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“No!”
“Do you need me to park the car for you?”
“What?” Now I was getting pissed, and it was a welcome feeling after the irritating rush of intense attraction had threatened to humiliate me all over again. “No. Just get out of the way, please.”
He stepped to the side, crossing his arms again, and making it clear that he was going to supervise me as I parked my own car in my own driveway, something I did every single day, multiple times. I glared at him and stuck my tongue out, heat rushing to my cheeks as I realized I was doing it.
Oh god, my maturity level was dropping by the second.
I pulled the car slowly into the driveway, looking both ways carefully to make sure no more hot, shirtless hockey players were going to appear out of nowhere. I turned off the engine, picked up my phone and purse, and slid back out of the car.
Sly was still standing there.
“This has been fun,” I told him. “But I need to get to work.” I walked around the car, heading for the back door.
“Bear wrestling on the agenda today?” he asked my back.
I spun. “What? I don’t wrestle bears.”
“Sounded like it last night.”
“I monitor them in their habitat and sometimes rescue abandoned cubs and rehome them.”
“Hm.” He clearly wasn’t impressed by this.
“Do you have some kind of issue with me? Or with my job?” We might as well go ahead and hash this out now. Better to do it while Katie wasn’t around. She seemed to have some kind of weird fascination with the guy. Probably saw him as a potential playmate since their maturity levels were on par.
“I’m just not sure that bear wrangling is the best thing for a single mom to be spending her time with. What if something happened to you?”
Here was another guy who barely knew me, suggesting that I was making all the wrong choices for myself and for Katie. Zach had been unhappy with the person I’d turned out to be, and he’d left me on my own with a two-year old. I wasn’t taking the same shit from a guy who lived next door temporarily and had zero say in what I did.
“That’s really not your concern,” I said, steeling my tone and my spine. “I can take care of myself and my daughter. Why don’t you head on back to Wilcox so you can strap on your skates, play a game, and get overpaid some more for doing practically nothing?”
He frowned, but a flicker of something played at his expression. He looked almost...hurt? Offended, maybe?
“Yeah, planning to,” he said, seeming to have decided that this discussion had concluded.
“Good,” I said, realizing too late there was no real response needed, since he’d spun on his heel and was heading for his parents’ house. Now he turned back around.
“Good,” he said.
“Right.”
“Good,” he said again.
Well, good.
I watched his retreating form, every muscle in his back rippling in the morning sunlight, and I felt...what?
Shit, I felt bad.
I didn’t really think professional athletes were awful. Maybe overpaid. But it was a pretty shitty thing to say to my next-door neighbor’s son, especially when I depended on Violet so heavily to take care of Katie when I was at work.
I’d intended to figure out a way out of the engagement party the next day, and now I felt like I owed her again. But could I really stomach a whole evening with Sly? And a car ride in close proximity to all that...muscle and judgment?
It didn’t matter. For right now, work was the priority. I went inside and finally checked my phone. It was a work call, but it wasn’t the one I’d been hoping for. I’d already been shortlisted for the position I was vying for, but I hadn’t heard anything more.
I managed to work all day without bumping into Sly again, but it became apparent after about noon that he was intent on remaining shirtless and outside all day. Not that I was stationed by the windows watching or anything.
