile. Something about Kat reminded me of a pixie that was just as likely to start flying around the room as smile at me again.

“So you don’t want to live with Garrett forever, huh?” she teased. “I heard you talking to Cole about the place you looked at.”

I held my right hand up to my temple and mimed shooting a gun. “Forever with Garrett? We’d kill each other.”

Kat smiled, looking over my shoulder at the guys. “It sounds like a nice place.”

I hooked a thumb behind me. “Layout is pretty similar to this. I don’t have the sunroom that he does, but the yard is bigger.” We both smiled down at Leonidas where he was leaning against my feet. “Which is good for him.”

We were quiet for a second while we both looked down at the puppy.
My
puppy, which was still something I needed to get used to.

“Thank you for inviting me, Dylan.” The serious tone in her voice made me pause. Then she pulled in a deep breath and walked right into me, wrapping her slender arms around my waist. “I know I shouldn’t hug you because you’re my boss and you could probably sue me for sexual harassment or something.”

I laughed and wrapped one arm around her back, giving her as much of a return hug as I dared. “I promise I won’t sue,” I replied into her hair, the honey-colored strands tickling against my skin. She smelled like cake, and I inhaled the sweet scent of her quietly.

Kat took another deep breath, and when she released it, I felt the shuddering exhale in her entire frame. Oh shit. Then she sniffed. No, please dear Lord, no. I couldn’t take it. My heart could not
take it
if she started crying in my arms because we ate all of her potato salad.

“I had so much fun tonight,” she whispered, tightening her arms for a brief second before stepping back.

“Kat—” But she wouldn’t look at me, just held up a hand and turned to the door.

“Thank you again for inviting me, Dylan. It’s the best night I’ve had in a long time.” Before she stepped off the porch, she looked back at me for a split-second. The wetness in her dark eyes hit me like a sucker punch to the gut, but she turned away before I could even react. “See you at work.”

And she was gone.

I should have been able to let it go. She was a grown woman and she didn’t need me stepping in and trying to wipe away whatever sadness I’d seen weighing her down. But over the next two weeks, every time I saw her, I found myself dissecting her behavior.

With customers, she was the perfect server. I’d never seen her greet a table with anything less than a giant smile, always meeting their eyes when they spoke to her. With her coworkers though, it was a different story. The distance that she always maintained between herself and the people who worked with us was almost visible to the eye. Her smiles weren’t quite as big, and her conversations not quite as long.

But she only worked one night a week, so it wasn’t like I could spend too much time trying to figure her out. Plus, since we’d opened, we had stayed busy as hell. A busy restaurant, when it was well-run, was one of my favorite places to be. The customers were happy and well-fed, the servers and bartenders were making great tips, which helped staff retention, and I really enjoyed my co-managers.

Kat was delivering a tray of brightly colored drinks to a booth full of women, making them all laugh with something she said. She’d probably make a killing on her tips from them. From where I stood near the alley by the kitchen, I watched Kat make her way through the tables. As she usually did when working, her hair was pulled back into a little stub of a ponytail and she had some glittery flower pinned along the side. When she turned her head, it caught the dim lights of the room, making the pink color look like a fiery red when it sparkled.

When she finally made her way through the tables and set her tray down at the server station, she waved a hand in front of her face.

“Hot in here tonight, isn’t it?”

“Sure is,” I agreed, watching with a smile while she popped an ice-cube in her mouth and crunched down on it. “How’s it going out there?”

“Good. Busy, but good.”

Her answer was fine. Nothing different than I’d expect from any of our servers, but after just a few nights of hanging out with her and two appointments with Leonidas, I wanted to hear an answer from her that wasn’t politely distant conversation.

I angled toward her, about to say something else when she beat me to the punch.

“Did you buy your new place yet?”

“Almost. I close tomorrow, actually. I think Garrett is ready to shove me out the front door.”

She smiled at me and started filling some glasses of water for a table that was being sat in her section. “Congrats, boss. That’s great.”

“Don’t call me boss, Kat.” I gave her a mock-annoyed look. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

Without breaking her grin, Kat lifted the tray of ten water glasses up onto her shoulder with ease, considering how tiny she was. “I can’t help it.” Her eyes roamed my face for a second. “You’re so different at work. You don’t feel like
Dylan
. It’s like, I can’t be the idiot who brought five gallons of potato salad to your house when you stand here all aloof and impeccably dressed. I could sit and chat with
Dylan
. But not this guy.” She blinked away, a sheepish expression on her face like she’d said too much. “But anyway, I gotta drop off these waters.”

As she walked away, I shoved my hands into the front pockets of my dress pants, feeling a little stunned. It had never occurred to me that maybe the reason I was so fascinated by watching Kat at work was because she and I were the exact same in that way. But that reason was easier to stomach, easier to brush off at the end of the night when I laid in bed and thought about what piece of the Kat puzzle I’d figured out that day. It was much easier to swallow it, telling myself that I was only fascinated because of our similarities. I’d have much more to figure out if it was something else, if I couldn’t take my eyes off of her because everything about her, everything I was learning about her had me completely enamored.