Page 72 of The Enemy Face Off

She waves her book at me. "Take your time."

I don't.

I can't help feeling a little guilty as I rush through tucking Jonah back into bed. But come on, I haven't seen Beth inweeks. I'm sure when I tell him this story one day when he's found his person, he'll understand my hurry.

I freeze.

"What iz it, Daddy?"

"Nothing, buddy." I kiss him on his forehead. "Sweet dreams. I love you."

"Wuv you, too."

He rolls over, and I sit on the edge of his bed for a moment, fixated on the thought that casually slipped into my head even though there's nothing casual about it.

Is Bethmy person?

I realize it's way too early to make that call. We've only started getting to know each other. I'm probably still on her list of mildly annoying people she tolerates, like Doyle, the grocery store owner everyone has a problem with back home.

Plus, she's got every good reason not to trust men.

But I can't deny that there is something between us. An attraction, sure. A desire to kiss, yeah. But it runs deeper than that. I'm at a loss for how to describe it. One thing is certain, though.

My feelings for Beth are unlike anything I've ever felt in my life.

So I turn the bedside lamp off, quietly slip out of the room, and return to her, ready to redeem my kiss coupon.

15

Beth

"So what's going on with you and the grumpy goalie?" Courtland asks as we're standing behind the counter at the bookstore in a rare moment of quiet.

"Ooh, yes, I'd like to know, too," Amiel says, sneaking in from the side.

"What are you doing here?" I ask surprised, having missed her coming into the store and possibly also hoping the deflection gets me out of answering Courtlands's question.

"It's Valentine's Day Eve, so I'm stocking up." She lifts a pile of three books and grins. "Apart from going to Evie and Fraser's wedding tomorrow, my only other plans involve spending time with several high-quality book boyfriends."

"Same." Courtland sighs, then his eyes widen when he realizes what he said. "Except, book girlfriends, in my case. Oh, and hanging out with my cats, of course."

Amiel grins. "You're the first guy I've met who reads romance."

He thumbs his glasses up his nose, getting all serious like he does from time to time. "It's hard to pinpoint exact numbers, but industry figures suggest men make up about ten percent of the romance reading market. So for every thousand romance readers, about a hundred are men. That's not a huge amount, by any means, but it's also not insignificant."

"That's really cool," I say.

Please keep talking about romance industry readership figures and not me. Anything but me.

"So while the two of us have our Valentine's Day plans with fictional characters sorted…" Amiel smirks my way. "One person amongst us might have a real life romantic prospect in the works."

There goes that wish.

I become the target of two stares.

"I have no idea why you're both looking at me," I say, glancing around the store, desperate to find a customer in need of my help.

But nope, everyone seems fine browsing.

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