Page 19 of Take The Risk

​“Smell?” I took a sharp breath, snapping my mouth shut. Shit. “Oh, it’s nothing.” I undid my seat belt, hoping he’d not look in the back—Oh, crap.

​“Are those apple muffins?” His throat bobbed. “With caramel drizzled on top?”

​Without asking, he opened the back door.

​“It’s really nothing—” I tried to explain, feeling heat creep up my neck. Of course, my blood pressure spiked, which resulted in a fit of rambling. “I just thought since Ty called and asked me to come, and he’s been so nice to Lachlan”—that was an understatement— “and he took on the repairs so quickly that I should—I wanted to make something to say thank you? Then I didn’t want to exclude anyone, so I made a whole bunch of stuff for everyone working and—”

​“Oh, God,” Wade groaned, a muffin in his hand with a huge bite taken out of it. I’d barely said I’d brought them for everyone when he’d ripped the cling wrap off and was devouring one. “’hese ’re so go’d.”

​I was impressed he could talk at all given he’d shoved almost the entire muffin, and they were not small muffins, in his mouth and was already reaching in for another one.

​“Yo, Wade.” A large man with tan skin and hair that was white with dust strode over to us. “Boss wants to know if you can pull out…What is that?”

​Wade turned, shoving his hand with the muffin behind his back. “Nothing.”

​The man gave me a curious look, which I answered with what I hoped wasn’t a creepy smile. I tended to smile too wide when I was nervous. Given rambles were now firmly engaged, I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Er—hi. I’m—I’m Phoebe. I made some muffins”—my hand flapped in the direction of my back seat—“for everyone who was working ’cause I thought you all might be hungry. Of course, if this is some line I’m crossing or—”

​“You made us food?” the man asked me slowly.

​My mouth worked for a second, and with his attention directly on me, I couldn’t really answer with words, so my head did the talking for me.

​He gave me a soft look, then shifted, glaring at Wade. “And you were going to hoard them, weren’t you?!”

​“What? Of course not!” Wade tried to block the door and the muffins.

​“What’s this?” Another voice came from the other side of my car, and I twisted in my seat to see two men carrying a large post up my driveway.

​“The lady brought us snacks and the asshole—sorry, ma’am—was going to steal them,” the man said, giving me a chagrinned look.

​“Again?!” the one man snapped.

At the same time, the other man snapped, “You jackass!”

​Before I knew it, they’d put the post down, and I guessed someone had radioed everyone that there were snacks, because I found myself surrounded by a large group of men in hard hats, boots, tool belts, and clothes with some questionable stains on them.

​They were all nice and gave me a hello, but that didn’t really help when the griping and snapping began over who got how much and accusations of muffin-thievery. I slumped back in my seat as much as possible. I wanted to close the door, but two men were there, leaning into the back seat, making it so I couldn’t without hitting them.

​A normal person would have been amused or even happy that all these men seemed to love her baking. I wanted to crawl under my seat and could barely focus on anything other than the fact that my muscles were so tight I was starting to get a cramp in my leg, which I rubbed.

​I don’t know how long I sat there before a strong voice interceded, breaking up an argument. “Get the fuck out of here, you jackals. You’ve got her trapped in the car!”

​“What?”

​“I’m sorry, ma’am! I didn’t see you there!”

​“Was she there the whole time?”

​“Why didn’t she say anything?”

​One moment, I had a large male body blocking the door, and the next, he was replaced with a face I was starting to become too familiar with. Stupid dreams.

​“Hi,” Ty said, leaning into the car, but not too far to crowd me.

​“Hi.” I felt myself able to take a deep breath for the first time in several minutes, the rush to my head telling me I’d been breathing too shallowly and erratically for too long.

​Ty gave me a kind smile, looking around the car. “How’s it going in here?”

​It was such a normal question I couldn’t help but giggle. “Pretty good. The leather seat is super soft. I may just decide to live here.”