And that was the problem. Because every time I told myself to stay detached, he’d go and looklike thatand undo all my progress.
After the morning we’d had, I didn’t need any more reminders of how good we were at getting tangled up, literally and otherwise. But the chemistry between us was like static in the air: invisible but impossible to ignore.
“Careful,” he said suddenly, reaching out to steady my hand as I passed another sample across the table.
The touch was light, fleeting, but it lit me up anyway.
I cleared my throat. “I’m fine.”
“Didn’t say you weren’t.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I was thinking you look good in that apron,” he said easily.
My brain fizzled. “You…what…why are you like this?”
“Born this way,” he said. “Genetic gift.”
Lydia appeared out of nowhere like the chaos elf she was, clapping her hands. “You two are doingamazing! Great teamwork, great energy!”
“Teamwork?” I echoed. “We’re barely functioning.”
She winked. “That’s your version of chemistry. Don’t fight it.”
“Lydia—”
“Gotta run!” she sang, darting off to the next booth. “Oh, and if you two could take over the raffle later, that’d be great!”
I groaned, rubbing my temples. “This town runs on peer pressure.”
Drew chuckled. “And pancakes.”
“And meddling.”
He handed me another cup, our fingers brushing again. “Don’t forget the part where it runs on you pretending you don’t like me.”
“I don’t.”
“Sure,” he said, voice low and amused. “That’s why you keep coming back to my bar, my booth, and apparently now my chili station.”
“I’m helping Lydia. And it’s not your chili station.”
“Actually, it is. If you looked at the sign, you would have noticed it read Rusty Stag’s Chili. And I was the one who made it.”
I glared, but it was useless. He was enjoying every second of this.
“I’m here for Lydia.” That’s all I could come up with, and it just made him grin wider.
We fell into a rhythm after that, passing cups, taking votes, trading sarcasm. And the strangest thing happened.
I started to have fun. Real, laugh-out-loud fun.
At one point, he accidentally splattered chili on his shirt and cursed under his breath, and I couldn’t help laughing.
He grinned, caught me mid-laugh, and said, “There it is again.”
“There, what is?”
