Page 24 of Engaging with Her Enemy

“Sure.” She didn't move when he approached. Risking his dinner, he pulled her into a hug. “I'm sorry, I yelled.”

Her stiff body finally relaxed, and he immediately knew that touching her was a mistake. He wanted more. He wanted to hold her like this every day. Kiss her. But he couldn't. Not yet.

His eyes closed as her fingertips lightly rubbed back and forth along his lower back. Torture. That's all it was to him.

“Let me grab the plates.” He pulled away first. “How was your class last night?”

She took out the silverware and met him at the table, avoiding his gaze for a few moments. “I'm beginning to wonder if accounting is a social experiment on how much boredom you can throw at humans before they fall out on the floor. And the professor,” she said, wrinkling her nose like her delicious food smelled foul. “I can't imagine anything making that man excited.”

He went to the counter and poured her a glass of wine from the bottle sitting out before getting himself a tall glass of water. “Did you fall asleep?”

“Almost.” She took the glass, her blue eyes sparkling over the rim as she took a sip. “Had to buy this on my way home.” Waiting for a moment, she pointed to his water. “You don't drink?”

“No.”

“At all?”

“Nope. Never have. Is that a problem?”

She moved past him to the table. “No. Does it bother you that I do?”

“No.” He sat down beside her. “Now that we have that settled, I'll admit, I'm starving. This looks great. Thank you.”

She took his plate and served him a large portion of the squash casserole before adding a pork chop to the side. He already knew he'd enjoy it. Partly because Becky was an excellent cook on top of being a great baker, but also because she was with him.

After dinner and reminiscing about high school, Hudson opened her accounting book. She'd marked the pages and scribbled in the margins. She still used a few of the note-taking techniques he'd taught her in high school.

“Here.” She pointed to the top of a page. “Accrual Basis Accounting. I keep thinking I'll understand it but then they give us these problems to practice. I’m supposed to pick the answer for accrual and then the answer for cash. I've gotten every single one wrong.” She handed over the worksheet she'd done in class. She'd drawn a big “X” over each number on the page.

And on the last page, she'd scribbled a stick figure with “x's” for eyes falling into a grave with a tombstone.

“See. I suck at this.”

“No, you don’t. I like your little drawing.”

She huffed. “I meant I suck at accounting.”

“You do with that attitude. Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing its stupid.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Did you make that up?”

“No. Einstein.” He took her hand in his. “You don't suck. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean you suck at it.”

“You saved me from drowning in high school, and you're here again doing it.” She squeezed his hand. “I'm so sorry about what happened between us.”

Being in war, having to struggle with surviving from the accident, and then walking again had put all of it in perspective a long time ago. He'd screwed up as well. “Don't worry about it. We both could have handled things differently.” If he'd been a man, he wouldn't have backed out when Cameron flat out asked him if he liked Becky. He’d have shouted it in front of the entire school. And then do what he’d dreamt of doing every day since then.

Kissed the hell out of her.

“Yeah.” She stood up from the table and walked around to the coffee pot, flipping it on. “You could have told me how you felt instead of doing all those secret admirer things.”

He unfolded from the table. She kept working on setting up the coffee to brew while he thought over her statement. “Why? How would it have turned out any different?”

Her shoulders rose in a shrug. “I realized once you'd left Statem that I might have had some feelings for you, too. I think that's why I was so freaked out. But it was too late by then. So, I clung to the embarrassment and anger I had. For how I treated you. For what you'd said. For everyone in town, moving on with their life while I stayed and did the same thing because Icouldn’tmove on. I told myself that I missed our friendship and ignored any other feelings I'd had.”

Had. Past tense. He needed to remember that and not project her statement to their current friendship. He liked her now. Probably more than he did in high school. It was too hard to stay away and not see if something was between them.

He walked across the kitchen, stopping behind her. “Becky—”

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