Roughneck: A Payne Brothers Romance by Frost Sosie

Author:Frost, Sosie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

9

Tidus

Sometimes the only solace a man had left was his privacy.

The knock at the door shattered that.

I didn’t bother standing up, just grunted to let them in. This late at night, the only person who’d bother crossing town to talk to me was one hell of a sorry soul.

Or maybe…a perfect one.

Honey had no business wandering up to my apartment after midnight. Yet there she was. Smiling. Shrugging a hello. Closing the door behind her.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “Thought I’d check on you.”

If she’d been any other woman at any other time, I would’ve assumed she wanted to get fucked.

But with Honey? I got the feeling she actually cared.

For someone who never made any mistakes in life, she made plenty when it came to me.

“Don’t gotta worry about me.” I crossed my arms behind my head. “I’ve taken care of myself for this long.”

“Have you?”

Not really. “Well, I’ve taken care of myself for the past three months.”

Honey surveyed my apartment. It wasn’t much. Couch and TV in the corner. Galley kitchen collecting dust across the hall. Two bedrooms, one mine, the other for Quint when he didn’t want to take a girl back to the farm. The bathroom did the job. Nothing for a lady, but the shower washed most of the garage grease away.

But Honey didn’t judge. She joined me on the couch, tucking her leg under her body. She twisted the silver can in my hand, peeking at the label.

“Relax,” I said. “It’s La Croix. Pretty sure the name is French for utter shit.”

Honey laughed. “Then why are you drinking it?”

“It’s bitter.”

“You like bitter?”

“Reminds me of what I could be drinking.” No. That wasn’t right. Usually I didn’t care what I said, cared even less about what people thought. But Honey was the only goddamned person who listened to me. She made it worth giving a damn. “It reminds me of what I shouldn’t be drinking.”

“Do you like it?” She took a sip and crinkled her nose. “Didn’t take you for a coconut kind of guy.”

And she still didn’t judge me. Instead, she asked more questions. That curiosity would’ve landed anyone else on my shit list. But from her? Hell, it was almost flattering.

Never had a woman care enough to ask inane questions about the disgusting mineral water.

Never had anyone press so hard, dig so deep, or annoy the piss out of me.

Honey shouldn’t have cared about me. What the hell did I do to make her give a damn?

And how did I convince her that getting to know me would be the worst decision of her life?

“When was the last time you had a drink?” she asked.

I didn’t want to remember, but I’d probably never forget it. “The day of my nephew’s baptism.”

“You drank at a baptism?”

I had some class. “No. I binged the night before. Didn’t wake up in time. Missed the whole damned thing.”

Honey softened her voice. “Oh. You must’ve felt awful.”

What did it matter how I felt?

“My family was pissed,” I said. “It was more than my nephew’s baptism.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.