Page 66 of Hot for the Jerk

“So, it’s decided then,” Sakura announced, as our book club meeting came to a close, “next month’s book will beOver the Blue Moonby R.J.Bomber.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, then stood up from their seats.I grabbed a cookie for the road and shoved it into my mouth before I slid my arms into the sleeves of my jacket.

Raina glared at me as she donned her coat.

“What?”I asked, biting off the piece of cookie in my mouth.

“You’re up to something.I don’t know what … yet.But you’re up to something.”

I rolled my eyes and headed out of the meeting room.“And you’rewaytoo suspicious.Did you have a nice Christmas?”

I stepped to the side so everyone else could pass, and pulled on my still drenched sock and boot, making a face of extreme discomfort as I did.They were too waterlogged for the baseboard heater to really do anything in the hour we were in the meeting room.

“Why do you have bare feet?”she asked, her hands on her hips.

I glanced up at her for half a second before resuming the struggle.“Because one foot got soaked when I stepped in a puddle in the parking lot.”Sliding my foot into the boot, I stood up to my full height.“Did.You.Have.A.Nice.Christmas?”I said slowly.“It’s as easy as yes, or no.”

“I did,” she spat out.“Thank you.Did you?”

“I did.Thank you.See, was that so hard?”

“Harder than you think,” she murmured, making me smile.

We were the last to leave, so I held the door open for her, which just earned me another surly glare.I was beginning to really like her glares.Her brows furrowed in a cute way, and two deep lines formed between them.I kind of wanted to grab a felt-tipped pen and trace the lines, just to see her reaction.She drove Gabrielle’s SUV and parked right beside me.“Watch for the puddles,” I said, nodding at a big one right behind her left rear wheel.

More glaring as she said nothing, got into the vehicle, and turned it on.

Chuckling, I climbed in behind the steering wheel, then glanced beside me, waved, and smiled.Her confusion just made me smile wider.I much preferred this bizarre purgatory rather than the real ire she felt toward me.At least this was fun.At least this had potential.

She backed out first, and I watched her drive away, waving again when she glanced over at me.She didn’t wave back.

Even though my foot was soaked and my toes squished and squashed together, I did have errands to run after this.So I sucked it up like a big boy, and headed to the Town Center Grocery Store to stock up on food for the week.

And whose SUV should I see pulling into the parking lot just seconds ahead of mine?But one Ms.Raina Aaronson, the world’s cutest, prickliest cactus to ever grace San Camanez Island.

“What the fuck, McEvoy,” she said, gathering her reusable, cloth shopping bags from the back hatch.“Are you following me now?”

“I absolutely am,” I said flatly.“Where are we going next?”

All that earned me was a growl as I grabbed my own fabric shopping bags and headed toward the front door of the store.I was right on her heels, and admiring the way her wide-legged, gaucho-style, navy-blue pants hugged her perfect little ass as she climbed the stairs.The plum-purple raincoat she wore made her green eyes greener than ever, and those rosy cheeks from the cold just highlighted her cute little freckles.She stopped abruptly on the threshold of the store and spun around to face me.“You start onthatside of the store.I’m starting onthisside.”Then, before I could argue, or point out the obvious—that we’d meet in the middle—she headed off to the produce section, leaving me to go to the deli department.

Sure enough, the little rosebush found me in the ethnic foods aisle.I could make out her growl and agitated stomp from twenty feet away, and smiled to myself as I compared two different brands of pickled jalapeño slices.“I could have told you that we’d meet in the middle, but you took off before I could,” I said, not bothering to look up at her, but seeing her approach via my peripheral vision.“I can pretend I don’t know you, if you’d like?”

“Excuse me, please,” she said, sidling uprightbeside me and having to reach up onto her tiptoes to grab a can of green chilis.Her arm brushed my shoulder before I stepped out of the way.But she was too short, and the cans were pushed too far to the back of the shelf.Her grunts and growls of surmounting frustration had me rolling my lips inward to keep myself from smiling.

“Would you like some help, miss?”I asked, pretending I didn’t know her.

“I’m fine.If you could just step aside, please.”

I did as she requested, but she was still too short.

With a huff, she dropped back down to her heels and spun to face me.“Could you please grab me two cans of the green chilis?”

“I would be delighted.”Without breaking a sweat, or even lifting onto my tiptoes, I reached to the back of the shelf and grabbed two cans, plopping them in her basket for her.Then I grabbed two for myself as well.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“You’re ever so welcome.”

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