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“I wasn’t going to waste time looking for it.” He took the tire iron, moved passed her, and returned to the flat tire. Enzo’s muscles flexed against his t-shirt as he attempted to break the lug nut free. Sweat dripped down his face and onto his collar. He swiped his forearm across his forehead then unexpectedly, he pulled the hem of his shirt over his head, revealing cut abs that had Cami doing a double and triple take. She’d known Enzo worked out. Heck, she’d even bumped into him at the gym a few times, but she had no idea that he was hiding those ripped abs under his clothes.
As a kid, she’d seen Enzo shirtless many times from Moretti family trips to the beach, to bumping into him in the hallway in the middle of the night during a sleepover when she was on her way to the bathroom. It had been years since then, and with him always working and her always working, she never had an opportunity to bump into him on the beach.
Her eyes lingered on the taut skin and the hard ridges that lined each gloriously sculpted muscle. She’d always found Enzo attractive; he was blessed in the gene department that was for sure, but now as he kindly changed her tire, shirtless, sweat dripping across his skin, she was utterly speechless. A first for her.
The corded muscles in his arms tightened, and he leaned his weight forward, attempting again to break the lug nut free. Cami could do nothing but stare with each grunt and strain of muscles.
The lug nut finally broke free, and he moved onto the next. The other three came off no problem, and while she was happy it was easier for him, she was disappointed she couldn’t watch his muscles bulging and stretching his tanned skin.
He quickly switched the flat tire for the donut and put the lug nuts back into place. “You might be able to get this plugged,” he said as he carried the tire to her trunk. “But the tread is starting to wear low, so you’re probably better off getting a new one.”
She had no idea when she’d have time to do that, but she’d figure it out. She always did.
She followed him to the trunk, and he battled her pile of crap to get the tire inside. Once everything was settled back into place, he slammed the trunk shut.
“All set,” he said.
“Thank you. Tomorrow, coffee is on me.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“But see, Iwillworry about it, and every time you come in the coffee shop, all I’ll be able to think is how I need to pay you back, but you won’t let me, and if you would just let me give you a single cup of coffee at no charge, it would take away this never-ending guilt that is eating away at my insides. Do you want my insides to be eaten away at?”
His eyebrow arched, and she was sure she’d seen him make that gesture a thousand times, but this time there was something adorable about it.
“Fine, one cup of coffee,” he said.
She gave a little jump and clapped her hands together. “Good! I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Get the tire fixed.”
He headed to his truck, her eyes lingering on his bare back—an image that stayed with her for the rest of the day.
Chapter 2
Almost every morning, Enzo started his day with a cup of coffee from the Local Bean. Cami’s coffee shop was right down the boardwalk from his family’s restaurant, which made it convenient when he needed a three o’clock pick me up.
He held the door open for a woman in a Willow Cove baseball cap, then went inside. There was no line this morning, probably because it was a Sunday and most people were either at church or sleeping in.
He stepped up to the counter, his eyes immediately landing on the backside of the barista. Cami must’ve hired someone new, because he would surely have remembered an ass like that squeezed into a pair of light-colored jeans and making those seams work overtime.
Copper red hair sat just above her shoulders, and she pushed up on tip-toe to reach something on a high shelf. She was tall, but at six-foot-three, he still had several inches on her. Even though he was raised a gentleman, his eyes lingered on the curve of her backside.
Her leg turned inward, and she spun toward him. His eyes snapped to attention, anticipating the face that would be attached to such a gorgeous figure.
“How can I… Oh it’s you. Hey.”
Enzo’s eyes widened as his brain tried to match the voice with the face. “Cami?” he asked in shocked disbelief as he finally recognized the brown of her eyes.
Cami’s eyebrows cinched at the middle before arching up in curiosity. “The one and only.”
“What the hell did you do to your hair?” The last time he saw her she was blonde. A very familiar blonde he’d swore to himself he’d never look at in that way again. It was impossible to deny her beauty, her infectious personality, and the unwavering ability to bring sunshine into any room she was in.
But she was Cami Martin for crying out loud, his baby sister’s best friend and someone he watched grow from a bouncy little child to a smart business-oriented woman who kept bras in her trunk. Red lace bras…
He shook the image of lingerie from his mind and focused on her face.
She tilted her head and flipped the bottom of her hair. “I dyed it,” she said with a sing-song voice.
