Page 41 of Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Okay, apparently, he could get deep with her, but big bad alpha man didn’t like the tables turned. Whatever. Men were weird.

“Should we meet soon to go over wedding plans?” he asked.

Right, the wedding. She sighed, struggling with various emotions surrounding her pretend marriage. “Yes, I suppose we should. When are you free?”

“Can it wait till tomorrow? We open in a few hours and I still have some prep to do for the new infusions.”

Her stomach quivered at the mention of alcohol. “Please, don’t mention infused anything.”

His warm chuckle soothed her stomach, making something much lower quiver.

“Drink lots of water and stick to dry toast today.”

“I know how to handle a hangover, Del.” What she didn’t know how to handle was this new, completely unwanted attraction she seemed to be having for him.

“Okay, Sassy. I’ll meet you tomorrow at the distillery at noon? We can grab lunch and discuss plans.”

“Sounds good.”

“Bye, Cassie.”

“Bye, Del.”

She hung up, clutching the phone to her chest. A glance down at the black screen revealed her reflection and the stupid, goofy grin she sported. Oh no. No, no, no! The last time she grinned like this she was sixteen and had a crush on the captain of the basketball team. This absolutely could not happen. She could not have a crush on Del!

But the butterflies in her stomach, the way her heart raced, the tingle of her lips where she swore she could still taste him from days ago, belied her denial.

“Dang it.”

Flopping down on her living room couch, she thunked her phone against her aching head, welcoming the pain. She needed the pain to remind herself what an idiot she was to fall for Delta Jackson.

“No falling for him,” she said to her reflection in the phone. “I’m just going to marry him and get the house. No more kisses when we’re not in public and definitely no naked time. I will not get more involved with him.”

Her reflection called bullshit. Judging from the porno now playing in her mind at the mention of naked time with Del, she had to admit it.

“I’m in so much trouble.”

Trouble she would deal with tomorrow. Today, she needed a ton of water and five more hours of sleep. And if she happened to have sexy, naked dreams about Del, well, she’d just blame it on the hangover.

CHAPTER 13

Del glanced at the clock again. Five minutes had gone by since he checked it last. “That can’t be right,” he muttered to himself.

“I’m sorry, did you say something to me?”

He glanced over at Penny, sitting at the bar, laptop open, fingers flying across the keys even as she looked at him. The woman was freaky smart and amazing with computers. She did freelance web design—including theirs—and often worked at Jack’s before they opened. But today she was just here to hang with BJ. Still, nothing kept the uber nerd away from her precious computer for long.

“Oh, sorry Penny. No. I was just talking to myself.”

She grinned. “I do that, too. All the time, actually. Usually when I’m coding.” Her entire face blushed, reddish-brown freckles standing out against the pink. “I’m a huge proponent of the concept of rubber duck debugging.”

Okay, he had no idea what that meant, but asking would only instigate an hour-long explanation where he’d be more lost in the end than when she started. He liked Penny, but the woman was so scary smart he had a hard time connecting with her. Made him wonder how she and BJ remained so close. His older brother may have scored near perfect on his SATs, but BJ knew how to speak layman terms.

“Uh-huh. Rubber ducking,” he said.

Her nose wrinkled, fingers ceasing their furious typing. “Don’t worry, I won’t explain it to you. It’s just a silly programming term.”

Oh, thank God. Penny could bore the paint off a drying wall when she started her geek talk.

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