Page 35

“Oh. No, it was just the computer thing.” He drops his phone and tips his head backward until it knocks against the wall, and then he lets his knees fall apart so one hits me in the side, and I can see the entire outline of his dick. If I didn’t know him better, I’d think he was doing this on purpose. “I don’t know why I think I can be good at things.”

“You are good at things.”

He gives me an unamused look. “I’m good at, like, three things. That’s it.”

“What three things?”

He misreads my tone because he slaps both hands over his face and groans. “Look, I know I’m a disaster, but⁠—”

“No, I meant—” I try.

He ignores me. “I can save people,” he says, dropping his hands to tick that off his finger. “I can make an amazing pancake frittata⁠—”

“What the fuck is a pancake frittata?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer me. “And I’m really good at keeping my house clean, which is apparently an amazing feat for a single man my age.”

“You’re single?” I knew this. I don’t know why I need him to say it aloud.

But I do.

He stares at me. “Uh. Yes. Very single. Scary single. No one has touched my dick in six months, single.”

I swallow heavily. “Rough. But I get it.”

He snort-laughs. “Right. Like you have trouble getting guys to sit on your dick.”

Of course he’d say that. And of course my traitor brain would immediately picture him crawling onto my lap and doing exactly that.

I clear my throat. “You’d be surprised.”

Easton shuffles up a little higher, but he keeps his legs spread like the lewd asshole he is. “Is it because of your ex? Because you’re still married?”

I blush. Hard. “No. I don’t feel like I owe Neal any loyalty.”

“Then when did you last try?”

“I don’t…” I rack my brain. “I don’t know. It’s been a while. Life is complicated when you’re a dad and you have a narcissistic husband who won’t let you divorce him while he runs around cheating on you with anyone interested in sex.”

Easton grimaces. “Sorry.”

I shrug. “And it’s not like I have a ton of game. I’m an IT nerd.”

He flicks some of his curls off his forehead, and I fight the urge to follow that same path with my fingers. “You were a firefighter. I know that gets tons of play. And I bet you were a total jock in high school.”

I bite both of my lips. “Uh…more like a theater nerd who got his ass kicked a lot. And the three guys I fell for ended up being straight and dating my sister.”

His eyes widen. “You have a sister?”

I bristle, feeling a massive wave of jealousy. “She’s married and pregnant, so she’s off-limits,” I snap.

I don’t talk to my sister much. She lives in Dublin with her husband and their two kids, and we were never close friends. We’re barely ten months apart in age, but she was always cooler, and she was pretty, and I was this clingy nerd who ruined her rep the moment people found out we were related.

He scoffs. “Dude. I’m not interested in your sister.”

I doubt that. He probably would be. God, if they’d met before she found Iain…

“Anyway,” I tell him, “I had zero game in high school, a little game once I put on some muscle, but that has since dried up to nothing.”