Page 30 of The Bookworm's Guide to Dating (The Bookworm's Guide 1)

And with that, I hung up and saw to the hikers who were all holding armfuls of books that varied from how-to guides on the trails locally to romance and even murder mysteries.

I did it all with a damn big smile, too.

CHAPTER TEN – JOSH

rule ten: as hemingway said, ‘write drunk, edit sober.’

rephrased: chat drunk, date sober.

mostly.

KINSLEY: U mad, bro?

I stared at my phone. What the fuck was that?

ME: What?

KINSLEY: U mad, bro?

ME: You need to get off the internet.

KINSLEY: I know. Even writing that hurt me.

KINSLEY: Colton said you’re in a shit mood. What did I do?

Nothing, I wanted to say. Lie. I wanted to lie.

Tell her she’d done nothing. That all her stupid fucking questions earlier were unfounded, that I was just being nice when I’d said she was beautiful, and the reason I’d said I was glad her date went badly was because I genuinely didn’t like the guy.

“That’s my brother’s line” be damned.

ME: Nothing. Slept bad, that’s all.

KINSLEY: You’re so full of crap even politics doesn’t want you.

Her brain was a strange place. Wonderful, but strange.

ME: Might make a good journalist though.

KINSLEY: Doubt it. You’d get bored in five minutes.

ME: I take offense at that.

KINSLEY: I take offense at you ignoring my questions.

I sighed. I should have known better than to avoid her. She was like a rabid dog with a bone when she wanted to know something.

ME: Fine. It just wasn’t your usual style and it took me by surprise.

KINSLEY: Try again.

ME: It was very revealing.

KINSLEY: Negative, it was actually very demure. Try again.

ME: I didn’t like him. I thought he was a dick.

KINSLEY: Three strikes and you’re out, asshole.

ME: Fine. I thought it was too sexy for a first date and you gave me a hard on.

KINSLEY: Are you serious?

Yes.

ME: Of course I’m not serious. But you might have given him one and it’s not a good look for a first date, trust me.

KINSLEY: You’re lying.

ME: Fine. You gave me a hard on when I saw the picture. It made me uncomfortable.

KINSLEY: Speak for yourself. I feel like I need to burn that dress now. I can definitely never wear it around you.

ME: Not if you want me to rip it off.

KINSLEY: This conversation is getting uncomfortable.

ME: You insisted on it, not me.

KINSLEY: I regret that decision greatly.

ME: All you had to do was accept my stupid lie originally and none of this would have happened.

KINSLEY: I can never look you in the eye again.

ME: The feeling is mutual, trust me.

KINSLEY: I wish we’d never had this conversation.

ME: Well, there you go. There’s your next dating tip. Leave shit the hell alone when someone doesn’t want to talk about it.

I put my phone face down on the sofa and grabbed my beer from the coffee table. As much as I hated that I’d admitted that to her, it’d shut her up. At least I hoped it had. The last thing I need was for this conversation to go any further than this.

I wasn’t lying when I said I’d never be able to look her in the eye again.

I rolled my neck and shoulders, silently pleading with the knots in my shoulder muscles to loosen up. It had been a long ass day at work. Combine that with my frustration over last night, my slight hangover this morning, and having to set Kinsley up with yet another guy…

I was so fuckin’ done today.

I needed a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.

The hot shower I could guarantee. The sleep? Not so much.

I left my phone on the sofa, finished my beer, and headed to the bathroom to do just that. I turned on the shower and twisted the dial to the hottest heat I could stand. It took only a minute for the bathroom to be filled with steam, and I stripped naked before I got into the large, walk-in shower.

The steaming hot water beat down on me like the massage my shoulders so desperately needed. I had no idea how long I stood there, letting it drain over me, before I washed my hair and scrubbed down my body.

I let the water wash the soap off for a few minutes before my crinkled fingertips told me I’d spent long enough in the water.

I got out of the shower and killed the water before wrapping a clean, blue towel around my waist. My house was deathly quiet, and for the first time since I’d moved in, I wished I didn’t live alone.

Or that I wasn’t alone right now.

I padded into my room, leaving wet footprints on the thick hall carpet on my way, then sat on the end of my bed. I had absolutely no desire to get out of this towel and physically dry myself off, so I didn’t.

Kinsley Lane.

She was the bane of my fucking existence right now.