Page 81 of Kiss Me Tonight

Dominic’s name is circled twice and boasts the least number of votes.

I bite down on my thumb, smiling so hard that my cheeks hurt.

Me: Looks like you’re about to finally find out what it’s like to come in last place after all these years. Are you a sore loser?

Dominic: Why don’t you come by and find out?

My pulse quickens, my fingers frozen over the touchscreen keyboard. I could easily hop in my car and be at the Golden Fleece in less than twenty minutes. It’s not like I think Willow will mind—one glance to where she ran off to shows her in heavy conversation withthatguy.

Simply put, Willow is living and I’m . . . going to take a risk.

Like when I hopped off the kayak and into the water, just to shock Dominic.

I like surprising him. I particularly like keeping him on his toes.

And I’m tired of treating sex like it’s something to be distrusted.

It’s been four years. Four years of resisting Rick whenever hedidtry to slip into my bed at night and cuddle up beside me. As if he hadn’t spent the previous night banging god-knows-who. As if he hadn’t made me feel inadequate and less than in my own skin.

Once upon a time, I loved how I looked. Toned muscles that were put to work every day on the field. Short hair that I styled in a cute pixie cut to keep the strands out of my face when I played. Scars earned from scrimmages over the years—on my shins, on my hips, the one on my upper lip from a particularly bad play back in high school.

You’re as skinny as a fucking boy.

You look like a dyke with that short hair.

You really want to test me, Levi? Who are they gonna believe in court when you say I pushed you down? Me . . . or you.

Rick stole fourteen years of my life. Fifteen if you count the last year, when I stayed in Pittsburgh and tried to be the better parent and allowed Topher easy access to the both of us.

Fifteen.

I can’t—Iwon’t—give my ex-husband another second.

With straight shoulders, I type out a short response to Dominic and hit SEND before I can chicken out and talk myself out of it.

Me: I’m in Bar Harbor with Willow. Give me thirty minutes.

Me: And Dominic?

His answer is immediate.

Dominic: Yeah, Coach?

Me: You better kiss me tonight.

23

Dominic

The Golden Fleece is something else tonight.

Seated at the bar with my back to the pub, I nurse a Bud Light and check my watch for the second time in twenty minutes. Not that I’m counting or anything.

Part of me regrets offering Levi the invitation to join me. After all, it’s not every day you invite one woman to hang out while you’re attempting to romance another one on reality TV. Tonight’sPut A Ring On Itepisode was filmed over six months ago—and this particular snippet recorded even before that—but it’s still uncomfortable.

Painfully awkward.

Yeah, that’s a better way to put having to relive me and twelve other dudes sporting nothing but our underwear and drenched skin while Savannah Rose, who’s been blindfolded, plays connect the dots between what set of abs belongs to which contestant.

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