Beautifully Decadent (Beautifully Damaged Book 3) (20 page)

Her footing was a bit unsure and I couldn’t help the grin because it was nice seeing the confirmation that I wasn’t the only one harboring thoughts that would likely lead to trouble.

“Thanks, Avery.”

She looked back at me, but her gaze was on my chest, which turned my grin into a shit-eating smile. Her focus eventually reached my face, her cheeks turning red when she saw I’d read her thoughts.

“You’re welcome.” She managed before she hurried away as if the place was on fire. Turning back to the bag, I started hammering at it again but this time what I was working through was far more pleasant to ponder.

“Sorry I missed you earlier.” Dad and I sat at the bar at a local dive. The cold beer hit the spot after the long day I’d put in.

“Avery, she’s adorable and damn that woman knows how to bake a pie.”

“Yeah, she does.”

“She just invited me in. Didn’t know me, only that I was your father, but she opened up her home to me. Sweet, but that kind of innocence can get her in trouble.”

Something shifted in me, a stirring…a warning. “I know.”

“She gave me her cell number too, told me to stop by whenever I was in the mood for something sweet.”

“That sounds like Avery.”

“It’s refreshing and worrisome. The man who’s lucky enough to snag her will have more than his share of gray hair keeping that tender heart from getting squashed.”

I wanted that man to be me; the intensity of how badly surprised me. But now wasn’t the time to ponder the delectable Avery.

I changed the subject, “How are you doing?”

He didn’t immediately answer, studied me in that way he had, knew he saw far more than I wanted, but instead of prying he answered my question. “Some people have a really hard time adjusting to life after being away for so long, and there is some of that I’m not going to lie, but I love having the fucking window open, and getting to eat and piss whenever the hell I want. My apartment is shit, but it’s my shit, my place. I had McDonalds last night, a big Mac with cheese and goddamn was that good.”

I didn’t need a lifetime locked away to think McDonalds was good. “Any luck with finding a job.”

“Not yet, but my parole officer has a few contacts he’s reaching out to.”

“Earlier you gave Avery a warning.”

“Yeah, shouldn’t I have?”

“No, it’s fine but has anyone approached you since you’ve been out?”

“No, just wanted her to be cautious. Being the way she is, she could welcome trouble and not even know it.”

A shiver worked down my spine at the idea of Avery in trouble. Not on my fucking watch. Speaking of which, “I asked a PI to look into your case. You were right, Lucas was after something, wanted access to a security box belonging to a Jeremy Paddington.”

“Who the fuck is that?”

“My question exactly. Josh is looking deeper into it.”

“So there had been more to that job. Son of a bitch.” And even pissed he seemed to move from that with ease to ask, “So what is the deal with Avery?”

He was like a dog with a bone. “Meaning?”

“You seriously aren’t going to explore that?”

“She’s my tenant.”

“So what. She’s beautiful, sweet and bakes like an angel. I’m surprised you haven’t already.”

Not for a lack of wanting to. “You’re playing matchmaker? You’ve been out for like a week.”

“Hey, I’ve learned the hard way to appreciate what you’ve got, to grab for what you want.”

“Avery’s great, but I just recently ended a relationship. Plus, she’s my tenant. I think it’d be wise to keep it just business.”

I felt his stare as I took a pull from my beer. Turning my head to him he seemed to be grinning at a joke aimed at me. A suspicion confirmed when he said, “A sexy and incredibly sweet woman, who bakes like a goddess, lives right outside your back door and you’re going to keep the relationship all business.” He took a pull from his beer before adding, “Well, good luck with that.”

And even as I formed my protest, deep down I knew Dad was right, Avery was just too tempting.

“Honestly, Loki, you could have totally caught that. You didn’t even try.” Glaring down at the big goof, sitting under the tree, I swear he was grinning at me. And why not, he failed to catch a perfectly good pass and now I was up in a tree retrieving his Frisbee. I seriously wanted to come back as a dog like Loki. Lucky bastard.

“I’m going to fall out of this tree and crack my skull and then you’re going to feel guilty. I promise you Loki, you’ll miss me when I’m gone.”

Reaching the Frisbee, I looked down to toss it and realized for the first time just how far up I’d climbed. I couldn’t deny, I was thrilled with my very nimble, monkey-like ways, but being stuck high up in a tree was not the best time to learn you were afraid of heights. Curling my fingers around the tree branch, I closed my eyes on a wave of dizziness. I was in a pickle because I couldn’t get myself to move. It was like my entire body just froze in place, too terrified to shift even slightly for fear I’d lose my footing and crash down in a bone-breaking fall.

I shouldn’t have climbed the tree when Rafe wasn’t home. I had thought that, right before I climbed the tree, how I shouldn’t climb the tree in case something should happen. But I didn’t listen to myself and climbed the damn tree anyway. Taking a few deep breaths I forced myself to stop panicking. I climbed up this high; surely, I could climb back down and yet my body refused to listen to the instructions from my brain.

I’m not sure how long I stood in the tree, frozen in place, losing blood in my fingers with how tightly I held onto the branch; I’d probably lose them or the whole hand. It would serve me right, climbing a damn tree when no one was home. And then Loki barked at the same time I heard the front gates opening. Joy and relief hit first, but following just after was chagrin—Nat would be proud of my ever-growing vocabulary. This was the fourth time Rafe had to rescue me. Maybe I should just stay up in this tree. I had read once an adult human body took eight to twelve years to completely decompose. They’d find me when my bones started falling out of the tree. Would Rafe even remember who I was: the crazy chick that had lived in his carriage house for all of a month and a half before disappearing without a trace?

His truck pulled up next to my car and Rafe climbed out. He saw Loki immediately.

“Hey, buddy. What are you doing?”

Loki barked, which I thought was adorable that he was trying to tell his daddy that the crazy lady he rented his carriage house to was pretending to be a squirrel. Even frozen in terror, I did enjoy the way Rafe’s body moved as he came to stand next to Loki. And then that head tilted back and those green eyes landed on me. The sexiest smile spread over his face as he pushed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and rolled back on his heels.

“Hey, Avery. Let me guess. Your interpretation of a bird?”

He was referring to my flippant answer of imitating a spider the day of the fence incident. Of course he’d remember that. “Cute. If you must know, Loki and I were playing Frisbee and he didn’t apply himself to lunge for the Frisbee and so I had to retrieve it.”

“Playing Frisbee at dusk is probably not the best time to be playing.”

“It wasn’t dusk when we started.”

The smile stripped from his face, all humor fled. “How long have you been up there?”

“Well, if I used the sun as a guide, a long freaking time.”

“Jesus Christ. I’ll get the ladder.”

A ladder wasn’t going to help since my muscles had atrophied. I thought it took longer for muscles to disintegrate due to lack of use. Who knew?

Rafe climbed up to meet me halfway, but I couldn’t move.

“Avery, you need to come to me.”

“I can’t.”

“Baby, I can’t reach you and climbing up there and getting us both caught in the tree isn’t an option.”

“It would take twelve years for us to decompose, we’d have to die first and I heard that can take up to fifty days.”

“I’m not planning on decomposing anytime soon and I don’t want your body decomposing in my tree either.”

“Why not?” I was actually pissed that he didn’t want me to decompose in his tree. What was wrong with my body that it wasn’t good enough to decompose in his tree? I was working myself up into a good rant; he defused my craziness when he added, “And not see your booty dance again, no way.”

Oh. Oh…“Are you objectifying me?”

“Are you seriously starting a fight because I’m trying to rescue you from a tree? I can call 911 and let the firemen do this, which will likely end up on the news so everyone will know the new pastry chef at Clover thinks she’s a cat.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“If you don’t move your ass down here, you aren’t leaving me much of a choice.”

“You can be quite bossy, do you know that?”

“And you have a tendency of putting yourself in ridiculous situations.”

It was instinct to counter his comment, the haggler in me, but he was right. I did get into more than my share of ridiculous situations. And I knew exactly when I started engaging in foolish stunts; it was right around the time my dad forgot he had kids. Being silly surely would gain his attention and by extension his affection. It didn’t, but now recklessness was kind of programmed into my DNA. Damn Dad.

“You’re right. I’ve been up here a while, my limbs are numb, so if I start to fall, get out of the way. No reason for both of us to die on this fine evening.”

“You’re not going to die.”

“I’m dying, either from the fall or humiliation, there’s just no stopping that.”

“I won’t let you fall.”

And somehow I knew he really wouldn’t. Focusing on moving one leg at a time, it took a few starts to actually get my legs to listen to the command from my brain, but if I kept Rafe in sight, I didn’t freeze up in fear. As soon as I was close enough, he wrapped his arm around my waist, pressing me up against him.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, this humiliation will only last a couple years.”

“I think it’s very you, retrieving Loki’s toy.”

“What does that mean?”

“Fucking sweet.”

I wanted so badly to ask what was up with Melody. But I didn’t want to ruin the moment, particularly since I’d gone boneless hearing him call me baby. In an attempt to hide my real thoughts, I tried for stern when I said, “He should have caught it.”

“You should have waited.”

“I know.”

“Let’s climb down and I’ll pour you a drink.”

“I like this idea.”

I waited until he reached the ground before I followed after. As soon as my feet hit solid ground, I was tempted to drop to my knees. Loki appeared, rubbing his head against my leg.

“It wasn’t your fault, Loki.”

Rafe put the ladder away before returning to me and reaching for my hand. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, thanks for saving me again.”

He chuckled as he started pulling me toward his house. “Even if I did keep you waiting?”

“You got me out of the tree, so I’ll forgive you.”

He held the door open for me, our bodies brushed as I passed him. His harsh exhale could have come from me, the sensation where our bodies touched tingled in a very, very pleasant way.

His voice pitched deeper, had an edge when he said, “I’ll work on my timing.”