The Fight for Us (6 page)

“Fucking Randall.” He muttered, but as she looked at him, he smiled gently.

Her focus dropped to his chest. “I lost a rather large commission to him that day, and it’s a tough time of year for sales. I just…”

“You don’t have to explain.”

At first, she mistook his comment as his way to tell her to shut up. As deep and warm as his voice could sound, his inflection was still very hard to read and his well-controlled expression was too. As her embarrassment burned her cheeks and she studied his face, it was clearly sympathy she saw.

“I’m sorry. It can’t be easy being a single mom who lives off a commission based job.”

She said nothing. Part of her wanted to nod, part of her wanted to cry. She’d been worried as hell for a while now about how she was going to make ends meet this winter, and his warm palm against the top of her hand was making her want to melt into that touch and let the fear go for a bit. Instead, she sat stoically still. She couldn’t take sympathy from this man—not because she didn’t want to, but because for some odd reason, she just really, really wanted this man to respect her, and she suspected he didn’t.

“So…”

He smirked as she said it, nodded his head once, and pulled his hand from hers. “So…”

“What kind of house were you interested in?”

They spent the next ten minutes discussing his must haves, his wants, his deal breakers, and his price range. He could obviously afford plenty of house. By the time they were done discussing, she had the list narrowed down to twelve homes, eight of which were vacant, thanks to owners who only resided there seasonally. The other four would have to be viewed by appointment.

“So, you need to decide which of these you’d like to take a look at.”

“All of them.” He simply watched her as he responded.

“Well, that could take a while.”

“I’ve got a while.”

“Like all day.”

“Then we better get going. I’ll drive.”

He stood then, and she did as well. All day with a man who didn’t much care for her. Hmm…

She climbed into his car as he started it. This was a first. She always drove, and while some buyers met her at a home, they certainly didn’t drive her. It was a foggy, cool day. Winter could hit fast and early in these parts, and given it was only the first week of October, she’d say they’d thus far been lucky. Not even a snowflake yet, but the gray clouds, blustery wind, and fog out over the water said their luck might just be turning against them finally.

She directed him to the first home. It was a secluded, contemporary house on the waterfront. It had a large dock and boathouse and a private stretch of beach. There were few like it on the island. The waterfront was easy to come by, but the seclusion was nearly impossible.

He followed her up to the front door and watched as she punched her access code into the key holder. As she ran down the features and walked him around the house, he continued to watch her, and even when she’d point something out—the slate fireplace, the granite countertops, the large walk-in master closet—his attention never seemed to give any of it much thought. Instead, he was just studying her.

“You’re not saying much.” As she spoke, she turned to him and leaned back against the lovely dark gray granite countertop in the kitchen that he’d yet to notice.

He smiled. It was a nice smile. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d seen a genuine one at this point. He leaned up against the opposite counter, crossing his feet at the ankle. When his arms crossed on his chest, it wasn’t defensive in the least. He was still studying her.

“I’m thinking about something.” His voice was nearly playful as he finally responded to her.

“Is that so? Care to share?”

“I feel like perhaps I owe you an apology, and I’m not terribly good at those.”

She chuckled for a second. She couldn’t say she was very surprised to hear that. “They’re quite simple really. Two words, nothing more.”

“Hmm…” His eyes never left her, and she was starting to get horribly uncomfortable—not bad uncomfortable. Rather it was the discomfort of having a handsome man staring at her when she was trying really hard to appear normal. Her insides didn’t feel at all normal at the moment either. Instead, her body felt more like a wobbly JELL-O mold.

When she bit the side of her lip, his attention snapped to her mouth and his nostrils flared as he inhaled a deep and slow breath.

He cleared his throat as his focus shifted back up to her eyes. “I’m sorry.” His expression was sincere. “I overreacted. Natalie sent me a text that night and then turned her phone off, so I couldn’t respond. She knew I’d disagree, and she didn’t want me to.”

“Why would you have disagreed?”

He was the one who chuckled this time, and she knew very well his chuckle was loaded with the promise that this conversation could deteriorate quickly. For some odd reason things always seemed to fall apart when their children were brought into the mix.

“I was just worried. Things have been difficult for her here.” He studied her carefully as he spoke.

She was guessing he was just as aware they were on a slippery slope as she was.

“Yes, but Harper knows what she did was wrong. She’s not a mean child. She just got caught up with the wrong girls.”

“And you think that makes them friends?” His head cocked to the side, and his jaw was suddenly tense. They were passing over the precipice of that damn slope now, and soon, they’d be helpless to stop the slide.

“Well, I’d like to think they could—”

“Nat is ignored all day at school. Just because Harper and her friends aren’t tormenting her, doesn’t mean they’re friends or that anyone is her friend for that matter. She’s treated like an outsider, and I don’t want to see her reaching out to someone and then getting hurt as a result. Harper has been—”

“Perfectly nice to Nat since—” The defense in her tone was undeniable.

“Don’t call her Nat,” he snapped. His inability to let her finish a single sentence was his own defense. There was no stopping their descent now. His eyes were wide and angry. Joss was left with her mouth hanging open as he glared at her. She was shocked, though she’d seen it coming since the moment Harper and Natalie’s names were mentioned. He looked confused or angry or something too bizarre for her to nail down. When he opened his mouth again, it was with a frustrated shake of his head. “Can we go now, please?”

She nodded, but the exasperated huff of breath she didn’t even attempt to disguise made it clear she was pissed. He shook his head again in response as he turned and walked from the house.

The next four hours of her life were the longest, most uncomfortable she’d ever experienced. They may have managed to avoid a shouting match, but they were certainly not going to be friends on this day. His expression was cold, his demeanor was too, and he followed her stoically around house after house. She couldn’t seem to get her voice to sound kind, and it was due to his distant behavior. He didn’t seem to be part of this world at all, and she felt like she was doing nothing more than talking to herself. But that’s not to say she didn’t manage to incite something from him, but like everything else, it left her confused to the point of being dumbfounded.

As they were returning to the main level of the fifth house they toured, she managed to catch her heel on a carpet loop just as she was trying to step down to the last stair of the wide open staircase. She started falling forward toward him as he came off the last step. He caught her as her arms flailed and she tried to grasp helplessly at the banister. Naturally, she ended up chest to chest with the man—still standing oddly and only partially on the last step as he stood on the floor. He was tall, and the step put her close to his face and her breasts sandwiched tightly between them.

She felt the warmth of his breath on her lips as he exhaled slowly, and her cheeks started burning with hot heat. She was entirely too close to him. His hand, which had landed on her lower back and nearly made it to her ass, was sending a flush through her body that coursed in her veins with the beat of her heart. His eyes traveled slowly down to her breasts—her cleavage pushed up slightly thanks to the closeness of their bodies and the rather low cut of her shirt. His breath caught in his throat as he stared at her tits, and it was only when her hand made it to the railing and she was able to right herself and pull back from his body that he finally looked away.

She straightened her shirt as he avoided looking at her for a moment, and when his attention finally returned to her, he looked frustrated.

“We’re done.” He turned and walked away as she gaped at him, and when she finally caught up to him after scrambling to turn the lights off and lock the house, he was sitting in his SUV, waiting as he stared off down the road.

She climbed in next to him. As he put his car into drive, she took a deep breath. “The next house is—”

“I said we’re done. I don’t want to see anything else.” He didn’t bother looking at her as he spoke.

“Did you want to make an offer on any—?”

“No.”

Her blood boiled the five minutes it took them to get back to the office, and she kept blowing out slow, deliberate breaths to keep herself from yelling. Once they pulled up outside her office, he made no move to say anything. He simply sat beside her, staring out the front windshield. That’s when her patience with the man hit its limit.

“Thanks for wasting my day,” she muttered sarcastically as she reached for the door handle.

He finally looked at her. He was expressionless as he stared at her, waiting for her to say something further.

“I can’t afford to shuttle emotionally fucked up men around this town for their own twisted pleasure. I have better things to do with my time.” Her voice was bordering on yelling, but he maintained his cool stare. “Why did you even bother? You just wanted a personalized tour? You wanted to waste my time? What? What did I do to you that has you hell bent on treating me like shit?” She glared for a moment before finally shaking her head and opening the door.

She didn’t bother worrying it might piss him off when she slammed the car door hard behind her. His door opened and closed too, and she spun around, ready to defend her pissy mood and door slamming temper tantrum. What she saw on his face stopped her rebuttal in her throat. He looked at her feet, simply staring slack faced and breathing deeply.

Once his focus shifted slowly up her body to her face, he swallowed harshly over a lump in his throat. “Fuck.” He muttered it under his breath as his attention darted away for a moment before finally making it back to her eyes. “I’m attracted to you.” He oddly looked devastated over the news even as a rush of need tingled every nerve in her body as it made its way through her.

“I…I don’t understand then…”

“I don’t want to be.” His face looked utterly devoid of anything—wiped out even. “I
am
sorry. And I’m well aware that I’m emotionally fucked up, but thank you for pointing it out.”

She didn’t have a clue how to respond to that. Her expression must have looked absolutely shocked. He didn’t turn from her. He didn’t walk away. He just watched her as though this weren’t the most awkward thing in the world. Just her luck is what the situation was—her luck in a nutshell.

She gave up thinking he would turn away first, and she did, but as she took the first step up the short concrete flight that led to the front door of her building, she stopped and turned back. “I’m attracted to you too.” There was nothing terribly friendly about her disposition at this point, and she shrugged. “Not that I guess it matters. When you’re serious about looking for a house, call the office. Ask to speak to Randall. I’m sure he’ll help you out.”

She turned back toward the office and didn’t look back. She wanted to look back so much it was nearly impossible to keep her eyes forward, and she paused as the door closed behind her.

“Hiya, Joss. How’d it go?”

Joss turned to Steph, pulling her jacket off as she moved. “Colossal waste of a day.” She muttered. “How are you?”

“Better than you. Just getting ready to run to The Bean. Want a coffee?”

“Sure, sounds good.”

When Joss reached her office, she sat in a huff at her desk, staring at her black computer screen for nearly five minutes before she managed to regain her composure. When Steph returned a few minutes after that, bearing hot coffee, she managed to release a sigh and some of her stress along with it. Steph sat in the chair across her desk, handing Joss a coffee and keeping one for herself.

“Tell me about the handsome man. You know him, which is odd, because you’ve not mentioned meeting a hot guy, and I’m pretty sure as the office administrator, not to mention your best friend, you’re required to tell me these things.” Steph was eying her curiously.

“He’s complicated, and I wouldn’t say I know him. I mentioned his daughter to you. Remember the new girl at school that Harper was—”

“Oh, yeah! That’s the new gal’s dad?”

Joss nodded.

“You failed to mention he’s hot as hell. You did notice that, right?”

Joss sighed. She’d noticed all right. “We have a hard time getting along. Today was no different.”

“Huh.” Steph was watching her curiously if not a bit confused. “Really thought there might be some sparks there when he came into your office.”

“Yeah, sparks of rage.” Joss’s tone was all sarcasm. “Alright, maybe sparks of attraction. He said he was attracted to me.”

Joss watched as Steph’s eyes bulged for a second, and then a sly little smile took over her mouth. “That’s a start.”

“No, I think that’s the end. He followed up that bit of information by saying he didn’t
want
to be attracted to me.”

Steph looked about as confused as Joss felt. “What the f-bomb does that mean?”

“I don’t know. I suppose because he resents the hell out of me because of what happened between Harper and his daughter. Honestly, I don’t know. Does it really matter? It’s not like I’m in the market for a man.”

“You’re still human, Joss. It’s okay to be attracted to a man.” Steph was looking at her sadly.

“My sort of baggage isn’t the kind of baggage you share. It really doesn’t matter. Our daughters have obviously gotten off to a rocky start, and since my daughter is apparently a bully—”