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Colin

“Are you suggesting I’m some kind of flake, Kearns?”

Ryder Richards stood in the er’s almost-finished kitchen with his corded, tattooed ar low over jeans that were cri dark hair looked freshly tousled, his normally olive skin was flushed pink, and his dark blue eyes spat fire at me

Sadly for hiotten all riled up over one of my perfectly innocent, entirely helpful co the sa jobs

Sadly fornow than he’d been years ago, nor was he any htlaced interior designer than he’d ever been

Which was a good thing Obviously

Or —rich, dark hair that was always reen eyes that see business and sexytiuy was I’d learned that lesson a long time before Ryder and I ever met, and it had stuck

And yeah, it hadthat Ryder, who seemed to have a coy smile and a flirty joke for every contractor, inspector, delivery person, pizza guy, and golden retriever he encountered, seemed to save all his scowls for me There were miles of land between scowls and sexytimes, after all, and there was a hot minute there where I’d have liked to be friends Friendly So

Nowadays, though? Pffft I barely noticed

Or, okay, maybe I noticed—maybe I couldn’t help but notice—but at least now I could rationalize his weird dislike ofmy job