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She swallowed hard. “Then why did you tell me?”
“I… don’t know.” He dropped her hands, running one through his hair. Whatever spell had fallen over them vanished as quickly as it appeared.
“Let’s get these cookies going, okay?” Kevin moved past her to the stand mixer and pulled the lever to raise the bowl. His hand reached for the power switch, and before she could stop him, the mixer whirred to life, tossing flour in the air and all over him.
He turned slowly and faced her; a single spot on his body was not covered in white. “I am so sorry.” His powdered face roamed the entire kitchen. “I’ll clean this all up.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll clean it up together.” Bolstered by the heat that still filled her body from moments ago, she shrugged and said, “I kinda enjoy getting messy with you.”
* * *
“What’s gotten into you?”
Kevin lowered the weight stack on the machine with a loud clank and turned to face Johnny. “Nothing’s gotten into me.”
“Oh, please,” he scoffed. “I can practically see your molars, the way you’re smiling. And we both know it’s not from this workout.”
“You’re a trainer and physical therapist. Don’t you know all about endorphins, and all that other happy stuff you get when you work out?”
Johnny curled the dumbbell one last time before placing it on the stack. “Yes, I do. But the thing is, you looked like thatbeforeyou started working out. So again, I’ll ask—what’s gotten into you?”
Kevin knew the answer to that. But Johnny was practically a brother to the woman responsible for the perma-smile on his face. He couldn’t tell him how she’d eyed him like a decadent chocolate lava cake when he took his floured shirt off for her to wash, licking her lower lip when she thought he wasn’t looking. And he certainly wouldn’t tell him the things he wanted to do with that lip. Well, only one thing, really.
They’d spent the evening talking on her couch, which was innocent enough. But she’d given him one of her zip hoodies to wear. It hung open, obviously too small for him to close, and he caught her more than once staring at the sliver of bare chest that played peek-a-boo with her every time he moved. He was terrible at reading body language, but this was a message he could read loud and clear: she was into him.
“I’m just feeling in the holiday spirit, that’s all.” He stuck the metal pin in the weight machine and sat on the bench.
“Nope. Try again. You’ve got the look—you’re all meaty-eyed.”
Kevin turned to his friend. “Isn’t the term ‘beady-eyed’? And I’m definitely not that.”
“Nah. Meaty-eyed. It’s how I look at a delicious steak plopped down in front of me at a restaurant. That’s exactly how you look right now—you’re all heart-eyed and googly. It’s Josie, isn’t it?”
Darn Johnny and his perceptiveness.
“Now, why would you guess that?” Kevin asked, his attention clinging to the weight machine in front of him like it held the secrets to the universe. Or at least his ticket out of this conversation.
“Because she had meaty eyes the morning after your dinner at the lodge. The morning after she’d hung out with you.”
She did?
Why did that make his heart pound and his palms sweat? Good thing he had his lifting gloves on for extra grip.
“Look,” Kevin said as he rested between sets. “Josie is an amazing girl. But she doesn’t date. She said so herself. So, no matter what my meaty, googly, moogly, oogly eyes are telling you, we’re just friends.”
Johnny stood with both hands on his hips and chewed his bottom lip. “So, she’s sticking with that story, then.” He shook his head as he slid a plate onto the bench press bar.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Her ex was a narcissistic bonehead who never listened to her. If it wasn’t easy or convenient, she didn’t get it. Not that she never asked for much. I still remember when she came back from New York City. That trip was all she’d talked about formonths. But he’d insisted on dining at this trendy restaurant, and when they’d lost the reservation, he begged Josie and Courtney to stay and wait for a table.”
“So that’s why they didn’t get to skate at Rockefeller Center?”
“Yep.” He put the last plate on the bar and centered himself on the bench. “Josie doesn’t think a relationship is worth the effort because she’s never been in one where the effort gets reciprocated.”
Kevin scratched at the stubble on his skin. He’d overslept and hadn’t had time to shave this morning. Thoughts of Josie the night before had kept him awake. The way he’d laid all his emotional baggage at her feet, and she hadn’t so much as flinched. In fact, she’d bent down and scooped it all up with him, offering him kind words, support, and a smile that spread heat throughout his body just thinking about it.
He wasn’t good at thinking on his feet, and orchestrating plans wasn’t a skill in his wheelhouse. But where had playing it safe ever gotten him?
