Page 37 of Pucking Your Best Friend

He raised one corner of his mouth. “You haven’t even had a proper conversation with them.”

“I don’t have to. I…don’t like the way they flock to you like moths to a flame. You want normal, don’t you? That’s not normal.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “There’s some truth to that. Well, then I’m curious to see who you choose for this date.”

She swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, maybe it’ll take me a while. So…you honestly want to go on arealdate? It’s a lot of work for me and…”

Matt snorted in amusement. “It was your idea!”

“I know.”

“I’m doing itforyou.”

“I know!”

“So what the hell is your problem?”

“I don’t know.” Her voice broke and she stared at the tips of her toes. She cleared her throat, then shook her head and looked up, smiling. “I mean I don’t have one! Obviously, you’ll get your date. Sorry, it was a bit much for me today. The cameras and everything. I’m not used to it.”

Matt looked at her, his eyes narrowing. “I see. That’s it? Did I say something wrong during the interview?”

No. He said the right things. That was the bad thing.

“No, it was fine.” She tried to make her voice sound normal and happy again. “Do what you want, Matt. Go ahead and talk to the women outside. Or go home.”

“Well, I have to go to practice anyway. I was only excused for this,” he muttered, looking out the office window where Lucy was standing tapping her wrist meaningfully. “Was the interview all you hoped it would be? Did it help you?” He seemed almost unsure now and her heart grew heavy and fluttered strangely, which she didn’t understand at all.

“It was wonderful,” she whispered. “Really. Thank you, Matt. I owe you.”

He smiled warmly. “Nonsense. Cook for me again and we’ll call it even. Your food is damn good.”

She laughed when he left the office and she could breathe a little more freely again. She watched him leave, her hand pressed against her pounding heart.

What was wrong with her?

Chapter 9

That was weird, wasn’t it? Maddie hadn’t behaved… normally.

Matt was still thinking about it eight hours later, in the shower at home. He had known her for a long time now and she had never stammered or not known what to say in his presence – quite the opposite.

She had looked at him as if he were a different person, as if she didn’t know him at all. That didn’t make sense to him. He hadn’t behaved any differently today than he usually did.

Shit, he had been obsessing about it for far too long and now the entire bathroom was filled with steam.

Normally, he went straight to the showers after practice, but today, the guys had been unbearable. Everyone had seen the live interview with him in front of Match Me! and felt like they had to analyze it in detail with him.

Leon had wanted to talk about when and where exactly Matt had lost his mind and started thinking monogamy was a cool idea. Jack had asked if he was dating the chicken, since it appeared there’d been sparks flying between them, as well as feathers. That’s when Dax pointed out that Lucy would not approve of an affair with a chicken; it might receive bad press. Then there were a lot of chicken sex jokes, the stupidity of which was only surpassed by their creativity.

Bottom line: Matt had given them the middle finger and left as quickly as possible so as not to turnuncharming.

Nevertheless, the interview had been worth it.

Maddie and Hailey were unable to escape new clients. Maddie had looked happy again for a moment, at least before her expression turned strange. No matter – the better her general mood, the lighter his heart felt. He could bear a few stupid remarks from his teammates.

Matt tilted his head back and let the water run down his face. At some point, Maddie had admitted she didn’t understand how people could do that voluntarily. If she tried it, she felt like she was drowning. But the water on Matt’s face washed any thoughts from his mind and eased the tension in his shoulders…while he wondered if he could make Maddie forget her aversion to water running over her face. Just for a few minutes, as he slowly soaped her up, running his hands down her arms, figuring out exactly where she was ticklish and where she wasn’t, then touching her where she definitely wasn’t…

“Fuck,” he said, wincing. He’d been thinking too much. And the shower, apparently, was the worst place to think about Maddie. The worst. Yep, time to turn the water to cold.

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