Page 42 of Enemies Don't

“What is it?”

“We should probably be in one together.” He meets my gaze and hits me with a grimace. “That’s kinda the whole point, according to my dad.”

I wave off his concern. “Fine. Okay. Let’s get it over with.” I move to stand next to him. When he doesn’t go to take the picture, I ask, “Is a selfie okay? Or should I grab Tim?”

“A selfie is fine. But we should act like we actually like each other, right?”

I spin toward him. “How would we do that?”

“You’d probably have to stand closer than a foot away from me.”

I look between us. I have my ball propped on my hip—the hip closest to Collin. It was serving as a great barrier, but I see his point. I shift it to my other side, sigh, and scoot toward him, brushing up against his side. My upper arm spasms, and we’regoing to go ahead and blame that on the exertion of bowling for the first time in six-ish months. “Better?”

“Much.” He winks. “Now, do I have permission to kiss you?”

I jump back. “What? No!”

He holds up his hands. “Not on the lips. Jeez. I was thinking on your temple or something, but if it’s that much of an issue, I don’t have to.”

My pulse is racing. The last man I kissed was Nelson, and since ending that toxic relationship, kissing has not been on my radar. But this will be fine. It’s no big deal. It doesn’t mean anything, and Collin even asked permission.

I sigh. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just—”

I cut myself off.

“What?” he prods.

I steel myself. “I haven’t been close to a guy since Nelson, so I guess I’m, uh…out of practice.”

His eyes instantly soften, and I hold up my hand. I don’t want his pity.

“It’s fine. Like I told you, PDA isn’t really my style.”

Collin studies me, his green eyes searching my face. “We haven’t talked about Nelson.”

The way he phrases it makes me feel like what he’s not saying isbut I’d like to.

I need to shut that down because that’s the last topic of conversation I want to broach right now.

“I—”

“It’s okay,” he says. “We don’t have to go there. At least, not right now. But I do want you to know that even though our relationship is a fake one, you have my word that I’ll always respect you.”

A weird knob of emotion forms in the back of my throat, hindering my response.

“You with me on that?”

I nod once, quickly, casting my gaze down to the ground.

He raises his hand and uses his pointer finger to tip my chin up so I’m looking at him. His gaze is latched onto me, like he doesn’t want me to miss a word. “You’re safe with me, okay?”

I blow out a breath. I believe him. “Okay.”

Deep down, I realize Collin is nothing like Nelson. I think I’ve known it all along. Sure, he’s gregarious, and charismatic, and a ladies’ man, just like Nelson is. But Collin is not manipulative. I’ve had a front-row seat to his integrity at work, and the way he’s treated me since the start of this whole arrangement—minor snafu at Romeo’s aside—has revealed his true colors. I have no doubt that he’ll respect me. “A temple kiss would be fine.”

“Good. Just call me Indiana Jones.” He winks, and I can’t help but laugh as the intensity of the moment dissipates.

He holds up the phone and touches his lips to my temple before I can even rearrange my face. He steps away and glances at the photo. “That’ll work.”

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