Page 4 of Engaging with Her Enemy

He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the cold night. Statem smelled like home, even in early February. Pine trees. Clean air.

“Hey, Boss, wait up,” John called as he jogged down the sidewalk. “I saw you talking to those pretty girls. Are they single?”

“I have no idea.” Muscles across his shoulders bunched. John's running total of women he'd slept with while working various construction jobs around the state had always irritated him. But that was John’s life, not his. But this town, these women, were people he cared about. “Look, those two aren't the type of women that fall into bed.”

“What happened, Boss? You strike out?”

Hudson crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the scrawny man with leathered skin. The years John spent drinking, smoking, and partying showed on his face like the rings in a fallen tree. He liked John. That didn’t mean he would suggest John date any of his friends.

“Let me fill you in on the little fact that this is my hometown. You're not within fifty miles of the type of women you like to hook-up with.”

John lightly punched Hudson on the arm. “Chill. That's cool. The boys and I will head into Valdosta on the weekends. See what the scene is like over there.”

“Great.” Hudson turned and walked across the street to the bed and breakfast, not bothering to hide his slight limp on the prosthetic. He'd have to find another way to break the ice to Becky that he was back, at least for a short amount of time. The construction of the highway should run smoothly, but he still had about eight weeks to patch things up with Becky, maybe get back to being friends. Maybe more.

They'd run into each other at some point. The small town of Statem, Georgia, didn't leave very many places to hide.

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Becky pulled another cake from her oven, balancing her cell phone on her shoulder. “You didnotjust meet Phillip Keys.” She slid the hot cake pan onto the cooling rack, wishing she could take time to fly over to Australia and meet her best friend…along with Phillip Keys. He had to be the hottest movie star around.

Juliana’s excited voice sounded breathless. “Yes. He’s making a cameo in Grayson’s film. When he shook my hand, I think I mumbled something about liking his last film. He laughed at my accent, and I swear I turned bright red. Luckily, Grayson took over the conversation before I said something else dumb.”

Becky laughed and closed the oven door. She’d stayed up late studying, and baking helped her wake-up in a good mood. Or a better mood.

“I’m sure you were fine. Hey, when are you coming back home?” Becky loved Juliana’s sister, Eliza, and Addie, Cameron’s fiancé, was great, but she really missed her best friend. She could tell Juliana almost anything. Except about going to college at night. That was a secret from everyone. If she failed, she could fail in secret.

“I’ll be home soon. A couple weeks, probably. Grayson needs to be in England for filming. But has to have time to change from looking like a hard assassin to an English Lord.” She snorted. “He keeps trying his accent out on me to get back into character. It’s odd sleeping with him when he talks like that. By the way, anything new on the dating front? Are you still on a break with Tommy?”

Becky paused a second. “Break? We’re broken up. Completely, utterly, totally done. My woman card wouldn’t let me be in a relationship when the manliterallytold me he wanted me to give up the diner.” Who the hell did he think he was? Owning and running the diner had been her dream for the past ten years. It was why she’d struggled through school. It was why she’d devoted over sixty hours a week or more to that place. It was in her blood. And the idiot wanted her to walk away from it?

Ridiculous.

If his callous statement didn’t demonstrate that he obviously didn’t know her, it was proof enough that he was so far stuck in the past that he thought a woman shouldn’t work outside the home.

Some women aspired to be homemakers.

Becky did not.

“Good. I didn’t like Tommy. It seemed like you’d just settled with him, you know.”

She’d settled because it was easy. Tommy never got close to her heart. He never saw who she was inside. No one kneweverythingabout her. Tommy had been a fun distraction. Nothing more.

“What about the diner? How’s it going?” Juliana asked.

Grayson’s deep voice muttered in the background.

“Do you need to go?” Becky asked. It was damn hard keeping a secret from Juliana, and with the way the stupid accounting class was headed, spilling her guts about it was going to happen if she stayed on the phone much longer.

“Probably.” Juliana’s voice pitched an octave higher before she dropped to a whisper. “Phillip Keys just asked Grayson to eat dinner with him tonight and bring me along. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to wear.” She sucked in a deep breath, so loud, Becky heard it in Statem. “What if I make a fool of myself again, and he makes fun of my accent?”

“Calm down. First, wear something fashionable. You know.Nota T-shirt. Second, don’t say anything. Laugh at what he says and wait until someone asks you a question.”

“And I won’t make a fool of myself?”

“You should just assume that will happen.” She smiled when Juliana groaned. “I’m joking. Just be yourself, Jules. You’re with Grayson, not Phillip. And if he makes fun of your accent, put him in his place.”

“I can’t do that.”

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