Worth the Wait(18)

He stood quietly for several seconds before responding. His voice came out so low and filled with concern that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. “What happened to you, beauty?”

He tried to touch my face again, but I wouldn’t let him. “That’s none of your business,” I said bitingly.

“Kenzie, I can’t help you if—”

“I’m not asking for your help!” I yelled. “All I was asking for was your friendship, but if you can’t give me that, then I guess there’s nothing left to discuss.”

Without another word, I shoved past Brett and made my way to my station to prepare for my next appointment. So much for keeping things from getting messy.

As I walked away from Brett, sadness formed a knot in my stomach. I told myself I was doing the right thing. So why didn’t it feel that way?





It’d been a week since mine and Kenzie’s little blowup outside the restroom of Elegant Nails and I was still beyond pissed at the stubborn, hard-headed woman. I’d been walking around all week long with a raging case of blue balls and a bad fucking attitude. That was not a good combination. I needed a night out with my friends. I needed to blow off some serious steam.

“Y’all coming to Colt’s tonight?” I asked Trevor as we worked on finishing up the rooms he’d contracted me to build out for his wife, Lizzy.

He started talking—something about his tattoo shop, but I was too busy staring over at Kenzie’s station and silently stewing to pay attention.

“So what’s going on there?” he asked, dragging my attention away from the one woman who was pulling me in two. A large part of me just wanted to wash my hands of her. She was too much damn trouble, but something just wouldn’t let me do that. And damn if that wasn’t doing my head in.

“Huh? Oh, nothing,” I lied and went back to mudding the joints in the drywall we’d just installed.

“Doesn’t look like nothin’. Looks like you got a hard-on for Lizzy’s friend.”

I tried to come off casual with a shrug, but I didn’t know how successful I was in pulling it off. “Nah. Woman’s got too much baggage. Two little kids. I’m not looking to play daddy any time soon.”

Where the hell had that come from?

“Jesus, man. What the hell?” Trevor asked, stupefied. It wasn’t like me at all to be such an asshole, and honestly, I had no clue why I’d just said that. It wasn’t like I’d meant it. I was just so damn mad and letting my anger get the best of me.

I dropped my head on a sigh. “That was harsh.”

“Uh, yeah. That’s a fucking understatement. What was that all about?”

I turned to look over at Kenzie’s table, thanking Christ she wasn’t there. For a second, I’d been terrified that she’d overheard me saying something so cold.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just finish this shit up,” I grumbled before grabbing the trowel and slapping down more drywall mud.

Christ, I needed to get my shit together before something came out of my mouth I wouldn’t be able to take back.

When Trevor headed off to his shop a little while later, I kept working, glancing over at Kenzie’s station more than what could be considered healthy. But she’d never come back to her little table.

“Hey,” I stopped Lizzy as she walked past me. “Where’d Kenz go?”

The knowing smirk the fiery little redhead gave me made me want to cringe. If I became any more obvious, Lizzy’d be up my ass faster than anything, trying to play matchmaker. I’d already fucked up enough on my own. Last thing I needed was her help.

“Went home sick. Said she was getting a migraine. Poor thing, works herself to the bone then goes home and starts all over again with those two little ones. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Cameron and Callie, but they’re exhausting.”

She’d left?

How had she managed to leave without me noticing?

My brows tipped down as I looked from the front door of the salon back to Liz. “Is she okay?”

She studied my face with curiosity before telling me, “Yeah, she looked okay; just a little down, I guess.” With that, she turned and walked off, leaving me with a sense of dread deep in the pit of my stomach.





What a raging hemorrhoid! I couldn’t believe I felt guilty for being rude to such a dick. Brett Halstead was a douche who didn’t deserve the time of day and I was done worrying about how to keep things from being messy.

Honestly, I was thankful to know what he really thought of me. Hearing that I had too much baggage and he didn’t want to play daddy to my kids was a relief. I could finally despise the jerkoff without feeling bad.