Page 6 of Caden

“Nope.”

My fingers tap the lever. “Doyouhave a hot date?”

“You won’t do it,” Marshall taunts, avoiding my question as he stares at the hose’s nozzle.

“Oh yeah?”

He reaches for the hose, but years of sibling rivalry has prepared me for this. I step back out of his reach at the same moment I turn on the water. Marshall kicks at the hose, his foot changing the water’s course. Instead of the stream of ice cold water hitting my brother square in the chest, the chilly jet hits someone else.

Caden.

I quickly jerk the hose away, catching my brother’s left arm before he’s well out of range, and cut the water flow once again.

“Caden, I’m sooo sorry,” I say, partially horrified, but mostly amused. I blame my irrational jealousy concerning hishot datefor the bubble of laughter that escapes my throat.

“Marshall, your two o’clock’s inside,” Caden says, his tone almost as cold as his expression.

Me? I’m a thousand degrees inside because my accidental soaking has turned his white gym t-shirt nearly see-through. It clings to all his hard muscles in high definition. Damn, I’ve got it bad. Maybe if we just hooked up once, I could get him out of my system.That’s a stupid idea and you know it.

“You’ll watch Gram?” Marshall calls, halfway to the gym door. There’s a smug smile on his face. Round one thousand and seventy-three goes to him.

Jerk.

“Yeah, sure.”

“We’ll call it even for all the water you’re using.” Marshall slips inside the gym.

Meanwhile, the Ice King himself simply stands there, water sluicing off of every chiseled muscle.

“Can I get you a towel or something?”

Caden shakes his head—more annoyed than an outright no—running a hand over his water-splashed face. Is it ridiculous that I’m jealous of the water he’s wiping away? Or is it simply pathetic? This crush is getting seriously out of hand.

“I really am sorry,” I say to him, barely able to contain a fit of giggles that’s threatening to burst from my throat.

Caden takes a single step closer, and suddenly he’s not just in my orbit. He’s close enough to affect my gravitational pull. Has he been moving toward me this entire time? Or was he always standing this close? “Somehow I doubt that,” he says, one corner of his mouth rising and falling so quickly I can’t be sure it’s actually a smile at all.

“So maybe I enjoyed it a teensy bit,” I admit, no longer hiding my smile but wearing it like a badge of honor.

“Something you should know about me, Ruby,” he says, his mouth dangerously close to my ear. For just an instant, we’re back in the employee-only hallway, reading something forbidden in each other’s eyes. Something that vanished the instant Gram woofed. But I want thatsomething. My fingers itch, desperately needing to reach up and fist his wet shirt. His breath tickles my ear as he finishes, “I always get even.”

“Is that so?”

He pulls back only enough that his gaze locks with mine. For a heartbeat, it flickers to my lips, then back to my eyes. He playfully presses his index finger to my nose. “Always.”

I’m so caught up in the moment that I don’t realize he’s wrangled the hose from my weakening grip until the water stream sprays toward the park I’m supposed to be reimagining. I squeak and hop back just as he cuts the water.

A wicked grin lifts one corner of his mouth, and this time he doesn’t bother smoothing it out. “Oh, I’m not taking my revenge now,” he says, his tone a mix of nonchalance and playfulness that I’ve rarely heard directed at me. He drops the hose at my feet, a gauntlet on so many freaking levels my head is spinning and my body flushed in areas no one has given any attention in far too long.

Caden turns back toward the gym, tossing one last comment over his shoulder before he’s out of earshot. “That would take the fun out of it, don’t you think?”

Caden disappears inside the gym, leaving me with a pounding heart. But it’s not from fear of revenge. Oh no. Because I, Ruby McCray, have a penchant for inviting trouble into my life when it comes to the opposite sex. And Caden is trouble with a capital T.

4

CADEN

It’s been a long fuckingday, and I’m starving.

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