Page 74 of The Best Friend Power Play

"Don't be. We can order in."

"On the bright side, I probably did us both a favor."

"How so?"

"I can't be sure, but all day at work it's been nagging away in the back of my mind that I may have used sugar instead of salt."

I laugh. "Sounds like you did do us a favor."

Half an hour later, I'm unwrapping our order of Mexican food and laying it out on the coffee table.

We've changed clothes—she's wearing my black Luke Combs T-shirt which I think has become her favorite—foot rubs are done, she's showed me the latest photos Katie and Chester have sent through, and we're about to launch into an episode of Below Deck Down Under—because yes, the show is so popular there are spin-offs.

Several of them, in fact.

"Dig in," I say.

"Mmm. This smells delicious," Hannah says, joining me on the floor since it's easier to eat this way and pressing play.

In the Coming up section of the intro, we see that in this episode, the charter guests are going to insist that the male crew members serve them dinner wearing only Speedos.

That earns an appreciative holler from Hannah.

I hit pause on the remote control. "What are you whooping at?"

"Oh, come on," she says around a mouthful of taco. "Are you telling me you don't want to see Captain Jason in a speedo?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. I've spent enough time staring at a male body to last me a while."

Hannah has been crushing on Captain Jason all season, and frankly, I don't get it. Sure, the guy is an experienced captain, a good leader, and in okay shape for a dude in his forties, but come on.

"I didn't think he could get any hotter with that Australian accent…until this. It's going to be a great episode."

I watch the episode chewing the ever-loving life out of my food and sneaking glances at Hannah whenever I can, doing my best to keep Caveman Culver at bay.

She likes a guy on a TV show, man. Cool it.

I honestly don't know what gets into me sometimes.

No, not sometimes.

Times that involve Hannah.

When I'm kissing her.

When I see her in one of my shirts.

When someone's making a comment about her appearance.

When she's making appreciative noises about a Speedo-clad Australian.

Something happens to me, something I've never felt before, and I'm overcome by this mix of irrational possessiveness and wishing she was really mine.

It knocks me off balance, and it's starting to scare me because it's not going away. If anything, it's only getting stronger the more time we spend together.

Which isn't good.

I don't know how our current closeness will impact our friendship after the summer ends, but what I am sure of is that I'm not going to let any of what we're doing now change things for the worse.

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