Shooter (Burnout) (29 page)

“Hayley,” he repeated.

Hayley took a deep breath and turned her head slightly toward him but didn’t really look at him. “Sorry,” she declared.

“No need to be sorry,” he replied. He took hold of her chin, turned her head, and leaned in to kiss her forehead. “Long day today,” he announced. “Gonna hit the rack. I’ll probably be asleep before you come in. The alarm’s already set for 6:30.”

***********************

Hayley watched Chris give Pepper a tickle under the chin and saunter off down the hall. Every muscle in her body went slack and she leaned against the counter. It was all well and good and easy enough to put clothes in drawers and hang shirts on hangers, but she’d put off even really thinking about getting
into bed
with a six foot two Army Ranger who outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds.

She recalled falling asleep against him on the couch and understood, rationally, that Chris would never hurt her. But she also imagined all sorts of other things that bothered her more. Would she even be able to fall asleep? What if she tossed and turned all night like she usually did? What if she had a nightmare? What if, in her sleep, she forgot Chris was there and started screaming if he accidentally brushed up against her? She could imagine no way to avoid appearing certifiably insane by attempting to share a bed with him.

She folded the dish towel and squared her shoulders. She’d made her proverbial bed, well Chris had made it, ha, and now she would lie in it. Or at least try. He’d already had to deal with her nightmares. He knew she didn’t sleep well. There was really nothing, probably, that could actually surprise the man. She didn’t relish the idea of looking crazy, but neither was there a damn thing she could do about it. So she set off for the bathroom and settled for hoping he was at least asleep by the time she was ready for bed, as he’d said he would be. It would make things far less awkward.

***********************

Chris heard the bedroom door open and remained still, on his side of the bed. Well he wasn’t sure which side of the bed was “his” necessarily, because he could count on one hand the number of times he’d actually spent the night with a woman, but this side, the right side, was closest to the gun in the nightstand drawer and to him that made the most sense. He rolled on his side earlier, back to center of the bed, facing away from the door, so that he could more easily appear asleep. And non threatening.

It had been hell watching Slick work herself into a near breakdown washing dishes, trying to put off going to bed for as long as she could reasonably get away with it. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but he couldn’t fault her for being stressed out in a new and wholly unfamiliar situation. In the end he decided the best course of action was to nip her fears in the bud by announcing he was beat to shit and would be sawing logs by the time she was ready for bed. Now it was time to play along with his little charade.

He felt the sheets slide back a little and felt Hayley slip into bed next to him. He also felt the whisper of the bedspread being only slightly dented as Pepper made her way onto the foot of the bed and curled into a ball at his feet. He rolled his eyes as the rumbling of the kitten’s purr on his soles. It took quite a bit of time for Hayley to find a position that was comfortable. He couldn’t say for sure what position that was, since he was facing away from her, but eventually she seemed to settle in. True to his word, he closed his eyes again and let himself drift off to sleep. He was happy with himself for defusing a potentially awkward situation. He was even happier when he woke up.

************************

Hayley couldn’t really sleep. That much was obvious. Chris liked to have the air conditioner on throughout the night and it was slightly chilly in the room. It wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t sleep, obviously, but it was the most convenient to blame. She ran through her options. She could go to the other room after getting a blanket from the linen closet. But she didn’t want to fail at this relationship-thing on the very first night. She turned slightly and gazed at Chris’ sleeping form. He was wearing a t-shirt, probably shorts, from what she could tell. His breathing was soft and even and so he must be asleep by now.

She remembered those few moments before coming fully awake when they’d both been on the couch. His arms had been around her, his body was warm and yes, hard, but surprisingly comfortable, too. His scent had been pleasant. He was facing away from her and so any attempts to recreate that were likely to wake him up, which she didn’t want to do. She gingerly lifted herself up and moved closer to him on the bed. She put her head on Chris’ pillow and cuddled up to his back, instead. It was a lot warmer, she noticed, and it gave her almost the same sense of security she’d had when she’d awoken on the couch. She finally fell asleep a few minutes later.

*********************

Chris came to in the dark of his bedroom, at first a little confused. He was apparently pinned to the edge of the bed. It took several seconds for his sleep-muddled brain to process the situation. His feet were pinned because the cat was using him as a cushion. It took him a little longer to realize he couldn’t turn over because Hayley was pressed up against his back. He smiled to himself. He carefully reached back and found her hand, which had been resting on his back. He took hold of it and pulled it around, draping her arm over his side in a decidedly more formal embrace. Then he laid his head back down on the pillow and fell back asleep while marveling at having two females in his bed where none had really been before.

Chapter 22

Moving Slick in was quite a bit easier than moving Easy in, mostly because Easy didn’t want to be easy. He grumbled and bitched about leaving the rehab facility, even though he didn’t living there. He bitched about everything, really. By the time they arrived out front, Chris couldn’t decide whether he wanted to hand Easy the keys to the little blue house or just punch him in the face. Hayley had somehow managed to remain pretty chipper throughout the whole ordeal. She seemed to have an amazing capacity for putting up with the younger, brooding man.

When Monday rolled around, Chris hadn’t been able to get Easy to come in to work. Jimmy had complained that his leg still hurt from moving his belongings the day before. Chris decided to let it go. On Tuesday, he only managed to get Jimmy into the garage for half a day. Wednesday had held the same luck. Thursday, though, Jimmy had become interested in Chris’ custom build of a Chevy hot rod and had spent more time looking at the engine than the clock on the wall. But he’d insisted on knocking off early, as usual, and refused to go to Maria’s for lunch with the rest of the guys. Instead he limped to Chris’ truck, with Chris thinking he was either in a lot of pain from the shitty prosthetic he was still wearing or he was exaggerating in order to be alone. Chris didn’t like either of those options very much.

After Easy rolled out of the gravel lot while Tex, Hawk, and Chris climbed into Tex’s Hummer and headed to Maria’s down the road. It was slow and Slick was off today, but she’d said she was going shopping this afternoon and therefore the boys were going to have to fend for themselves for lunch.

Chris’ phone buzzed as he bit into a chicken wing. He carefully dug it out of his pocket with two fingers and a napkin.
Easy calling…
He tapped the screen with his knuckle. “What’s up?” he asked, returning to his wing.

“Your woman,” Easy growled. “That’s what’s up!”

Chris glanced at the other men and frowned down at the phone. “What-”

Into the phone, Easy yelled, “She’s launched a full scale invasion of my house, Shooter! Of. My. House!” At Hayley he shouted, “Boundaries, woman! Do you have them?”

“Don’t take that tone with me, Jimmy!” Slick’s voice rang out on the speaker.

Chris put down his wing. “Why are-”

“You stop right there, woman!” Easy shouted. “Don’t you come any closer with that! I am
not
playing! Put it down,
right now
!”

Before Chris could intervene, the phone disconnected. He stared at it.

“You think she got a hold of your gun?” Hawk asked.

Chris blinked at the man. “Negative. We talked about it. She absolutely knows she’s not allowed to shoot anyone. Not even Easy.” His scowl deepened. “Although…”

“What?” Tex asked.

“I did say she could use the Louisville Slugger under the couch.”

Hawk and Tex laughed. “You think she’s whooping his ass right now?” asked Tex. Chris groaned and wiped his hands. Tex flagged down their waitress. “Do you think think you could get us some to-go boxes, darlin’? Appreciate it.”

“What’s she doing in his house, anyway?” Hawk asked, shrugging on his jacket.

“Slick’s mind is a dark, twisted labyrinth of female logic, Hawk,” Chris answered. “I have no fucking idea.”

They pulled into Easy’s driveway a few minutes later. “Hey,” Hawk declared. “Isn’t that Milo’s truck?” Everyone looked at Milo’s truck parked across from the house.

“Sure is,” Tex noted.

“Hmm,” Hawk mused. “Easy said it was a full scale invasion. Apparently she brought reinforcements.”

“I don’t think Slick and Milo combined could take down Easy, even with the bad leg,” said Tex. Then they heard a shriek from inside the house and they all ran up the steps with Chris leading the charge. He threw open the front door, but unfortunately collided with the couch, which had been angled in front of the entrance. The living room was in disarray with canvas stretched along the floor. On the canvas, Jimmy and Hayley were rolling around on the floor, wrestling fiercely.

“Stop it!” Jimmy ordered.

“You stop it!” Hayley snarled.

“I said stop it first!” Jimmy argued. “And it’s my house!”

“It was my house first!” Hayley shot back.

“You’ve got another one!” Jimmy bellowed.

“So?” Hayley shouted just as loudly.

“Jesus,” said Tex, peering over Chris’s shoulder.

“I need a beer!” Milo announced, and for the first time Chris noticed the man standing in the kitchen wearing overalls and a baseball cap.

Chris rounded the couch, bent, and lifted Easy off Hayley. Both of them were panting like they’d just run a marathon. He set Easy on his feet and stared at the both of them. Hayley lay on the floor, paintbrush in hand, and by the looks of it, had gotten in several jabs with it because Easy’s face, hair, and clothing had jaunty splashes of green all over them. Hayley had fared slightly better, a green dollop was smeared on one cheek but not much was in her hair or on her clothes.

“Well, at least she didn’t use the bat,” Hawk declared cheerfully.

“It was like watching two rabid squirrels in a burlap sack,” Tex told Jimmy.

Jimmy glared at him. “Do you have any idea how hard hand to hand combat is with a woman? Well, it is! It’s
damn hard
, seeing as how you can’t actually hurt ‘em.” He glared at Hayley. “No matter how bad you might want to!”

Chris bit back a smile and looked around the open living area. “So.”

Hayley blew a stray hair out of her eyes. “Well, it’s too much beige. No one can live with that much beige.”

“So what color is this?” Tex asked, looking around.

“Windswept Pine,” she replied. “I read about it in a magazine at the grocery store checkout. Green promotes healing,” she declared.

“Oh, Jesus,” Easy snarled. “I don’t need some Feng Shui bullshit, Slick. I-”

“
Well, it’s your favorite goddamn color, too
!” she shouted at him.

He hesitated. “How do you know that?”