Page 31 of Love Me Boldly

“I…um…I don’t need to see that…” I stuttered out.

Graham laughed as he finalized his order. “Don’t know where your mind went, but I was talking about my search history of articles that start with ‘How to get the girl you like but aren’t sure if she likes you back.’”He gave me that ridiculous eyebrow wiggle again with his standard shameless smirk.

An incredulous laugh fell from my lips. The audacity of this guy.

“I’m sure that’s what’s on there.”

He held out his phone. “Wanna check?”

Tempting. So very tempting. Who wouldn’t want to know if he really spent time searching for things like that? Were theyCosmoarticles?Men’s Health? I highly doubted such things for guys existed. They were too confident. Too egotistical.Hewas too confident.

“I’ll pass.” I waved him off. “But I would like some water. Or hot tea if you have it.”

“Sorry. Fresh out of tea,” he teased. I doubted tea had ever made it on his grocery shopping list.

He went to the small kitchen, and I hung out on the other side through a pass-through hole in the wall where I could see him moving around, grabbing two bottled waters from the fridge. Which was basically all his fridge was stocked with.

“Don’t do a lot of cooking?” I asked, but I wasn’t surprised. Most college kids didn’t, and if he was an athlete, they had their own dining and meal plans, and a lot of those were eaten in the athletic building.

“What gave it away?” He gestured to his fridge door like a classy Vanna White. “My vast selection of condiments?”

“Pretty much.”

“I’ll have you know, Icancook. I just don’t like to. My dad did a lot of cooking in our house when I was growing up, and he made me help him. Said it was good for men to know so they didn’t someday get married and expect the women in their lives to do it all.”

“Well, isn’t that progressive of him.”

“My dad’s a progressive guy.” He shrugged it off like it was nothing, but it wasn’t.

If my dad adopted that kind of mindset, he might not have fallen apart so spectacularly after Mom took off.

“Come on. The app said it’ll be about forty minutes until our food gets here. Any movies you like to watch?”

“Was that a suggestion in all those articles you read?”

He barked out a laugh and plopped down on the couch. “No, Spitfire. That’s because I’m a thoughtful guy.”

He handed me my water, and I sat down close to him on the couch. “Can I ask a question?”

“You can ask anything.” He untwisted his water and took a healthy swig.

“Who’s Piper?”

He coughed, spewing water out of his mouth and then cussed as he jumped to his feet.

I laughed, more out of surprise than humor.

“Hold on. Crap.” He brushed water off his shirt and then hurried to the kitchen, where he grabbed a roll of paper towels. Tearing off more than necessary for the few splatters on his table and couch, he came back and mopped it all up.

“How many cool guy points did that just make me lose?”

His cheeks were a dark pink. Was he really embarrassed?

“Zero, unless you’re going to tell me there’s something going on with you two.”

“Piper? Me? No way.” He shook his head, frowning, and then fell back onto the couch. “Why? Did she say something to you?”

“She told me she’s known you almost her entire life.”

---