Page 46 of Villainous Summer

I could picture it all too well, Summer beside me at the bar, us dominating at trivia and winning each round with ease. Our knees knocking together, the feel of her fingers against mine as she steals the little pencil from me to write the answer.

It wasn’t anything I ever wanted. Brief dates with women, sure. But to have someone around all the time?

“Yeah, I’ll get her back here next time.”

“She’s a member of the team now. You must be serious about her.”

Summer threw an arm over Savvy’s shoulder and beamed at me.

The urge to cup my hand around her neck and bring her lips to mine was overwhelming. My mouth tingled from want.

“Yeah, of course,” I said, barely registering the comment until after I agreed to it.

But there was a shift in how I was feeling about her. I could picture her joining me for these trivia nights, charming my coworkers, her hand holding mine under the table like some junior-high crush. But more than that, I could visualize what came after. What she would look like in the mornings, fresh-faced and still sleepy. How we would find each other in the night, our legs tangled and the air mingling.

The last time I had spent over thirty minutes with a woman after a night together was at least five years before, and that was more because she couldn’t take my hints about needing to head out the door and parked herself on my couch with a box of Crunch Berries. That mistake both made me late for work and deprived me of all the red berries.

Somehow, I doubted Summer would be one to methodically remove fruit flavors from sugary cereal.

The group downed the rest of their drinks and covered their bar tabs. In ten minutes, half of them were out the door, leaving only a few of us.

Savvy was at the bar, ordering her last drink, and Eldon was watching her with lovesick eyes.

Was there a way to help him along?

Without the buffer of the group, Summer turned to me. “Okay, Hot Rod, what is up with you?”

As she waited for my answer, she fished the lemon out of her drink and sucked it into her mouth, ripping the fruit from the rind.

I stared at the empty yellow skin. “Did you just eat that lemon like an apple?”

“More like an orange, since it’s a citrus.” She shrugged. “I like lemons.” Setting the rind down, she turned on her stool, her knees bumping mine. “Don’t change the subject. I’ve been here for hours now, and you’re acting . . . I don’t know.” She frowned. “Not boy-friendly.”

“Not boy-friendly?”

“Yeah, side hugs, barely get a high five. I leaned in closer, the universal put your arm around me signal, and you ignored it.”

“I was being respectful. You told me not to be a sleazeball. I didn’t want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”

“So, you went a thousand miles in the other direction?” She raised a brow, a smirk playing at the corner of her rose-tinted lips. “Don’t you worry about me. I have no issue telling you to back off if I need it.” Her gaze peered over my shoulder. “Speaking of, hold that thought.”

Her chair screeched against the linoleum as she pushed it back.

Before I could ask her what was going on, she was at the bar, her gaze on Savvy, who was standing between two stools with a frown on her face.

A man with wrap-around sunglasses sitting backward on his balding head and a peeling sunburn on his forehead was leaning on the wooden surface. His eyes traced Savvy’s body, and he gave her a lecherous grin.

“No, thanks,” Savvy said, turning back to the bartender.

“Put it on my tab, Tim,” the man said.

Savvy shook her head again. “That’s really o—”

Summer grabbed the stool between them, pulled it out into the walkway, and slid beside Savvy, giving the man her back.

“Excuse you,” the man slurred. “You bumped into me.”

Summer glanced over her shoulder at him, her mouth pulled into a sneer and a single brow raised. “And yet you’re still standing here.”

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