"You just say shit?" I repeated.

Oh boy.

I blinked in his features. His long, dark eyelashes, deep set eyes, magnificent square jaw, that nearly perfect nose—Dex The Dick was unbelievably handsome. And I was making him feel like shit for not forgiving him when it truly seemed like he was remorseful. In what might be the first time in his life with the way he expressed it.

"Yeah." It was a statement, a fact. "You're MC, you gotta have thicker skin than that to survive here, you hear me?"

God, grant me strength.

"My dad was a Widow. Sonny's a Widow. I'm not," I explained to him calmly. "I can't just grow a thick skin overnight."

It was his turn to blink. "Yeah, you can." He blinked again. "Who gives a fuck what I say? Tell me if you got a problem. Don't run off and tell Son that I'm treatin' you like shit, and hide your fuckin' face from me because you're hurt over me bein' a dumbass. Tell me. Maybe you don't have a thick skin but I do. I can take it."

Like it was that easy.

I sighed and closed both of my eyes, annoyed with myself for having kept the job when I didn't really want to, all because of circumstances. Circumstances that, as always, revolved around money. Crap.

I sighed again.

Wasn't it easy to just be nice out of the kindness of his heart instead of bullied into it?

I almost laughed. Like Dex could be bullied into something. I'd known him a few days and I already knew he was immovable.

"Don't get all emo on my ass." He nudged my knee with his hip. "Tell me you got a problem."

I couldn't. I just couldn't.

The risk of losing this friggin' job that I wasn't even that fond of yet was too high. If he got pissed off about me asking for help, how pissed would he be if I told him to quit being a dick? Despite the fact that my brother had told me to do the same thing Dex was implying...I wasn’t positive that I really had it in me.

“Babe, I’m not gonna have an issue tellin’ somebody that they’re pissin’ me off,” he stated.

No shit.

He nudged my knee with his hip again. “Say it.”

“Say what?” I asked slowly.

“Say what you’re thinkin’,” Dex explained.

I shook my head.

His eyebrows knit together in exasperated patience. “Call me a dick. An asshole. A shit. Whatever you want, just get it out, Ritz.”

The look on my face was probably half horrified, half nervous that he’d said the one nickname I usually called him in my head. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because that’s rude.”

It was Dex’s turn to blink slowly. “There’s a difference between sayin’ it out loud and sayin’ it in your head?”

Damn it. He had a point.

But before we could go any further, someone in the front yelled Dex’s name loud enough that it was heard through the music playing. With a low grunt, he shifted so that his hip contact turned into the long length of his thigh pressing into my knee and shin. “I’ll try not to take my shit out on you again but if I do, say somethin’. I’m not gonna bite your head off for bein’ honest with me, all right?”

I gave him a dubious look because seriously? Did he really expect me to think he’d take me calling him an ugly name well? Oh please. But okay, whatever made him sleep better at night.

I was tired of being so angry. I could try to be a bigger person and wash my hands of this. It would be impossible to say that Dex wasn’t trying to fix this muck in his own brutal way. He deserved points for effort.

Okay, not really but still. Move past it. Forget it.

“Look, I’m gonna hope you forget what I said or forgive me sooner than later because I’m not a fan of this shit right now. I’m sorry and that’s the damn truth. But I want you to open that little mouth and say whatever’s botherin’ you from now on, all right?”

I didn’t say anything in response because I didn’t think he needed an answer.

He kept looking at me with those high intensity eyes until I realized he did want a confirmation. “Okay.”

Dex ducked his head in to catch my eyes more fully.

This guy. God. I raised my voice and repeated myself. “Fine, I’ll say something from now on.”

With a single pat to my knee, he was gone a moment later.

And I sat there wondering what the hell had just happened.

Chapter Nine

The days seemed to pass by in a blur of work, Sonny, his home, getting paid, and my new favorite place—the Austin Public Library branch right by the shop. I registered for my card before work one day, since I figured that with my starving bank account I wouldn’t be able to afford buying any books in the near future.  And to be honest, once I got my card and settled into my routine, it was good—comfortable. I'd even applied for a couple of full-time jobs and that made me excited.

Hell, everything was pretty nice. Including the tension at work.

Dex had been in and out of the shop and when he was in, he was just kind of aloof unless he had to make deposits at the bank during the day.

Even though I’d pretty much—but not completely—gotten over our initial meeting disaster, I still didn’t feel completely comfortable around him. The tension between us had gone from strained to…weird after the incident with the drunk guy. The same drunk guy who came in sober and holding a daisy the day afterward, apologizing for calling me a bitch.  There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that the The Dick had been behind the visit. With the exception of Dex’s bad moment, I usually didn’t hold grudges because they weren’t worth the effort and I let Rick off the hook.

Work was easy but it seemed even easier when Dex wasn’t within thirty feet. I managed to read my books in peace during my lunch break and got to know my coworkers when there was downtime. I couldn't really ask for much more.

So it was completely unexpected on Friday afternoon to be sitting in the back during my break, reading the book I’d picked up the day before, and hear, “What are you readin’?” coming from the doorway.

I looked up to see Dex standing there, hands shoved into his pockets, black hair going in a million different directions without his ball cap on. My eyes went from the text below me and back to him a couple of times before I answered vaguely. “A book from the library.” It was a historical romance novel, so I’d rather tell him that in detail in oh, a million years.

Right then, in that moment, Dex The Dick grinned. Grinned. And sweet mother of God, it was devastating. So completely catastrophic I just stood there and absorbed the nuclear bomb going off in front of me, defenseless.

His eyes glittered at the same time his eyebrows shot up. “The library?”

I liked the way he drew out the pronunciation, so I nodded.

“The public library?” he asked slowly.

“Yes,” I drew out the consonant.

His lips quirked on the corners. “They still have those?”

“They still have those,” I confirmed, glancing back down at my book, shutting it carefully after memorizing the page number. I swallowed hard and reminded myself to let my old resentment finish trickling away. Dex was obviously trying, so I could too.

“And you go to libraries?” he asked just as slow as he had a moment before.

Was he antagonizing me? I didn't think so. The up-tilt of his lips made it seem like he was more entertained and curious than just simply being a cruel jerk.

I held up the back cover of the novel I’d just been reading since there wasn’t a picture on it. “I like free stuff.”

Dex grinned wide again.

Holy crap. Those were rare.

“Babe, I can’t even remember the last time I read a book that wasn’t for school, much less the last time I went into a library without my ma forcin' me,” he admitted.

For some reason, the image of a Baby Dex with super blue eyes and crazy black hair pitching a fit as he was carried into the library by his mom, flashed through my head and it made me snort. That was probably the last time someone had forced him to do anything.