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Because I can’t stand to see you cry, he thought.
“It felt like the right thing to do.”
“Well, you know where I’m at if you want to actually follow through with that apology.”
She started to brush past him, but he pressed her back against the wall of the building, hovering over her. “I’m sorry.”
Holly paused, flashing him a brilliant smile. “Was that so hard?”
“Excruciating.”
“Good.” Holly lifted her chin, her dark eyes meeting his. “People keep thinking we’re attracted to each other and that’s why we fight. Because we don’t want to give in and get it out of our system.”
The way she said it, matter-of-fact with a touch of husky, lit his cock on fire. “Is that right? What about you?”
“I don’t know, but it’s something worth considering, don’t you think?”
Before Declan could ask her to elaborate or, at the very least, how Sam fit into all this, she slipped out from under his arm, backing out of the alley.
“We’ll talk later. You have a display scene to set up.” She clapped her hands. “Better get a move on. I hear the boss is a real hard-ass.”
CHAPTER 17
Holly pulled into her driveway at a quarter to six and choked mid-sip of her soda when she saw Declan stomping and kicking around her yard in an obvious fit of temper. She rolled down the window while she waited for her garage door to open, calling out to him, “Everything all right?”
He turned her way, pointing at the stacks of totes and bubble-wrapped cutouts. “Whoever shipped this labeled everything wrong. I found what I think is part of number one marked as number three and number ten marked as number seven. It’s a mess!”
Holly’s brow furrowed. “Let me park and I’ll come help.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond before she pulled forward, rolling the window up. There was no way that anything should be out of place because she’d ordered each item separately and her family had helped her pack them away scene by scene.
Holly got out of the SUV and carried her drink and bag of tacos into the house. She checked her teeth in the guest bathroom since she’d devoured a taco on the way home then set all of her stuff on the counter before she walked out the front door, closing it with a snap behind her.
“I’m surprised you’re still here. I thought coming home this late I wouldn’t violate your ‘find somewhere else to be’ rule, but now I’m glad I did.” Holly came up alongside him, aware of his size, strength, scent, and cleared her throat, ordering her traitorous body to stay on task. “This is really weird.”
“How do you mean?” he asked.
“When I ordered this last year, I grouped everything together and packed it up for safe keeping by scene and I know I did it right. Unless someone got into my shed and messed things up, it should have been good to go.”
“I’m telling you, if that’s the case, someone was in that shed,” Declan said. “If you weren’t meticulous about including pictures with your schematic, I would have been up shit creek trying to figure this out, but I think I have it now.”
Holly scanned the assorted piles of what she could only assume were the designated parts to each scene and nodded. “I don’t want to look over your work, so if you think you got it, I trust you.”
“Really?” he said, one eyebrow cocked. “You trust me?”
“To not screw this up, yes. You’ve got three grand on the line.”
Declan chuckled. “That I do. I’ve still got a little light left. If it’s all right with you, I’m going to keep working.”
Holly looked up at the dark purple sky. “Pretty sure the light has said good night. If you aren’t ready to go home, wanna come in and have some tacos?”
“It’s fine, I can eat at home.”
“They’re just tacos, prepared by La Fiesta, so you don’t have to worry about laxatives or poison.”
He laughed, an exhausted, breathless burst that made her feel sorry for him. Holly wasn’t sure what was going on in Declan’s life, but it was obvious he was unhappy and for whatever reason it made Holly want to work harder to change that. It made no sense, especially considering their history, but she’d opened the door to exploring this complicated attraction between them. Whether or not he wanted to broach the subject, the ball was in his court now.
“If you’ve got extra, I’ll take them,” he murmured, grabbing his sweatshirt from on top of a tote. “I may have skipped lunch.”
