Dirty Laundry: A Tucker Springs Novel #3

getting this one shot to do it without your pants in a long, hot cycle in the washer and your dipshit asses waiting outside until they’re done.”
    Adam kept rigid, his head spinning as, one by one, the frat boys came up to him and murmured terrified apologies before speeding like bullets out the door. The one who had challenged Cowboy was last, making his apology on his knees, his hair held tight in Cowboy’s grip. Then he beat it out of there as well, leaving Adam, frozen in place with his mouth gaping open, alone with his rescuer.
    Cowboy tipped his hat, turned around, and walked away.

    Outside of a lingering flicker of irritation in his jaw, Cowboy gave no clue he’d routed six men and saved Adam’s pathetic little hide. He simply went to his dryer, pulled over an empty cart, and began folding his clothes. He made no eye contact with Adam, not until Adam got himself under control and was able to walk up to his rescuer, nervous hands tangling in front of his belly. As Adam shoved down the last of his panic, Cowboy stopped folding and waited for Adam to speak.
    “Thank you,” Adam managed at last.
    Cowboy acknowledged him with a jerk of his head. “Not a problem.”
    He resumed folding his clothes.
    Adam stood beside his cart, watching. The need to keep talking to the stranger burned inside him, but the man wasn’t making it easy. Yet Adam couldn’t walk away. When Cowboy stopped folding again and leveled that cool hazel gaze at him, Adam shoved his fear down hard and stuck out his hand. “I’m Adam Ellery.”
    Cowboy nodded again and accepted Adam’s hand, closing it in his warm, rough grip. “Denver Rogers.”
    Their hands lingered a moment, then fell apart. The touch had bolstered Adam, though, and instead of fighting for the ability to speak, he tried to sort out what he should say. All he could think of was how no one had ever rescued him before, but he didn’t want to seem pathetic. Asking personal questions felt too brash just yet. Offering to buy the man something to drink seemed appropriate, so he gestured toward the coffee shop. “Can I get you something? As a thank-you?”
    Denver stopped folding and searched Adam’s face. Eventually he shook his head.
    This time Adam was glad the man turned away, because he was blushing in mortification. Rescued and then rejected. Well, what do you expect? He rescued you out of pity, not as a come-on.
    Adam murmured another thanks under his breath and wandered off in search of more of his laundry, gathering up the basket the frat boys had been messing with and adding it to his stash at his table by the door. On the way past his remaining washer, he saw it had finished, so his next move was to switch his laundry to a dryer.
    Something perverse and obstinate made him use the one next to Denver’s. It also encouraged his mouth to flap again. “Do you live around here?”
    It was easier to talk when he was busy with clothes, he found, and something about it seemed to make Denver answer easier as well. “Few streets over.”
    “Me too.” Adam caught Denver’s gaze and smiled. “The Park Place apartments across the highway. I just moved in.” He gestured wryly to the laundromat. “This is my first time without facilities on site. Well, I have them, but they’re communal, and I found out today they’re never working and that when they do, they eat your clothes. So here I am.”
    Denver nodded and went back to his clothes.
    Adam kept talking, because he was nervous and starting to panic and it was either talk or go fetal at this point. “I’m a grad student at the university. Entomology. Bugs. I want to learn more about pollinators. I started with bees, but now I’m into moths. It’s fascinating stuff, really. You wouldn’t believe how much the world would change without them. No food, no flowers, and wow, I should really stop talking.”
    He’d blushed scarlet by the end of his babble, and fetal was starting to sound really amazing, but Denver glanced up at the end and gave him a reassuring but slightly sly grin. “You’re fine.”
    “Not as fine as you,” Adam said before he could stop himself. Then he melted into the wall, half-falling into his dryer and knocking his glasses sideways as he realized what he’d just done. “ Oh God. ” He held up a hand and shook his head even before Denver looked up at him in surprise. “I’m sorry. Really. I just—”
    His voice died as Denver came around his dryer door and stood in front of