Page 40 of Hard to Resist

“How many more days until you move here?”

“Two weeks, give or take. Why? You miss me when I’m not here?”

My teasing words have the exact effect I expected. Her cheeks turn a rosy color, not dissimilar to her pizza, and she lets out a mock scoff.

“No. I was just wondering. No hidden meaning.”

“Too bad. I miss seeing you.”

“Really? Even though it’s only been a week?”

“A week, a day, a month. I feel the distance all the same.”

She smiles and plays with the ends of her ponytail. “I like it when you say stuff like that.”

“I have plenty more sappy truths where that came from.”

“Yeah?”

“And a couple dirty ones.”

She reaches across the table and lightly whacks my hand with the back of her fingers. “Way to ruin the moment.”

I give her an unabashed grin.

She pulls back and starts tearing off pieces of her pizza crust. “Tell me three things.”

“Open category?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Okay.” I lean back in the uncomfortable chair, resting my elbow on the top. “One, I hate black olives. Two, I broke my collarbone in eighth grade. Three–”

“Wait, how’d you break your collarbone?”

“Lacrosse.” And it hurt like a fucking bitch. The rehab time on a broken collarbone is no joke.

“I never pictured lacrosse as that violent a sport, but go on.”

“Don’t diss lacrosse.” I reach out and snag one of her mutilated pieces of pizza crust and pop it in my mouth. “And three, I stole a street sign in college and never got caught.”

“Wait. You mean, like, the green part?”

“No, the whole pole.”

She stops mutilating her pizza crust and blinks at me for a few seconds. “What? How? Why?”

“There was a street near campus called Cullen Drive, and a buddy of mine drove a pickup truck, and there was a lot of beer involved–on my part, not the guy driving the truck.”

“Oh my God, you are such a guy. Stealing a street sign because it has your name. Seriously.”

“What, are you saying if you saw a sign that was for Verity Place, you wouldn’t think about taking it?”

“I mean, I’d think about it. I wouldn’t do it though.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve never done anything illegal in my entire life.”

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