Free Between the Sheets by Molly O'Keefe Page A

out how to shake them off.
    “Never mind.”
    “Okay,” she said at the same time. She had that corner of her lower lip caught under her tooth and his blood sizzled at the sight.
    “Okay never mind? Or okay let’s have dinner?”
    “Let’s have dinner.”
    Well, holy shit. Look at that . He grinned at her. “Great. Saturday night?”
    “Saturday night is perfect. I’ll meet you at your house. Seven thirty?”
    He nodded, wondering how he was going to handle Casey. Did he need a babysitter? It was already weird leaving him alone in the house to come over here for ten minutes. Dating was complicated all of a sudden.
    At the door, he turned back to wave at her and wondered how a guy dated a woman like Shelby Monroe.

Chapter 5
    Friday morning, Ty put down the drill and stood, twisting to get rid of the kinks in his back.
    Half of the deck was framed and it wasn’t even noon. He’d spent an hour in the morning getting Sean’s awning to work and then he’d hightailed it over here to put up the posts and start framing. He could keep going and knock out most of the rest of it before quitting time, but inside Cora was frying chicken. And if there was a better, more distracting smell in the world, Ty couldn’t think of it.
    “Going to lunch?” Brody asked.
    Ty rolled his eyes. “I can’t take it anymore, man.”
    Brody’s lip lifted, about as much expression as Ty could get out of him.
    “All I’ve been thinking about is chicken for the last half hour,” Brody said. “I’m waiting for—”
    “Brody!” a woman called, and Ty didn’t have to turn around to see that it was Ashley Montgomery. Brody, that silent, serious former Marine, just relaxed. It was as though he carried a load every minute of every day that he was away from that woman. And then at the sight of her, he was finally able to put it down.
    The only other time Ty ever saw that version of love was with his grandparents. And they’d been so rare, so outrageously out of his ordinary, that he never imagined other people had a shot at that. But here it was again. He wasn’t sure if that gave him hope or depressed the hell out of him.
    “I thought you could break for lunch,” Ashley said.
    “You smelled the chicken?” When Brody smiled at his girlfriend, Ty had to look away, because there was a world revealed in that smile. A secret, warm, loving, sexy world.
    “The wind shifted and now the smell is all over town. This place is about to get packed, so we’d better get some now,” Ashley said.
    She hooked her arm around Brody’s waist and gave Ty a big grin. She was pretty in a seriously wholesome way. Like she should be on a box of breakfast cereal. “Hey, Ty! Great job on the deck.”
    “Thanks.”
    “You want to have lunch with us?”
    “You guys go on in—I’ll clean up here.” He didn’t like being with both of them. No matter how nice Ashley was, or how cool Brody was, he couldn’t help but feel like an intruder. He felt like an intruder with everyone, unable to get comfortable with himself, much less anyone else.
    Instead of arguing, Brody just started picking up tools and putting them in the lock box. Ashley helped and it was done before Ty even bent over to pick up his drill.
    “Let’s go,” Ashley said at the door, her cheeks pink in the cold, her eyes glowing when she smiled at Brody.
    “Seriously, you guys go ahead. I don’t want to be a third wheel …”
    Ashley leaned forward, grabbed his jacket, and pulled him into Cora’s behind her.
    Behind him, Brody laughed. “Ashley kind of gets what she wants, Ty. No use arguing.”
    The café was beginning to fill up. In the far corner, Sean waved them over and Ashley made a beeline for the booth.
    Ty followed behind, somehow a little grateful that he’dbeen forced to come in here. Forced to be social. He’d been a hermit in his garage for too long.
    You want friends , he told himself, this is how you make friends .
    Brody slid into the bench across from his brother.