“Right…well, that’s…that’s good then.” She spun away. “I better get back to packing.” Then she raced out the door.
Adam cursed. He hadn’t thought about that day in a long time, didn’t want to. So much had changed. He’d changed. He wasn’t the same guy as he was then—he was worse.
Lucy was off limits. Always had been, always would be. Not only was she too damn young, but Hugh and Joe would murder him slowly if he laid one finger on her. There was also the fact she hated his guts passionately. The girl bit his head off whenever they were in the same room. He was the only one feeling the off-the-charts lust nowadays. And thank fuck for that. The idea of tainting her, unleashing all the messed-up shit he had swirling inside him on her, made him fucking ill.
If Lucy ever decided she wanted him again, only a fraction of the way he wanted her, he was royally screwed. They both would be.
Fuck. He needed to get the hell out of there, away from the temptation that was Lucy Colton.
Then he needed a damn drink.
Chapter Two
Dental assistant.
Mouths. Blood. Terrified kids. Pass.
Lucy ran her finger down the paper to the next job on the list.
Stripper. Um…nope.
House cleaner. Maybe. Must be okay with nudity. Nope.
She’d circled six waitress positions, two retail, and one for a receptionist at the rival garage down the road.
Someone snatched her pen from her fingers and slashed a line through the receptionist job.
“No fucking way are you working for those butt munchers.”
She tried to grab the pen out of Joe’s hand but he held it above his head. Considering she only reached his chest, she was shit out of luck.
“Give me my damn pen back, a-hole.”
Joe shook his head. “I can’t believe you’d betray us like that! You goddamn traitor.”
She yanked on his shirt, trying to pull him forward, but the bastard didn’t budge. “I need a job, and being your sister might actually help.”
“How’d you figure that?” Hugh said, walking into the breakroom.
She should have taken the paper upstairs. A rookie move on her part. “I figure hiring me and annoying you would be incentive enough to take me on.”
“You’re not working there,” he rumbled like a grumpy grizzly bear.
“Sorry, but you don’t have a say in this.”
Hugh picked up the paper, screwed it up, threw it in the trash, and aimed his pissed-off stare at her. “I said…no.” Then he dropped his giant butt in the closest chair, leaned back, and closed his eyes.
“You can’t do that.” Lucy poked him in the shoulder since it looked like he was seconds away from nodding off.
He swiped her hand away and cracked an eyelid. “Do as you’re fucking told for once in your goddamned life, would you? I don’t have the energy to deal with your drama. You’re like a human swarm of locusts, flattening anything that gets in its way.”
Ouch.
His other eyelid popped open. “Why don’t you go stay with Ma for a while? She’d be thrilled to fawn all over you and praise you on your brave choice to throw your life away.”
Double ouch.
Lucy wrapped her arms around herself and tried like hell not to let him see how much his words hurt. Hugh got pissed at her sometimes, but never this pissed. Before she left college in San Francisco, she’d made the decision to turn her life around after what had happened, the hell she’d caused—been through. She needed to start thinking before she acted. She needed to leave behind the old Lucy, the reckless, irresponsible, carefree girl she’d been—the girl who had entered into a relationship with her goddamn professor and turned her life upside down, letting her hopes and dreams crumble to her feet. Convincing her family that she’d changed, though, wasn’t going to be so easy.
Adam walked in. “Someone didn’t get their eight hours last night,” he said to her brother.
She turned to him. “Great, here comes the third stooge.” She was trying for snarky, but failed completely. It probably didn’t help that her eyes were actually stinging and she was close to damn tears. She’d been like that a lot lately.
By the way Adam straightened from his position, leaning against the doorframe, eyes narrowing as they moved over her face, he’d seen as well.
That was all she needed. She quickly looked away before he said something and the fifty questions started. “You know how much I hate to agree with Adam…” But she’d roll with it in this instance, anything to get the focus off her and her job search. “You are extra pissy this morning.”
Hugh grumbled. “Shay’s got morning sickness. Did you know morning sickness isn’t just in the morning?” He scratched his beard. “I hate seeing her like that. She’s not holding much down. I went out and got her some ginger last night ’cause it’s supposed to help.”