Page 7 of The Anaconda Downstairs

“Are you sure I need a date?”

“No. You can walk the red carpet however you want to, Pen. Anything you want to do will be great, amazing, perfect. I promise.” She pulled me into a hug. “I didn’t mean to stress you out by implying that you had to get a celebrity date. That was insensitive of me. There’s nothing wrong with representing the single ladies.”

She began singing Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” song and dancing around, kicking the rubber snakes. Wiener the Pooh bolted into the living room and barked along to the song and bounced around like she was doing a little doggy dance too.

I gave in and danced and sang along too.

Even though Kelsey said I didn’t need a date for the Grampys, now I wanted to prove that I could get one. I did need to dip my toes back into dating. It was time.

I’d probably have more freak outs along the way, and that was okay too. As long as I sucked up my courage and continued to work through my fears and worries. Because that was the way to overcome them. Face them head on.

It would help if I had an Olympic-level dating coach to help me do this. And I knew exactly who to ask.

The love guru himself.

Everett Kingman.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN

EVERETT

Itrudged down the sidewalk, freshly showered and changed, but still feeling like I’d just gone ten rounds with a heavyweight champ instead of playing four quarters of football. Sure, we’d won, but I’d played like I was a rookie in high school. Missed catches replayed in my head, each one a reminder that, for the first time in as long as I could remember, I wasn’t playing like an all-star athlete.

I needed to blow off steam, and somehow, I doubted video games were going to do it. I was just about to turn on my heel and ditch my brothers to go find some female companionship for the night instead, until I heard the sweet singsong of, “Ev, wait up.”

I turned and saw Penelope jogging to catch up with me, her cheeks flushed and a smile on her face that made my heart... and my dick, do a little stutter-step. Dammit.

“Hey, Pen,” I said, keeping my tone very purposefully casual. “Heading to Hayes’s?”

She nodded, falling into step beside me. “Yeah, Kelsey and Declan are... uh... celebrating the big win today. So I planned to crash your boys’ night. That okay?”

“Course,” I replied, maybe a little too quickly. “I mean, you know Hayes and the twins. The more, the merrier.”

I stood there for a whole-ass minute like I’d forgotten how to walk or talk. Really fucking similar to how I played today. I’d been hyperaware of everyone, including Penelope, watching the game from the Kingman suite today.

Never in my life, not on the football field, doing a photoshoot, and never, ever in the bedroom, had I ever had any kind of performance anxiety. Because I insisted on always being absolutely true to myself. I was always unapologetically me, because anything else was the path to heart break.

So why the hell was I feeling like an untried schoolboy who didn’t have a lick of rizz in front of Penelope?

Dumb. I was the motherfucking love guru, and I had moves on top of moves that made any woman melt in my arms. I needed to remember that and engage that charm so Penelope didn’t decide I was anything less than the sexiest of all Kingmans.

Shit. No. Pull that the fuck back. I needed to use only about ten percent of my charisma, because I didn’t want her thinking I had a thing for her, or worse, have her falling for me. Because there would be no denying those big brown eyes if they ever asked me for a goddamned thing. Like my heart.

And I was saving that for the woman I’d marry someday. My one. The lightning strike.

I extended my arm to Penelope and gave her a wink. That should be enough. “Let’s go show the boys how to have some fun, shall we, sweetheart?”

The slightest, and cutest, splash of a blush flashed across her cheeks, but she smiled and took my arm. “Let’s do it, Mr. Charmer.”

“Ooh.” I gave her the side-eye and raised an eyebrow in a way that had melted more women’s panties than I could count. “That’s not a snake charmer joke, is it?”

She gasped and pressed her hand over her heart. “I would never.”

She seemed so sincere, until she flickered her tongue at me like a sexy snake-woman. Argh. Snakes aren’t sexy. They’re scary.

“You are going to be the death of me.” If I wasn’t incredibly careful.

No more lingering looks, knock it off with the flirty comments. Just friendly, brotherly behavior. Yeah, like her big brother. That’s the right attitude. That would help me get through until I could find some way to get her out of my system.

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