Page 42 of Not Exactly a Small-Town Romance

She shoves me again. “You know I do.”

I shouldn’t have taken us back to this sort of talk. It’s physically painful. But I play it off. “Now that we’ve established the parameters of our relationship for this trip, I should find my own hotel. This one is full.”

“You can stay here.”

Now it’s my turn to lift an eyebrow. “There’s only one bed.”

She laughs. “And that’s how you know we’re living in a rom-com. Meet-cute. Villains. A taxidermy beaver. And only one bed. Are you going to sleep on the floor?”

“For you, I would sleep on the floor.”

“Have you ever slept on a floor?”

Never.But I humor her. “I might have fallen there a time or two in my misspent youth.”

“I’m sure we can handle the only-one-bed situation without any trouble.”

But as she gets up to pull back the covers and form a barrier down the middle with the extra pillows, I’m not so sure.

Not in the least.

Chapter 13

KELSEY’STROUBLE WITHTINKLES

When Zachery heads into the bathroom to change for the night, I wonder how this is going to work.

He has no idea how intimidating he is. If those Pitchfork men pegged me as Hollywood despite my efforts, they’ll spot Zach instantly. And that’s even if theydon’trecognize him from his movies.

Those wild comedies were probably right up the alley of guys like Gaston.

Is this going to work?

I do like that he’s here. He’s someone I can bounce ideas off. He would have helped in the beaver situation. And I wouldn’t have been near as anxious heading into that bar to meet Grant.

Gaston wouldn’t have gotten his digs in.

Yes, everything about how tonight went would have been better with Zachery around.

The door to the bathroom sticks a little, and Zachery jostles it before it pops open.

He wears a luxury white undershirt (Derek Rose, $170) and gray shorts (Moncler, $600), and dang, even his sleepwear costs more than the contents of my overnight bag.

“I like your pillow barrier,” he says. “Sort of like the Walls of Jericho fromIt Happened One Night.”

“Exactly like that.” We keep bringing up love stories. It’s putting ideas in my head. But watching Zachery slide beneath the sheets on his side of this not-quite-queen-size bed is making my body tingle.

We’ve done a lot of things together. Movies. Dinners. Late-night talking.

But never with a bed in the room.

And now we’ll both be in it.

I put the pillow barrier up because of my nighttime habits. I’m a cuddler. And if there’s nothing separating us, I’ll be all up in his business by morning.

To be honest, I’m not sure the pillows will be enough.

I pad into the bathroom, acutely aware that Zach recently dried his hands on this towel. That the toothbrush inside some fancy blue-light case was in his mouth.

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