Hurry Up And Wait (Owens Protective Services #24)

5. Isla

5

ISLA

I didn’t expect to run into him so quickly, nor did I have a plan for what I was going to say to him. But the moment I saw him, I just did what came naturally. Maybe leaping into his arms and wrapping myself around him was a little presumptuous since I hadn’t seen him since I was fifteen, but it felt right.

I squeezed my eyes closed and relished the feel of his body against mine. His very hard body. Holy shit. Kavanaugh was no longer the scrawny kid I used to climb trees with. In fact, it felt like he kept climbing trees since the last time I saw him, and then ran up a few mountains. I ran my hands over his massive shoulders, my eyes widening to saucers as I took in every inch of his very nice body.

A throat cleared behind me. It was Riley letting me know that I was being entirely inappropriate. I stepped back, my face turning the same color of my red hair. “Hey,” I waved foolishly.

“What are you doing here?” Kavanaugh asked. “In Kansas!”

“Well, funny story,” I chuckled.

“She totally followed you out here,” Riley cut in, giving me away.

I laughed like it was a joke, but it was better to come clean. “I did.”

“You…how? ”

“Well, I contacted my mom, who may have done some snooping into your family, and…well, here I am.”

His face furrowed in confusion as he tried to piece together why I was here. I sighed internally as I let my eyes wander over him. He’d gotten so freaking handsome as an adult. When we were kids, he was just the scrawny kid I played with after school and in the summer when he wasn’t busy being a politician’s kid.

Gone were the lanky arms and legs. His hair wasn’t styled like a preppy kid and he no longer wore those sweaters draped over his shoulders. Not that I ever minded. He was nice to me and that was all I cared about. But now…now he wore cargo pants and a T-shirt that rippled across his shoulders and barely contained his arms. It was…

“Why did you follow me?”

I yanked my gaze from his broad chest and cocked my head at him. “Huh?”

He smirked at me, clearly seeing where my mind was actually going. “I said, why did you follow me?”

“Well, nasty divorce, change of scenery, and in desperate need of good people,” I nodded as if it was that simple, which it really was.

“Divorced, huh?”

“Not yet, but in the process. And anyway, Riley and I were moving me out of the house and the decision was made,” I shrugged.

“She made the decision,” Riley jerked her thumb at me. “I was a bystander in this whole escapade.”

He grinned at her, pulling her in for a hug that made me entirely too jealous. She was always there with us, getting into scrapes that inevitably got us into trouble with his parents. But we never cared. We were the best of friends until we moved away. And then we kept in touch as best we could until one day, the letters stopped and we never heard from him again. Yes, it hurt, but we were adults now and there was no room for games in my life.

Kavanaugh laughed, running his hand over her hair. “Same funky style as always. I half expected you to have blue hair the next time I saw you.”

My sister was always a little wild, wearing anything she wanted with no regard for what was in style. She was always ahead of the trend, and by the time it was cool, she’d moved onto something else, deeming the rest of us nerds.

“So, you just got to town?” he asked.

“Yep, about an hour ago. We stopped by the house, but we couldn’t go on without some food.”

He looked in my cart and shook his head. “That’s not food. That’s candy.”

“Same difference,” I shrugged. I peeked in his cart and quirked an eyebrow at him. “Are you some kind of fruit fanatic now?”

“Only for slaughtering them,” he cocked a grin at me.

I nodded, knowing he would say something silly like that. “So, what’s with…” I waved my hand up and down his body, gesturing to his massive amount of muscle.

“Uh…” He chuckled, running his hand over the back of his neck. “I went into the military.”

My eyes bugged out and it took Riley smacking me in the chest for me to realize I was staring at him incredulously. “Um…I mean, no way!”

“What she means is, that’s really…”

Yeah, Riley couldn’t finish the thought either.

“It’s just…you were always so…”

“Like a politician’s son?” he asked.

“I was going to say scrawny, but we’ll go with your answer,” I laughed.

“I wasn’t scrawny,” he countered, looking offended.

“Well, you look good now.”

“Very good,” Riley agreed. I noticed her eyes running over his body as well, but tried to hide the fury rising in my chest. I never got mad at my sister, especially not because of a boy. Man . He was a man. But Kavanaugh was different. He had always been mine, and she knew it. And now she was flirting with him.

Well…okay, maybe she wasn’t flirting, but the jealousy was still there.

He blushed, chuckling under his breath. “You both look amazing.”

“Hey!” a man called out toward us. “I’ve got the umbrellas, but that asshat manager said he only buys the cheap ones! I think we need to go to an actual umbrella store!”

I pointed at myself, sure he was talking to me. “I don’t need an umbrella.”

The man strode toward us, holding out the black thing. “This is a piece of crap. It’ll never hold the knives I need.”

“Who gives a shit?” Kavanaugh snapped, shaking his head at the man.

“Oh, he’s talking to you,” I said to no one in particular. “Thank God because I really thought he was discussing umbrellas with me.”

“Why would he talk to a stranger about umbrellas?” Riley asked.

“You’d be surprised,” Kavanaugh grunted. He snatched the umbrella out of the man’s hand. “FNG, this is Isla and Riley.”

I nodded with a small wave, but Riley was practically drooling over the man.

“Seriously? Two of them? What do you need two women for? And why is it that all of you meet women in grocery stores? Is that a thing that I missed in the year I was gone?”

I cocked an eyebrow at Kavanaugh. “You pick up women in grocery stores?”

“Not intentionally,” he muttered. “Or at all. I mean, others have, but not me.”

“Others?” Riley asked, her eyes brightening at the suggestion that there were other men equally as hot who wandered around grocery stores looking for women to date. “Do I just pick a spot and hold out a thumb and stick out my leg, or is there some system I need to know about?”

“I doubt it’s a service,” I told her.

“You never know. Hot men of Kansas coming to the rescue.”

“Rescue you from what exactly?”

“Boredom. Grain. Cowboy boots. Take your pick.”

“As far as I know, none of my friends rescue women from boredom,” Kavanaugh grinned.

“Ah, don’t forget about Thumper.”

“Yeah, but Bree wasn’t bored. She was trying to be bored, which is a totally different thing,” Kavanaugh retorted .

“May I remind you that I was there,” FNG said. “Trust me, there was definitely a finite amount of boredom there.”

“Finite? Did you bring your dictionary with you to the grocery store?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know big words.”

“Then you would know that finite means a limited amount, asshole.”

“Okay, so she had a limited amount of boredom,” FNG argued.

“That’s not a thing,” Kavanaugh argued.

I shifted from one foot to the other as I glanced at Riley. This was slightly strange. I didn’t remember Kavanaugh ever arguing over something as silly as a word before, but times change. Who was I to determine what was strange after all these years?

“It doesn’t matter!” Kavanaugh snapped. “The point is, this is a stupid thing to argue about.”

“Yeah, just like you thought it was stupid to get melons,” FNG muttered under his breath. “Like the apples that I see you didn’t get.”

Kavanaugh turned to us with a tight smile. “So…this is FNG.”

I chuckled, unable to hold back. “I can see that.”

He pulled out his phone and handed it over. “Put your number in. We’ll get dinner.” Then he eyed the cart. “Unless you’re filled up on Jujyfruits.”

“I think we’ll have room for dinner,” I laughed, entering my details. “But I’ll see you before then.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, we still have to unload our things. Having a few strong men around to help wouldn’t be turned down.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Let me drop this asshole off?—”

“I’ll drop you off,” FNG muttered. “I have the truck, but whatever.”

“Send me your address,” he called out, sending me a quick message as FNG pulled him away, arguing with him again about the stability of the umbrellas.

With a smile on my face, I turned to Riley and smirked. “Didn’t I tell you it would all work out?”

“I can’t believe it worked!” Riley grinned as we rushed inside, each of us plopping our shopping bags on the counter.

“I told you it would work.”

She stopped and spun on me, gripping my arm. “Did you see him?”

“Of course, I saw him. I have eyes.”

“No, but…did you see him? I mean, did you really think our Kavanaugh would look so?—”

“Hot? Amazingly beautiful? Sexy as all get out?” I sighed as I let my mind drift to the man in the grocery store. “It’s still hard to believe that’s him. I really didn’t think when we came to this town that I would face down a hunk like him.”

She started unpacking the groceries, setting them sloppily on the counter and sending them sliding to the floor. “Okay, first, you can’t call him a hunk. We’re not in the nineties anymore. Second, what are you going to do?”

Another box of candy hit the floor and I bent over to pick it up, putting it on the counter just as she unpacked three more and they slid off the other boxes stacked haphazardly on the counter.

“What I’m going to do is get to know him.”

“I know, but are you going to get to know him or get to know him ?” She waggled her eyebrows, grinning at me like a fool.

“Listen, for all I know, he’s already married or dating someone.”

“Or he’s a manwhore. Ooh, or maybe he’s just desperately waiting for someone like you to come along.”

I rolled my eyes and bent over to pick up the rest of the boxes falling to the ground. “Would you stop?” I shrieked.

“What? It’s Kavanaugh!”

“No, I mean, stop putting the boxes on top of each other. I already got my workout in for the day,” I said, slamming another box on the counter. “And as for Kavanaugh, let’s wait until he gets here and see how things go. Besides, what if you wanted him?”

“Well, I definitely want him, but he’s always been yours. ”

“You did move with me across the country,” I said, unpacking the last of the bags. “Besides, I’m still married.”

“Yeah, but that was over at least a year ago. Don’t think I don’t know about your afternoon delight.”

I stopped and spun, staring at her as my face turned beet red. “My what?”

Her grin told me all I needed to know.

“See, at first, I thought you were having an affair. No one makes that much noise when they’re flicking Fiona?—”

I slapped a hand over her mouth, cutting off anything else she might say. She mumbled something against my hand and I finally released her.

“You washed that hand, right?” She stared at my hand and then flicked her eyes to mine.

“You’re terrible.”

“ I’m terrible? You sounded like you were having an orgy!

“I needed to get off!”

“Like I said, no one makes that much noise flying solo. So, anyway, when I walked back into the house an hour later and you were rushing around, trying to pretend like everything was perfectly normal, I knew you weren’t having an affair. You would have told me.”

“I think I hate you a little bit,” I glared at her.

“So, the way I figure it, you need someone to let off a little steam with.”

“Kavanaugh’s not the man to let off steam with. I’ve known him for too long.” I frowned, thinking about how it had been years since we’d seen each other. “I hardly know him anymore. It would be wrong to use him that way.”

“Uh…I get the impression that all Kavanaugh does is blow off steam. I say go for it.”

The doorbell rang and I slapped a hand over her mouth. “Not a word.”

She pried my hand away. “You know, he’s outside. You don’t have to cover my mouth.”

The doorbell rang again and I slapped my hand over her mouth again. I wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like the right thing to do. “I wouldn’t put anything past you.”

She licked my hand and I instantly pulled back, wiping it on my pants. “Gross.”

She stuck out her tongue, then looked at the counter in horror. “Oh crap!”

“What?” I searched the counter, desperate to see what she did. But she took the opportunity to rush around me and bolt for the door. Oldest trick in the book and I fell for it.

I was about to run after her, but instead, I took a minute to compose myself. We weren’t just talking about an old friend anymore. Kavanaugh was gorgeous and sexy and muscular and lick-worthy. I had to get my shit together.

“Hey, who’s this?” Riley asked, her voice dripping with seduction.

“Since you’re moving in, I brought a few single friends to help out.”

Single friends ? There were more of them? I searched frantically for something to use to check my appearance, but there wasn’t a mirror or toaster in sight. I cupped my hand around my mouth and blew, grimacing at the fruity flavor from the candy I’d eaten on the way home. Shit, I should have brushed my teeth instead of arguing with Riley.

“Hey.”

I spun, smacking a box on the edge of the counter and sending a cascade of boxes crashing to the floor. My face burned as I quickly ducked and gathered the boxes in my arms. But Kavanaugh, being the gentleman that he was, bent over and helped me pick them up.

“Hey, when did you get here?”

“About a minute ago, but you already knew that. Why are you hiding in the kitchen from me?”

I couldn’t look at him now, which made absolutely no sense since I drove out here specifically to be near him. But I had expected my Kavanaugh, not this hunk of a man who made me want to monkey climb him and do unspeakable things.

With jerky movements, I set the boxes on the counter, then grabbed them as they started to slide. Kavanaugh took my hand as I was about to stop another cascade, and only then did I let my eyes meet his. He was staring at me with a charming smirk plastered on his face. He knew exactly what he was doing and he liked it.

“Are you gonna answer my question?”

“I’m not hiding,” I scoffed, feeling my cheeks flame. “Alright, I was hiding.”

“Why?”

He shifted closer. Too close. I was on fire, burning up under his intense scrutiny. Man, I really wanted to kiss him. Was that so wrong? I really had to pull it together.

“Because you’re extremely…handsome.” I went with anything other than sexy, alluring, seductive, provocative, tempting, tantalizing, or gorgeous…to name a few. Those were all too telling.

Not that it helped matters any. His grin spread wider across his face, only enhancing those gorgeous features. “You think I’m handsome.”

“Among a few other things. When I moved here, you were supposed to be Kavanaugh.”

“I still am.”

“Yes, but you’re…not the skinny kid with glasses that I once knew.”

“I wear contacts,” he grinned. “But I could put glasses on if that would do it for you.”

This man in glasses? Hell yes. Secretly, I was always a little in love with him as a kid. He was smart, and that attracted me more than anything. Now, he was the whole package.

He shifted closer, his hand resting on the counter in a seemingly casual move, but it put him closer to me. Much closer. I could feel his chest rising and falling against my own. His hot breath brushed over my skin like a caress, and I couldn’t help it as my eyes drifted closed and took in the sheer masculinity and sex appeal of the man in front of me.

A throat clearing had me backing up, flushing bright red. I narrowed my eyes at Riley. She knew exactly what she was doing as she stood in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Isles? There are some men to help us unload the trailer. ”

Her eyes were begging me for details, but that was impossible with Kavanaugh still pressed up against me, his hand drifting up my side. It all seemed innocent, but I knew better. He was taunting me.

“We should…”

“By all means,” he stepped aside. “Let’s get to work.”

Hmm, Kavanaugh all hot and sweaty. I think I could add that to my list of daydreams. He chuckled as if he could read my thoughts, then grabbed my hand and dragged me to the front door.

His friends were already at work, unloading boxes from the pod we’d pulled behind us. Each of them was just as sexy as the last, but I only had eyes for one man. Riley, however, was taking it all in, admiring them all equally.

This was going to be a very long afternoon.

A very long…very hard afternoon.