Free One Hit Wonderful by Hannah Murray Page B

shouted.
    She grinned when he gave her a single finger salute then turned back with sigh. “That’s going to cost me.”
    “Oh?” Nate asked, and Lily looked up with a grin.
    “Oh yeah,” she said. “Charles is nothing if not high maintenance, and I’m sure at the very least I’ll be springing for an ‘I’m Sorry’ spa day.”
    “Small price,” he drawled.
    “You’re telling me,” she sighed. “I haven’t laughed like that since college when he fell over backward into the Jell-o wrestling pit.”
    “What did that cost you?”
    “Front row tickets to see Bette Midler.” She grinned when he laughed. “Thanks for trying to help. I thought you had him with the strawberry smoothie.”
    “The situation seemed to call for drastic measures,” he told her.
    “I appreciate the gesture, even though it didn’t do me much good.” She surveyed what was left in the truck to move. “I’m never going to get all of this moved in time to get the truck back.”
    “I’ve got a free hour. Why don’t I give you a hand?”
    “Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that,” she protested, suddenly uncomfortable. “You must have work.”
    “Free as a bird,” he said easily. He tilted his head. “Is there a reason you don’t want my help?”
    Lily opened her mouth to protest, then shut it when the words wouldn’t come. She could feel her cheeks flush with embarrassment. “No, of course not,” she finally managed, bravely meeting his knowing look with her own.
    He grinned, and Lily could swear he knew how uncomfortable he was making her. What’s more, she’d swear he liked it. “Well then, let’s get started.” He picked up a box of books, hefting it in a way that made his biceps bulge and her mouth water, and headed out.
    “Oh God,” she sighed. “It’s going to be a long afternoon.”
    * * * * *
     
    Though it was only an hour, to Lily it seemed as if it lasted all day. And though Nate was a perfect gentleman, it seemed as though everything he did was fraught with sexual innuendo. She chewed her lower lip as she remembered how awful it had been when they’d moved her bed into the apartment. She knew she’d been stiff and awkward, but she hadn’t been able to help it. And when he’d tested the newly in place mattress by pushing on it with both hands and commented, “Firm,” with a wink—well, her mouth had simply dried up and her brain had gone on hiatus. The fact that his T-shirt was clinging to his now slightly sweaty and straining biceps certainly hadn’t helped.
    She felt her whole body flush as she remembered the way she’d stammered something about washing her hands and dashed out of the room as though her hair were on fire, and she groaned out loud.
    “Something wrong?”
    She looked up at the clerk who was preparing her paperwork for the rental truck with a weak smile. “No, nothing.”
    She sighed, and because she couldn’t help herself, glanced out the window to where Nate waited for her in his truck. Why, oh why couldn’t she have said something clever, or responded with a wink of her own instead of dashing out? Despite her despair at her own klutzy behavior, her lips curved into a smile at the sight of Beau, his bulk wedged between the bucket seats so he could drape his big head over Nate’s shoulder.
    “Cute dog.” The clerk passed over the credit slip and a pen, and sent Lily a wink. “Cuter guy.”
    “Yeah.” Lily picked up the pen and scrawled her name.
    “They yours?”
    Lily looked up from her copy of the receipt. “Oh. No, not mine.”
    The clerk snapped her gum. “Bummer.”
    “Yeah.” Lily smothered another wistful sigh. “Thanks.”
    She pushed out the door and into the parking lot, trying not to notice how both man and dog tracked her movements as she strode toward the truck.
    Nate smiled at her as she climbed in. “All done?”
    “Yep.” She pulled the door closed behind her and summoned up a smile, even though the air in the vehicle felt too close, too thin.