Page 40 of The Playbook

Lying beneath him in that moment I definitely felt special. His words and the way he was staring at me had my stomach twisting into a hurricane of emotions.

“Hang out with me. Be my friend,” he cooed. “Take a chance for once. Tonight could be a lot of fun if you let it.”

“OK,” I whispered before I could stop myself.

A triumphant smile graced his face before he climbed to his feet, tugging me with him. With a quick swoop, he scooped up my phone and handed it to me.

“We can still try the popcorn,” Logan said acting like nothing had happened.

And I supposed nothinghadhappened. Maybe I’d imagined the look in his eyes or the sweetness of his voice.

“Sure.” I gave him a shaky smile, still trembling from the floor incident.

He turned back to the popcorn and poured it into a bowl before adding more kernels to the machine. With a flourish, he sprinkled the ranch and jalapeño seasonings on the popcorn and placed the bowl on the kitchen island.

“Try it together?” He raised a dark brow at me.

“K.” I cleared my throat and dug into the bowl, pulling out a handful.

He did the same. “Count of three or just do it?”

“Just do it,” I answered.

He grinned and stuffed the popcorn into his mouth. I followed suit and chewed, my nose wrinkled.

“It tastes like. . . shit.” I coughed, swallowing down the spicy concoction.

He nodded as he chewed.

“Yep. So fucking bad.” He pushed the bowl away and looked like he was going to say something when Ryan came back into the kitchen.

“You guys coming out? The girls want to swim and have a bonfire. I didn’t know if you wanted to fire up the pit your parents have out there or not. Didn’t want to start touching shit I don’t know how to operate,” Ryan said, glancing between us.

“Uh, yeah. I’ll go start it up for you.” Without a backward glance, Logan followed Ryan out the patio doors.

I let out a whoosh of air, grateful for the moment alone.

I wasn’t sure what was happening to me, but I wasn’t so sure I liked it.

CHAPTER22

Logan

Iwas grateful Ryan had come in when he had. My heart was still hammering like mad from having been so close to Grace. My dick had grown hard, and I’d jumped off her like I’d been set on fire. I’d done my best to play it off, but on the inside I was a fraying ball of nerves.

“You look like you’re going to be sick,” Ryan commented as we strode through my yard to the patio fireplace my parents had installed. I quickly hit the electric switch on it so the flames flickered to life.

“I almost kissed her,” I mumbled, my head down.

“What?” Ryan asked.

“I almost fucking kissed her,” I hissed a little louder.

“Uh, and why is that a problem?” He looked confused. “Isn’t that part of the play? You kiss her?”

“Yeah, but man, I don’t know. My head is so fucked up right now. I can’t get her out of my mind. I want to beat Andy, but I really like her. It’s messing with me.”

“Sure as shit sounds like it,” Ryan replied, peering past me to where the other girls were giggling in the pool. “We brought Jenna over because we thought you could stand to get laid.”

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