Page 80 of Pucking Your Best Friend

“Oh, go on, start a fight!” his sister replied hopefully. “I find there aren’t enough of them at our family gatherings. We all like each other too much. It’s awful.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not starting a fight.” Unless the man grabbed Maddie’s face again, because that was an intimategesture and he needed to keep his dirty fingers to himself, for Pete’s sake! Why didn’t Maddie slap his hand away? Instead, she smiled and closed her eyes, then…blew on the guy’s fingers?

Matt’s jaw cracked and he hastened his pace. The way she pursed her lips, and that guy…

Before he knew what he was doing, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back a few steps. “Okay,” he growled, “I’m ready to argue now.”

“What?” She glanced up in surprise. “I’m talking, Matt. I…”

“I don’t care. I want to argue now. You promised to argue with me.”

Her eyes widened and he thought he saw a slight flash of panic in her irises. Good. That was better than the ridiculously sweet expression she had given the wine guy.

“But…you said later.” she reminded him.

“Now is later. Quite a bit later.”

“Um…”

“Excuse me, can I help in any way?” Barry asked, confused.

“Nope,” Matt replied harshly. “The lady here has a promise to keep.”

Maddie sighed heavily and rolled her eyes before giving her friend an encouraging smile. “Sorry, Barry. I’ll be right back.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Matt said dryly.

“What?” Maddie looked at him skeptically.

“Nothing. Let’s go inside.”

And because he didn’t want her to change her mind, he kept his hand tightly around her elbow.

She looked up at him, snorting. “Matt, can you please not hold me like I’m your favorite stick?” she said dryly as they crossed the patio into the living room. “I’m not going to run away from you! I said we can talk about it again and I keep my promises.”

He released her abruptly. “Good. That’s good,” he said, thinking he probably shouldn’t say anything else aboutpromises. “Why exactly was that idiot constantly touching your face with his hands?”

Wide-eyed, she turned to him, stunned. She was now standing with her back to the banister, the same one that had been repaired several times after he and his sisters had ridden down the stairs on a mattress as teenagers and collided with it. They had moved a lot, but this was his home. It turned out Maddie fit in here oddly well. He hadn’t paid attention to it earlier, because he’d been so irritated that she’d been silent with his mother.

“Matt? What idiot did what to my face?”

Oh God, he was getting distracted. “Barry,” he pulled himself together. “He constantly had his hands on you.”

She gave him a wry look. “Constantly? Twice. It happened two times. Besides, he wiped an eyelash off my cheek, that’s all.”

Oh, please, that was neverallfor a guy when faced with a woman like Maddie. He knew it better than anyone! “I know Nell set you up with him, Maddie!”

She raised an eyebrow. “And?”

He opened his mouth to say,And that’s not right!

She would probably force him to elaborate, though, and he didn’t know if he would be able to.

Maddie sighed as he continued silently staring at her.

“Matt, did I do something wrong?” she asked, uncertain, picking at her thumbnail. “For the last few hours, I actually felt like…you weren’t angry with me. But now you look like I just said Leon Alvarez is a better person than you.”

He snorted. “In Leon’s dreams. I wanted to talk.”

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