Page 41 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

Athena was smirking, clearly very amused by his stupidity.

“You’re laughing at me.” He offered her the package, but she shook her head. “You think I’m an idiot.”

“This…” she drew an air circle around her face, making no effort to hide her amusement “…is actually admiration.”

If he’d been feeling up to it, his pride would be smarting.

Wait. Did she say admiration? For him acting like a total jerk, disrespecting her knowledge and advice, as well as probably prematurely ending her date?

“What are you talking about, Tina?”

“You cling to this identity through thick and thin.” Athena paused a second to school her expression. “And barf.”

Jenny was right. She needed to laugh more. And laughing at Chad, especially when watching him bolt from the diner, had flipped a switch. Turned him from unattainable jock with a gigantic dietary chip on his shoulder to just some guy trying to look cool in front of others.

His flaunting her rules wasn’t personal. It never had been. And now it was all oddly amusing.

“I didn’t vomit.” Chad leaned against his Corvette again, clearly disgusted with himself.

“The fact that you’re so invested in this cool-dude, rule-breaking persona that you’re willing to ralph your guts out on Main Street in front of everyone…” She shook her head, holding back a laugh.

“I didn’t.” He pushed himself off the hood, looking ready to argue.

“You take care of your body,” she pointed out, tapping one of his sculpted shoulders, “even though you think it’s uncool.”

“I don’t think that, but thanks for noticing…” He flexed his right biceps. “And anyway, you’ve always known I work out. Religiously.”

She narrowed her eyes, tilting her head to the side. “Don’t change the subject.”

“I see you, Tina.”

She made an unintelligible sound before blustering, “I don’t know what you mean.”

He gently touched her chin, drawing her face toward his. “You go by the arena’s gym a lot.” His fingers danced through her hair, his touch almost reverent. He stroked his hand through her hair, pulling a few strands as his fingers tangled.

“Ow!” She tried to pull her head away, protesting, until he held up a bobby pin that had been holding back her growing-out bangs. “My office is near the gym and I have recipes to deliver to lockers!”

Chad gave her a slightly scolding look, then smiled. A smile that seemed to suck the air from her universe, create black holes and supernovas of longing. His voice was low, rumbling in a way most women would consider alluring and incredibly sexy. “Don’t worry, the feeling is mutual, babe.”

“Conceited much?”

“Come on. You’re hot.” He was close, so close her breath hitched as the warmth from his body intensified her own. His fingers brushed through her hair again, sweeping it away from her face. He still had the bobby pin, and he deftly slid it into place, tying back the piece that usually fell across her face. “That dress you wore to the gala? Very sexy. And your clingy pink sweater?” He shook his head slowly, biting his lower lip.

She swallowed hard and tried to recall what they’d been talking about before he’d deftly changed the subject and washed her brain of all thought other than what it might feel like to straddle those strong, thick quads of his.

“Why do you fight me?” she asked, edging out of his force field. “You work out, but you crumple up my recipes and encourage the others to ignore me.”

Those flirtatious eyes grew pained when her voice trembled. Athena shifted so she was resting against the car, her shoulder to his, facing forward so she didn’t have to see the changes in his expression.

“It’s not personal,” Chad muttered, with a darkness to his tone that surprised her. Secrets, secrets, secrets.

“So then?” she prompted.

“This body doesn’t just happen.” He gestured to his chiseled, muscled form.

“You don’t eat as much crap as you pretend to.” Honestly, she should have clued in sooner. She’d been so preoccupied with the minutia she’d missed the big picture. “I’m onto you.”

One corner of his mouth turned up devilishly. “You want to be on me like ham on cheese.” But there was a lack of conviction in his flirtatious tone and, beside her, he inhaled deeply.

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