Page 17 of When Hairy Met Stella

He rubbed the base of his neck and narrowed his eyes. “Did I shower?” he repeated, not following her train of thought—until he followed her eyes. Right to his bare chest. In all thecommotion, he’d forgotten he was shirtless...and wet. “No, I didn’t shower. I was just freshening up before I changed.”

“Yeah. That’s a good idea. I should do that too. Best to be fresh!” she rattled off, her head moving every which way but on him. Was he making her uncomfortable? He crossed his arms over his chest to cover his body, but that seemed to make things worse, judging from the crimson color spreading over her cheeks and now her neck. “You know…I should go. I could really use a pec—a perk!” She squinted her eyes closed and shook her head. “I could use aperk, something to perk me up! I’m going to go get a drink. Coffee, not alcohol. Just a hot…hot…coffee! Yep, that should do the trick.” And before he could say a word, she bolted to the door.

She’d said she didn’t want alcohol, but the way she staggered out of their room made it look like she’d thrown back quite a few already. Was she that uncomfortable around him? If so, this was going to be an awkward few days. Unless…

Nate stood in the empty room as his cheeks rose to his eyes. He’d rendered her nearly speechless. And he hadn’t missed the way she’d stared at him, her light-blue eyes growing darker by the second. Did this mean what he thought it meant? And after the pep talk he’d given himself in the bathroom just moments ago, that should have been the last thing he wanted. Nothing could have stopped this smile any more than he could stop the flutter in his chest.

That was when he noticed his hands.

Thick tufts of hair sprouted from his knuckles—the first place that always transformed when he was about to shift. Though for only a brief amount of time, his body had gone into protection mode, setting into motion all the changes he never wanted people to see—especially not Stella. He hadn’t noticed his hair when he saved her sweater, so it must have popped up after that.Maybe it hadn’t been the worst thing that he’d run out there shirtless. At least that meant her eyes weren’t fixed on his hands.

He rubbed the center of his chest, feeling the thrumming underneath. If she’d unsettled him this much, he was going to have to be more careful around her. These…feelings…needed to calm down.

A perk wasthe last thing Stella needed right now.

But the lodge café was just the distraction she needed. The people milling around, looking at fancy mugs, hats, and sweatshirts with the resort logo on them, the sounds of clinking mugs and machines bringing delicious drinks to life were all things she could focus on. She needed to be more like the café patrons, walking around like they hadn’t a care in the world. It was like she was the only one who had seen her roommate and coworker shirtless and still had the shakes because of it.

A gulp of her cappuccino certainly wasn’t going to help the jitters, but she needed something to do with her hands. At least they were behaving now. About ten minutes ago, they had the bright idea to reach out and trace the beads of moisture on his chest—a chest that looked as smooth as a baby’s skin and as hard as the granite countertops she’d browsed at the hardware store last week. His chest glistened, thanks to the drops of water, drawing attention to it like an illuminated marquee that saidyou know you want to touch this.Boy howdy, did she want to. Thankfully, her brain kicked into high gear to shut that idea down. But not before it could stop the slight whimper thatescaped her mouth when a drop skated over one of his—many—abs. Gosh, what if he’d heard?

What was he doing, coming out of the bathroom like that? Sure, she’d made a noise, but that was her favorite sweater. And seeing the teeth of the suitcase zipper chomp on it was hard to watch. Not as hard as watching Nate standing in front of her, especially when he’d had the audacity to raise his arms and run his fingers through his hair like a dang underwear model. Okay, so that hadn’t been hard to watch. The only hard part was his massive biceps the action put on display—she presumed. She’d been able to keep her hands from exploring that area as well.

“Hey, Stella Bella,” Lucy chirped, and Stella had never been so happy for a distraction than she was at that moment. “Needed to grab something hot?” The sight of Nathan’s shirtless form immediately popped into her head, and her cheeks flamed.

Coffee, you idiot. She’s talking about the coffee. Not your hot roommate.

“Oh, yeah,” she responded, holding up her half-empty cup.

“We needed something too,” she said as Hannah and Angie followed closely behind. “We’ll join you in just a sec.”

Stella nodded as her cousin and friends walked to the counter. She had less than five minutes to get a grip. To act like she hadn’t seen or been affected by Nathan bounding in like he was about to pull a car off her instead of pulling a sweater out of a jammed zipper. Easy enough.

She twisted the paper cup back and forth on the table, the Oglebay logo hypnotizing her as it moved side to side. Looking at anything right now—even a coffee cup—was better than picturing Nate.

Imagining the reasons she needed to get her act together was another good idea. Namely, he worked for her. And he’d never shown any interest in her whatsoever. Good grief, he’d shotdown her idea to fake date fast enough. He didn’t want anything to do with her, fake or otherwise. Message received.

Now that she thought about it, she was relieved he’d shut down the idea of them fake dating. What was she thinking, suggesting something like that? Did she think she was living in a romance novel? Those weren’t real. Besides that, she didn’t even want a relationship. She was too busy with managing the salon. Throw in a relationship, and she was libel to mess up two good things in her life. No thank you. She wasn’t about to live through another Julliard situation.

“Everything working out okay?” Lucy asked as she sat at the table with Hannah and Angie. There was a twinkle in her eye she tried to ignore. It reminded her a lot of the look her grandma had given her before she left Mountain Brew earlier. She wondered if Gram was in on this whole match-making scheme, but bringing that up would inevitably bring up Nate, and she was trying not to think about him at all.

So, she settled for denial. “Yep. Everything’s great. The room is great. The view is great. Everything is great with Nate.”

“Are you buying any of this?” Angie stage-whispered to Hannah, and Stella wondered what had blown her cover. Was it the rhyming? The overuse of the wordgreat? The way her knee wouldn’t stop bouncing under the table?

“Shh,” Hannah said as she lightly smacked her friend’s arm.

“I even checked in with the contractors earlier, and everything is going great back at the salon too.”

“How areyouhandling all this?” Hannah asked, leaning closer to Stella.

“Me? Why would you ask that?” Did panic have a distinct smell? Had she sniffed it out from across the table?

“You know what…no reason,” Hannah responded then took a sip of her drink as her eyes shifted to the side.

“Is there something you guys aren’t telling me?” Stella lowered her head, staring at each of the women individually. One of them was bound to crack, and her money was on Hannah. Her heart was too pure, her eyes too dance-y at the moment to keep up this ruse any longer. But Angie had a bit of a big mouth. Maybe she’d be the first to blab.

“Alright, I told them,” Lucy blurted, like the weight of the words was too much for her to carry another second.

“I knew it.” Stella sat back from the table, crossing her arms over her chest.

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