AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why?”
&nb
sp; “What do you mean, why? Because you’ve treated me like crap ever since I got here.”
“Wrong. I was perfectly nice to you at the rehearsal dinner. I didn’t start treating you like crap until after Lucy ran off.”
“Which wasn’t my fault. Admit it.”
“I don’t want to. I might have to blame myself, and who needs that?”
“You do. Although, to be fair, Lucy should have figured it out before things went so far.”
He gave the paddleball a couple of whacks. “What else have you got on your grievance list?”
“You forced me to go work for Birdie Kittle.”
He dropped the paddle on the brown chair, as if the temptation to use it was becoming too strong to resist. “It kept you out of jail, didn’t it?”
“And you made sure I was paid less than the other maids.”
He played dumb. “I don’t remember that.”
She nursed all the injustices. “That day at the inn, when I was cleaning . . . You stood in the doorway and watched me nearly kill myself trying to turn that mattress.”
He grinned. “I have to admit, that was entertaining.”
“Then, after lugging your bag of clubs for eighteen holes, you gave me a one-dollar tip.”
She shouldn’t have brought that up because he still held a grudge. “Three holes you cost me. And don’t think I haven’t noticed that all my new head covers are missing.”
“You were my best friend’s fiancé! And if that’s not good enough, don’t forget that I basically hate you.”
He hit her full force with those golden brown eyes. “You basically like me, too. Not your fault. It just happened.”
“I’m going to make it un-happen.”
His voice turned to smoke. “Now why would you want to do that when we’re both more than ready to take the next step? Which I highly recommend we do naked.”
She swallowed. “I’m sure you’d like that, but maybe I’m not ready.” Coyness wasn’t her strong suit, and he looked disappointed in her for making the attempt. She threw up her hands. “Okay, so I’ll admit I’m curious. Big deal. We both know what that leads to. Dead cat.”
He smiled. “Or one hell of a lot of fun.”
She hated that she was seriously thinking about going ahead with this. “I’m not seriously thinking about going ahead with this,” she said, “but if I were, I’d have a ton of conditions.”
“Such as?”
“This would only be about sex—no cute pet names, no nighttime confidences. No”—she wrinkled her nose at the idea—“friendship.”
“We already have a kind of friendship.”
“Only in your twisted mind because you can’t stand the idea that you’re not friends with everybody on the planet.”
“I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”
“It’s impossible, that’s what’s wrong with it. If this went any further, you could never tell anybody about us. I mean it. Wynette is the gossip capital of the world, and I have enough trouble on my plate. We’d have to sneak around. In public, you’d need to keep on pretending to hate me.”
His eyes narrowed. “I can handle that easy.”
