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I eyed the last third of my beer. “Guess I’ll be leaving that, then.”
He laughed. “I’m not going to kill you over a beer with dinner, Seb. You’ve had a rough few months. We can run or take a hike. You can show me some trails if they’re walkable.”
“Peak Place should be accessible,” Saylor said. “It’s under cover, and we go year-round.”
“I thought you didn’t hike,” Dylan replied with amusement in his tone.
“I don’t. I walk while listening to audiobooks. That’s not hiking.”
“We already established that,” Holley agreed. “Even so, it was a long day, and I’m tired.”
“That’s my cue.” I put money on the table. “I gave you my spare key, right?”
Dylan nodded. “I put it on my keys already. It’s all good. I know where I’m going.”
“I should be home anyway, but I have to drop Holley home so you might get there before me.” I slid out of the booth, and Holley followed suit. “See you later.”
Dylan held up a hand, while Saylor smirked. “Have fun,” she sang.
Holley said goodbye with a very efficient gesture involving her middle finger, and I pulled her out of the bar before she could tell her to fuck off.
That was usually how that exchange went.
“What do you think?” I asked her as we approached my truck.
“About what?”
“Dylan.”
“Oh.” She got in before me. “He’s nice. I like him. I think he’s the kind of person who needs to live with Saylor. And who can probably say no when she ultimately comes onto him.”
“You think she’s going to hit on him?”
“Yes,” she said as if I were stupid. “At some point. It might be unintentional, or it might be totally deliberate, but it’ll happen. Especially since they’ll be living together. Something is bound to happen.”
“How do you know that?”
“They have chemistry.”
“What does that even mean?” I looked over to her as I pulled up to a red light.
She rolled her eyes. “They click. They obviously have a lot in common despite Saylor’s aversion to exercise that isn’t yoga and Dylan’s literal career in exercise in general.”
“You own a bookstore. I’m a baseball player. We’re pretty opposite ourselves.”
“Oh, and you like math.” She hesitated. “Hmm. I might have to rethink this.”
“Rethink this?” I bit back a laugh. “No. No. No more thinking. You thinking is what took us so long to get to this point.”
“Took us so long? You’ve been back, like, a day!”
“I’ve been here ages! It’s been at least three weeks since I walked into the store.”
“And in the last three weeks I’ve gone from wanting to kill you to tolerating being around you.”
I pulled up outside her building and gave her a look. “Tolerating being around me. You were tolerating a lot last night when you were kissing me on the sofa.”
“That benefitted me also.” She grabbed her purse and jumped out. “Are you coming?”
“Oh, are you tolerating me tonight, too?”
“I’ll let you watch sport if I can read my book.”
“Works for me.” I followed her into the building, pausing to lock my truck behind me. It really was damn cold tonight, and I was thankful to get inside to where it was much warmer, even if the lobby did have a window open.
“Is there even sports on?” Holley asked, leading me up the stairs. “I have no idea.”
“What channels do you have?”
“I have no idea. I don’t watch sports.”
“Surely you know if you have sports channels.”
“Sebastian, I read and watch Netflix. How would I know?”
“You pay the cable bill, don’t you?”
“Doesn’t mean I’ve ever looked at the sports channels.” She shrugged and pulled her keys out of her purse as we reached her apartment. She put the key in and unlocked it. “I don’t watch them. Why would I know?”
“Three billion women in the world, and I choose the one who doesn’t watch any sport at all to be my girlfriend.”
“I’m not your girlfriend.” She let us in and unzipped her coat. “We haven’t gotten that far yet.”
I took off my coat. “You’re my girlfriend.”
“This is feeling very middle school.” Holley walked into the kitchen. “Do you want a hot chocolate? I swear I’ll remember the marshmallows this time. And I’m not your girlfriend.”
I watched as she pressed the button on the electric kettle to turn it on. We were back to bickering over semantics—which was fine, it was fine—but it wasn’t going to last long.
By the time I left, Holley Stuart would know she was my girlfriend.
I kicked off my shoes and walked over to her. She didn’t know I was here, so it was easy to come up behind her and trap her against the counter. She squealed when I pressed myself against her back.
“What are you doing?”
“Trapping you so I can argue with you and use my body to my advantage,” I murmured, dipping my head to kiss the side of her jaw.
