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Brooke looked at me warily. “What are you doing?”
“What are you so worried about? That the reporter will see that there’s something between us or that you feel this?” I gestured between us.
Brooke’s breath hitched, giving me hope that she wasn’t immune to me.
She stepped back, and that time I didn’t follow. “No. Yes. I don’t know. I just don’t want things to get ugly. This is different than high school. It’s not just our peers who see us. It’s how we’re perceived in the community.”
“And what? You can’t let it get out that we kissed?” Was she embarrassed?
“You’re being ridiculous.” But she couldn’t meet my eyes.
“Am I?” Something was going on with Brooke, and I had no idea what it was. Did she not want a relationship or a one-night stand, or was it that she didn’t wantme? The last part hurt.
“Why did you come here tonight? Was it just to kiss me?” Her cheeks were flushed with anger.
She was deflecting, and she wasn’t letting me close enough to figure out what was really going on in her head. “I wanted to talk to you about that stunt you pulled today.”
“Well, why didn’t you just say that?” Some of the tension left her body.
“I had every intention of confronting you, but then I saw you, and I lost it.” That was the understatement of the year. My baser instincts had taken over. The ones that I didn’t have the balls to act on in high school.
“Did you expect me to be okay with you opening a similar store across town? Did you think I was just going to take it lying down?”
“No.” My voice sounded strangled.
Fuck. Everything she did and said had me thinking of laying her down on a bed where I could take my time with her. Where I could figure out what made her soften with desire. I wanted her screaming my name for a different reason. Not out of anger, but desire.
“I had to do something.” Her expression was so torn that I deflated.
I ran my fingers through my hair. “I would have done something similar.”
She raised her brow. “Yeah?”
“I’m still pissed.” But I respected her for coming at me right out of the gate. It was the reason I’d respected her so much when we were younger. She never backed down from a challenge. She was fierce. And now I was wondering how that would translate into a bed partner.
Her lips twitched.
“You like that.”
I couldn’t underestimate her. She’d be on top of her game, coming up with ways to draw her customers back in.
“I like that I get to you,” she said softly.
What did she mean by that? In business or personally?
Then she grimaced. “It’s not that I don’t find you attractive, but nothing can happen between us.”
“And why is that?” I hadn’t even worked out if I wanted that either, but it stung that she dismissed the possibility so quickly.
“Everyone in town is watching us. A reporter is digging into our history. Our businesses are in direct competition with each other. Hooking up is not the answer.”
“That’s not the reason, and you know it. There’s something else going on with you. Something you’re worried about.” I wanted to know more about her. What her dating history was like. Why she felt the need to throw up barriers between us.
“We’re not a good idea.”
I’d had enough. It was similar enough to what Cammie’s mother, Maria, told me when she found out she was pregnant.I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be together. I’ll co-parent with you, but I don’t want to be in a relationship with you.
Even before we found out she was pregnant, I’d been prepared to take our relationship to the next level. So, to hear I’d been so wrong was devastating.
