Page 22 of Lessons in Heartbreak

This wasn’t fair. A simple compliment, and the skin on my upper body was now registering a thousand degrees.

And he did it with a twinkle in his eyes and a grin hovering on the edges of his perfect mouth.

Ass.

“You have to leave.”

The words came out with only the slightest tinge of panic, because something about Griffin made me feel very, very panicky, indeed. Like if I stayed around him too long, all the edges of my carefully constructed world would start peeling away.

And I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to see what was underneath.

With unhurried strides, he walked around the table, picking up a fantasy novel I hadn’t had a chance to read yet. “Now, that is not the friendliest greeting, is it? I’ve been up since dawn waiting for the library to open.”

I plucked the book from his hand. “You have not.”

Griffin ignored me, selecting a cowboy romance with a gorgeous red cover. He flipped through some of the pages, eyebrows popping high at whatever he saw. His eyes flicked to mine. “You read all these books, birdy?”

My cheeks felt hot, but I held his gaze. “Not all of them, but some. It’s part of the job to know what people are looking for, and right now, they want spicy romance.”

“I think I might check this one out,” he said, holding the book up. “Not much of a reader, but I could make an exception.”

Holding his gaze, I pointed at the cover. “You want to read that book?”

“Oh yeah,” he answered in a rumbling voice that I felt down to my toes. “Imagine all the things I could learn.”

With a tiny wink, he tucked the book under his arm and ambled off toward the stacks in the back of the library, whistling low and quiet. Mouth agape, I watched him go. Lauren waved her arms frantically, and when I cut her a look, she mouthed,What are you doing, go!

Narrowing my eyes in a fierce glare did nothing to my friend, because she simply jabbed her finger in the air in Griffin’s general direction.

The man in question paused and glanced over his shoulder. “You need to come with me, otherwise I’ll be wandering aimlessly for hours. Unless you’d like to see my face around every corner. For your entire day.”

When I leveled my glare in his direction, his smile simply grew, a deep, enticing dimple appearing in the dark stubble on his knife-sharp jaw.

What an ass.

“No.” I crossed my arms. “You are perfectly capable of finding books on your own.”

Behind me, Lauren hissed my name, but I ignored her.

I mean ... fine, I was being a little snippy, but I couldn’t help it.

This was exactly the way he was as a kid too. Nosy and pushy and always teasing me.

He glanced around the building, eyes narrowed in thought. “You got any picture books on how to get better at football? I bet my new coach would be happy if I started reading one of those.”

The way my brow furrowed, I just knew I was popping some new wrinkles, courtesy of this freaking man. “You have a new coach?”

He hummed. “Just transferred to Denver. Signing the contract any day now. That’s why I couldn’t come visit until today, because my agent and I had to hammer out a few last details. Did I not mention that?”

Tha-thunk.

That was the sound of my heart dropping into the pit of my stomach.

“You did not,” I said faintly. Oh God, he’d practically be local.

Okay, fine. Not local. But within driving distance.

Freaking great.

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