Page 32 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

She nodded, already dreaming about a home library with two cozy armchairs, a fireplace and shelves filled with books.

“You don’t have time to date,” Chad said, his tone stern.

Athena glared at him. “Excuse me?”

“You have the shop, the cooking channel and your job as a dietician. You can’t leave us all hanging.”

“Who says I would?”

“Well, this looks like a good time for me to scoot,” Jenny said. “I’ll get Karen to text you his number.”

“Thanks.” Athena turned to Chad, murder pulsing through her veins.

He raised his hands in surrender.

“No, no way.” She pursued him as he backed into the kitchen. “You don’t tell me what to do, and then shut down the conversation when I call you on it.”

“You’re needed by the team.”

“You don’t even have appointments with me anymore.”

“Uh...” His eyes cut left, then right. “Louis put me back on your roster—”

“He what?” Athena pulled up short, realizing she was actually kind of happy about that. The coach had imposed a ceasefire and now neither of them had to lose face if they wanted to call a truce.

“My point is that my schedule is about to get insane, and so is yours when you open this shop in three weeks. When are you going to have time for a new relationship?”

Ugh. He was right.

“You know what, Chadwick?”

He pressed his right hand to his chest as though he was trying to calm his heart rate. Or maybe protect himself from the oncoming onslaught.

“You suck. A lot. And you know what else?”

“Hmm?”

She studied him, noting again the way he seemed afraid to meet her eyes. For all his bluster, swagger and confidence he was actually a vulnerable little boy sometimes, wasn’t he?

She narrowed her eyes, trying to sort out what she saw. “You’re not the big bad playboy you pretend to be. And I’m going to figure out who you really are.”

Mullens watched Athena move about the kitchen as they filmed their second video of the day. The idea was to stockpile footage, have someone edit it, then schedule it all to go live on her channel closer to the cookbook’s release date.

Or maybe she just wanted to get all the videos involving him done and over with so she could return to ignoring and despising him.

Which might not be such a bad idea if she truly was intent on unearthing his secrets. Part of him wouldn’t mind having a woman share his life—the real stuff—but another part of him wanted nobody anywhere near the pain he’d buried long ago. That would be a sure way to send a woman running. Even a sweetheart like Athena.

She was working on the second recipe of the day, her moves confident, her energy high. This was her happy place. Maybe even more so now that she’d secured a date with a man who was Mullens’ opposite.

Although she’d let him flirt with her in the first video.

Nibbles. Crossing the line and sucking on her fingers.

The thought made him grin like he’d achieved a lifetime goal.

Athena was tasty.

And she’d felt it, too. That sexual connection between them. The tension. The attraction.

---