Page 36 of Digging Deeper

“Um, maybe three?”

He shakes his head and takes another sip. I try to ignore how sexy he looks with his huge arms crossed over his chest and his hair sticking up everywhere. He even has a little bit of scruff on his face. He hasn’t shaved in three days—yes, I’ve been counting—and I’ve been dying to rub his cheek. God, I am so weird, what is wrong with me?

Shaking myself out of that train of thought, I say, “Aaannyway, I bought the spiders and I hid them all over the house!”

His eyebrows shoot up. “Why would you do that?”

“So you can find them.”

He stares at me like I have three heads.

“We’re both home today; I’m off work, you don’t have PT. And Holds and Jameson are doing stuff all day and having a date night tonight, Aiden won’t be home, so it’s just you and me. I thought it would be fun.”

“I’m not searching the house for spiders.”

“Come on, Drix. I spent at least an hour hiding them.” I stick my bottom lip out in a pout.

He sighs, sets his now empty mug on the counter and starts walking toward the living room. “I’m going to watch TV for an hour, then go work out. You’re welcome to join me.”

I sigh and follow him to the couch. I know the spider thing is completely ridiculous, but I thought it would be a fun way to get him to move around, stretch, bend over, practice balancing. But whatever. He can be a butt all he wants. Maybe Holds will be a good sport and help me find them tomorrow because, lord knows, I don’t remember where I hid them all.

After sitting on the couch for ten minutes, I see Drix reach over to the lamp on the end table and pull off a plastic spider. He holds it out to me and asks, “How many of these things did you hide? I’ve seen four since I sat down.”

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.” I shoot him a smile. “I’m not telling you how many until you find the last one or until you only have a couple to go.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “You didn’t put them anywhere the dogs can reach, did you?”

“No, Drix, I’m not that dumb.” I stand up. “Now come on. Let’s find some spiders!”

“I need to go work out.”

“Dude, don’t be a party pooper.” I drop back down to the couch with a frown, trying to look sad so he’ll play with me.

“I’m not.”

I decide to throw in all my cards, so I say, “I have a prize for you if you win.”

He eyes me for a moment. “What kind of prize?”

“I’ll take you to that new Italian place Jameson told you about for dinner. I’ll even buy you dessert.” I can see his interest grow, so I add on, “It’ll be a good chance to get moving around today so we don’t just sit around. You’ve been making great progress, but you have three days off in a row, so I thought this could be good… and fun.”

“I told you I was going to work out.”

“I know, but this way you’re using your muscles in a different way. And it’ll be good for you to navigate using the walker since you haven’t had much practice with it yet.”

“Are you always in PT mode or do you have a switch I can turn off?”

I snort out a laugh and lean across the couch to give him a shove. “Shut up.”

“I’ll make you a deal.”

“I’m listening.”

“If I play your game, you have to come work out with me.”

“You really want me down there? I thought I’d be invading your space.” Also, I totally don’t want to wind up with a boner when I see him hot and sweaty and working those muscles.Oh no. Even the thought of it is too much for my dick. Simmer down, buddy.

“I always like having a workout partner. There’s not much to do down there, but it’s better than nothing.”

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