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“Hey, neighbor.” Viv could hear the tremor in her voice but hoped that Glenn didn’t notice it. She hated how not herself she felt around him. It was like the second he was in her presence she wilted into a schoolgirl with a crush. The thing was, even when she’d been a schoolgirl with a crush, she’d been bold and confident.
Glenn grinned. “Hey, can I get two black coffees?”
Two?Viv heard her inner Church Lady Voice ask. Well, isn’t that special?
“Got a hot date?” she asked.
“Yep.”
Viv felt his answer hit her like the time she was eight and fell from the high branch on the climbing tree in their front yard. It knocked the wind out of her.
“His name is Lucky and he owns the gym across the street.”
The knot that had formed in her throat began to unravel. She quickly filled the order and set it down on the counter.
“So, last night was nice,” she said as she rang him up.
It felt odd charging Glenn for the drinks, but she didn’t know if it would be even odder not to charge him.
Glenn nodded as he pulled out his wallet. He put his card in the reader and Viv could feel the time slipping away. She wasn’t sure when she’d get the opportunity to speak to him without an audience of either Bree, one of their family members, or some other Hope Falls’ resident.
“Are we ever gonna talk about the fact that we almost kissed before I went on my date?”
Glenn’s eyes slowly lifted and met hers. “Did we?”
She never would have pegged him as someone who played stupid. But if he thought she was going to back down, he was sadly mistaken. “Hmm, I would have guessed lion not ostrich.”
His brow furrowed. “Excuse me?”
“You struck me as more of a king of the jungle type than a bury your head in the sand guy.”
A single brow lifted over his left eye. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“If you are going to pretend that we didn’t almost kiss, then yes, that is exactly what I think you’re doing.”
He continued to stare at her and the energy between them crackled like a blazing bonfire. The oxygen around her seemed to be dissipating and she wanted so badly to lean over the counter and press her lips to Glenn’s.
Fuck it.If he couldn’t make the first move, then she would. This build-up, will-they/won’t-they shit was great in movies, books, and television, but she wasn’t a huge fan of it in real life.
Her smile tilted up as she lifted her gaze to him with her award-winning bedroom eyes that had brought lesser men to their knees. The look had actually garnered her an award, in college, she’d won Best Bedroom Eyes in her dorm. She leaned forward slightly making sure to adjust her arms to give her maximum cleavage. Viv knew her strengths and was not opposed to using them. If flirting was an Olympic sport she would have a plethora of gold medals.
"It's just a kiss." Viv grinned as she watched a flush rise on Glenn "The Gladiator's" face. Having the power to make the big, bad, boxer blush was something that she was very much enjoying. "It's really not a big deal, it doesn’t have to mean anything."
Glenn's large hands rested on the counter and he leaned toward her. It was the slightest movement but Viv felt the invasion of her space in the form of tingles that ran from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. Her breath caught in her throat as the power dynamic shifted between them.
"If you think a kissisn'ta big deal, then you've been doing it with the wrong people.” Glenn rasped as his heated stare held her in place. "When I kiss you... If Ikiss you, I'll mean it."
Viv opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She was choking on lust. Standing this close to Glenn, smelling his Irish Spring hotness, looking into his dreamy brown-eyed stare, hearing his deep gravelly voice was too much. She was on arousal overload.
Without another word, Glenn grabbed his coffees and walked out of the shop.
When she was released from the lust paralysis he'd caused, she asked aloud to the empty café, "You'llmean it?What the actual fuck does that mean?"
She had no idea. But she did know it was hot. Four-alarm-fire hot.
