“Lightheaded, but I wouldn’t say fainted…” he mumbled to himself.
“You didn’t say anything inappropriate to him, did you? Or behave unprofessionally?”
“Of course not.”
I leaned down to kiss the top of his head. “Then don’t beat yourself up. You have plenty of other things troubling you. It’s not a sin to notice that someone is attractive.”
Hell, even I noticed that, and I only have eyes for Frankie.
“Well, for any matter, I definitely shouldn’t hire him to help fix and reorganize some things at the store,” Frankie said, as though trying to convince himself. “When I was there, I noticed some repairs that needed tending to in the back, and of course I’m just as disorganized at Northstar as I am at home. I thought I might keep Asher on, but that would be inappropriate now.”
I shook my head. “He needs the work. It seems more inappropriate if you don’t give it to him, just because you had a moment of thinking his tattoos were hot.”
He fussed in his seat again. “I didn’t say anything about his tattoos.”
“Like I said, I know you, Frankie.” I smiled to myself, struck that he was still as conscientious about my feelings as he had been when we first got together. “How about this,” I added. “Why don’t we invite him over for dinner next week? He’s been in and out of our house, and you’ve been having a nice time together. Maybe a friendly meal would help you stop feeling guilty.”
“Maybe,” he said. “We’ll see. I haven’t even decided if I’m going to start a new project at the store yet.”
“Might as well,” I said. “Ava will be back in school next week, and you know her extracurriculars will keep her busy, too. You’ve been itching to get back to work, Frankie. And if a tattooed guy with a sexy, troubled vibe wants to help out, more power to you.”
Frankie sat up, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll think about it.” He rubbed his palm against my chest, sighing softly to himself. I could tell that his thoughts were already drifting.
“Come on,” I said, patting his leg. “I think you deserve a treat to help you stop worrying so much.”
“A treat?” he asked.
I grinned. “The kind of treat where you lay back and let me do all the work. And maybe some ice cream in bed after that.”
He perked up, then nuzzled against my neck. “Rory,” he sang out. “My hero with extra strawberry sauce.”
I laughed. “And some of that whipped cream, too.”
Chapter Five
Asher
I stood in the alley with Franklin, a beaten-up old garage door in front of us. There was a puddle on the ground behind him, and he had on a pair of gray suspenders over a T-shirt featuring some lady with a cape.
Killing me, Franklin.
Over a few days working together I’d figured out that he was the sweet daddy. The one who would let me bend the rules.
So to speak.
And damn if I wasn’t still obsessing about him and Rory and how it would feel to tuck my fingers under those suspenders and slide them off slowly. To let him bend me into all kinds of positions and, once he was doing filling me up, to lay there while he stroked my hair and held me against his big, broad chest, with Rory looking on approvingly.
Give it up, I scolded myself again. They’re married.
“Asher?” Franklin asked.
“Come again? I mean, what’s that?”
“I was just saying that no one uses this alley, so we should be fine to spread out a little.”
“Right, got it,” I agreed as he rolled the door up, revealing another poorly organized collection. This time, at least, it seemed limited to comic books.
“I thought we could get this all sorted and then do a few easy repairs on the garage here so it can be used properly. It comes with the building, but I’ve just had it locked up for years, and the comics are getting musty.” He waved his hand in front of his face, and his shirt lifted enough to give me a glance of his belly and the soft hair that grew there. “Sound good?”
I snapped my eyes up to meet his gaze. “Aye aye, captain.”
Franklin giggled, just like I knew he would, and I grinned to myself, satisfied just to make that noise come out of him.
“I didn’t expect to do this job anytime soon,” he said, mumbling as much to himself as to me, “but I suppose we’re on a roll. And it doesn’t seem there’s as much left to take care of in the store as I expected. The employees have kept things moving along beautifully, which of course I knew they would.” He glanced me up and down, then lifted a finger in the air. “Did you get a chance to look inside?”
“Not yet,” I said. “Why? You want to show me around?”
Franklin nodded quickly. “If you’d like!”
I glanced back to the dusty mess in the garage. There should be at least a few more days of work in all of it, I figured, and I certainly wasn’t in any rush to finish. “Sure, Franklin. Show me around. I want to see what gets you all hot and bothered.”
He mumbled something I couldn’t hear while rubbing his beard. “Just this way, then…”
Franklin walked me through the alley and around to the front of the store. It was on a quieter street, running on a steep, tree-lined incline up to the corner where Lilith’s bar sat. The front of Northstar reminded me of Franklin and Rory in a weird way. It was a sturdy square building with bright windows, stuffed with colorful displays. The place looked solid and welcoming, more like a comfortable library than a flashy store, and as we approached, a few geeky women walked out, laughing and sharing their purchases with each other.
Pretty damn cute, I thought. I could see why Franklin was so proud of it in the first place.
When we walked in, there were two guys about my age sitting behind the counter. One of them was blonde, with a button-up shirt and big green glasses, and the other had a mess of curly black hair and a shirt that was even flashier than Franklin’s, with a few different superheroes flying over a pink background.
“Franklin!” the guy with the pink shirt said. “Two days in a row? What a treat.”
“This is Ezra,” Franklin said, gesturing to the guy who had just spoken. “And Clark. Two of my most loyal employees. They’ve been keeping the place running while I was gone.”
I nodded to them casually, then turned my eyes to the store. I could definitely see Franklin’s touch in the way it was laid out and how much merchandise was stocked in the tight space.
Franklin leaned on the counter while he talked to Clark and Ezra. “I’ll try to come in tomorrow to help prepare for the new stock. There are a couple of issues we should feature through displays on Wednesday…”
“Already got it!” Ezra said brightly. “We set things up last night when it was kind of slow.”
“Oh!” Franklin said, seeming a little flustered. “That’s nice. Thank you for doing that. I’ll still come in, though. I’ll need to balance the books, gather together some receipts, that kind of thing.”
“Franklin,” Ezra said sweetly, “I told you that we emailed you all the receipts already.”