Uh-huh. Sure. That was why he was complaining about eye contact and trying to win our staring competition.

And using his fingers as quotation marks. Sure.

What had to be his tongue poked at the inside of his cheek as he watched me carefully. “You were coming on to me—”

I exploded. “What?” The chances that my face was scrunched up was high. Very high. “When?” From the sound of the words coming out of my mouth, I hadn’t realized that me assuming he’d thought I’d been flirting with him was completely different from him admitting he thought I had. I hadn’t.

“You brought cookies over—”

“That my mom made for the eight houses closest to me. Go ask the neighbors.” Hadn’t I told him this already? He was good-looking, but he wasn’t that good-looking. I had better things to do with my precious time than bake him cookies. The fuck was he thinking? Was he one of these idiots in the world who thought every female was interested in him? Sure, he had an amazing body, but all you needed to do was go on social media and search for a fitness model to find one just as nice.

Trying to tell myself that I didn’t need to get all riled up for no reason, I let out a breath through my nose and tried to let out the most controlled exhale I was capable of. Basically, I still sounded like a dragon. “No offense, pal. I’m nice and I have manners, and I pretty much saved your brother’s life. I was not trying to get in your pants after only seeing you one time.” Maybe that was harsher than it needed to be, but I was insulted.

Those gold-green-brown eyes narrowed as he seemed to process what I was saying. Even the mostly-grin on his lips melted off.

Feeling more indignant than I probably had any right to be, I figured I should go ahead and bring up anything else he might try and use as examples before they pissed me off. I held up one finger. “I went to the bar, Mayhem, with my friend and boss, Ginny, who is Trip’s cousin, who is your cousin, too. I work down the street from there. Please ask anyone who knows Ginny.”

I raised another finger. “The only reason why I told you hi was because you were the only person there that I knew, and I didn’t want to be rude.”

A third finger rose. “And before I called you about the team’s schedule, I called Trip first each time. The only reason I didn’t go over to his house to complain was because I don’t know where he lives.”

In my head, I added “fucker” to the end of that. In reality, I did not. Sometimes I even amazed myself.

The silence between us was thick. And he finally said, with his gaze sharp and his mouth back to a firm line, “I’m married.”

I lost it. “Good for you. Did I say you weren’t?” Jesus Christ. I’d already mentioned I knew he was married and didn’t want to have anything to do with that. “I have married guy friends, and by some miracle, I’ve managed to keep my hands to myself every single time I’ve spent time with them, if you can believe that.”

We stared at each other for so long, eye to eye, one smart-ass expression to another that it didn’t immediately hit me that both of our facial features eased gradually. He had been wrong and I… hadn’t. Dumbass.

It was almost as if he could read my mind because he raised his eyebrow.

I raised mine right back, repeating the word in my head. Dumbass.

His eyebrow stayed where it was and so did mine.

Once you bowed down to someone, you were their bitch. And if there was one thing I’d learned about myself over the course of the last few years and last few dozen mistakes, that wasn’t exactly a title that sat well with me, and it wasn’t one I would willingly take ever again. Especially not from this man who didn’t put food on my table and clothes on my back. I was usually a lot nicer than this, but this was basically how I treated people after they’d known me for a while. It was his fault he brought this out of me so soon.

I repeated the word to myself, hoping he could read my thoughts: dumbass.

Dallas’s mouth twitched, highlighting the fact his bottom lip was fuller than the top one; the lines across his forehead eased, and eventually he extended his hand in my direction, those hazel eyes still on mine. He thought I had a staring problem? He had one too. “We’re good,” he announced to the world, steadily.

Like I wanted to be friends with him by that point.

Trip, I liked. Dallas on the other hand, I didn’t know what the hell to think. Maybe I could have reasoned that the woman in the red car had pushed him over the edge, but I wasn’t going to go there. His brother seemed like he might be a jackass. Jackass Jackson. But…

I was going to be an adult and accept that we all made mistakes. Didn’t I know that by now?

Fuck it. He wasn’t spitting into his hand and I wasn’t spitting into mine to form some kind of undying friendship, like I’d done with Vanessa so many years ago. We might as well make the best out of this situation. Life was a lot easier spent next to a pine tree than a cactus. Plus, this was for Josh. For him, there wasn’t anything I couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

And Dallas and I were going to be stuck with each other for a long time. Literally.

I snuck my hand into his. The callused, much larger body part that consisted of a palm and fingers swallowed mine whole. At least he had the grip of a man. “All right. We’re good.” We shook, and before he’d let go of me, I asked with my face straight, “So has the schedule been changed?”

Chapter Nine