Page 15

I squeeze the steering wheel and try to play it cool, but my heart is pounding like I just ran sprints.

“She lives in a little cottage behind the bakery, drives a beat-up Jeep, and has a Chihuahua named Bruno that she treats like royalty. Star’s a sweetheart, but she doesn’t put up with bullshit. I like her, Tanner, a lot, so if you hurt her, I’ll kick your ass.”

I actually laugh. “Noted.”

But she isn’t messing around. “I mean it, Tanner. She deserves a good guy.”

“No argument here.”

I can hear her smiling through the phone. For a second, it’s quiet. Then she goes for the jugular.

“So, what’re you planning?”

My head hits the back of the seat. “Jesus, Maggie. I literally just left the parking lot.”

“Which means you’re already plotting how to get back in her orbit. Don’t lie.”

My sister knows me so well.

I try to play it cool but fail. “I bought an annual membership, and Star is giving me a private session on Wednesday night.”

The shriek that comes out of her nearly shatters the Bluetooth. “I knew you’d love her.”

I roll my eyes. I should’ve already known my sister was plotting something. “I just want my back to stop hurting.” Which is a total lie. “And maybe get some core strength.”

Right. Because “core strength” is the actual reason I’m already hard as a rock just thinking about Star Wilder touching me again. Good talk.

Maggie is basically vibrating through the phone. “You don’t fool me, Tanner. She’s gorgeous, you’re obsessed, and you couldn’t take your eyes off of her the entire class.”

She isn’t wrong. I’m picturing Star’s soft hands touching me. The way she hovered over my back, hair falling forward, the soft, hypnotic scent of her skin. I swear I still feel the heat where she pressed her palm between my shoulders. If I close my eyes, I can see the green in her eyes, the way her mouth goes soft and pink when she smiles. I shift in my seat, suddenly way too aware of how tight my shorts have gotten.

Maggie’s still talking, but it’s just a buzz in the background while my mind replays every single second of that yoga class, especially the parts where Star Wilder’s body was pressed close to mine, her voice in my ear, those unreal green eyes pinning me. Fuck. My dick is throbbing just thinking about her again.

I rub a hand over my jaw, knowing I’m completely out of my depth. Star isn’t just hot. She’s lethal. And she has no clue what she does to me. The way she’d stand just behind me, palm hovering a breath above my skin, her scent all sage and lemon and something bright and wild. When she finally touched me, it felt like getting zapped by a live wire.

“Hello, Tannie Poo.” My sister’s voice cuts through the cab. “Are you still there, or did your brain short-circuit thinking about Star?”

“I’m home,” I say, staring out the window at my sprawling ranch house with its stone façade and the oak trees I planted myself five years back. The porch light I forgot to turn off this morning glows uselessly in the late afternoon sun. “I’ll have to call you later.”

She tries to squeeze in another word, quick and sharp: “Bu⁠—”

I end the call before I’m tempted to tell my sister any more of my secrets.

And I didn’t even bother to swear my sister to secrecy. A rookie mistake. It’ll be all of half a heartbeat before gossip burns through Silver Spoon Falls and everyone knows I’ve fallen for Star.