Page 30 of One Whopper of a Love Story

“You have to work. It’s not a big deal. I’ll bring dinner. Maybe I’ll pick up barbeque.”

“Only a few more nights on this schedule, then I swap back to days for a month. Dating will be easier then.”

It was the first time he’d used that word. And while it seemed obvious that was what we were doing, hearing him say it out loud had me grinning like a toddler with a bag full of candy.

“We still on for going fishing day after tomorrow?”

“If you’re still willing to do everything for me?”

He grinned as he filled his mug. “Then it’s a date.”

Tessa walked through the door and laughed as she propped her fists on her hips. “Nico, I hear you’ve been in here a lot.”

“Go ahead. Poke fun. I picked up someone off the side of the road, and now I’m spending all my free time with her. I deserve all the jokes.”

She twisted her hair up into a knot and secured it with a hair tie. “I’m not going to poke fun. Everything happens for a reason, and sometimes we’re at the right place at the right time, and magic happens.”

I filed those words away in my brain. I wasn’t sure if this was luck, chance, fate, or magic. Did it matter? The result was Nico was now a part of my life.

I knocked as I pushed open the front door at Nico’s. “It’s me. I’ll set the barbeque in the kitchen, then head into the garage.”

“Meet you out there in a sec.” Nico’s voice was gruff, like he’d just woken up.

New mats lay on the floor of the garage. He’d cut his sleep time short to get these. I didn’t want him cutting his sleep short, but I loved that he was thinking of me.

He yawned as he stepped into the garage. “Hey there.” He hadn’t even bothered to put a shirt on this time. No complaints from me.

“If you need to sleep more, I’ll curl up on the couch and read for a bit. I don’t mind.”

“Nope. I’m good, and you’re learning how to get free if someone pins you to the ground.”

I didn’t see any possible way for me to get a guy off me, but with Nico, I was willing to try. “I like the new mats.”

“Since we’ll be doing so much floor stuff, I figured a little more cushion would be good. Plus, if you flip me, I don’t want to die.”

“Right. Like that’s ever going to happen.”

He turned on the music, and I started stretching. We’d only worked out a few times, but I’d at least learned the stretches. Stretches were the easy part.

When we were all stretched and warmed up, Nico ran his fingers through his hair. “All right, get down on the mat. Flat on your back.”

I lay down and nearly bit through my bottom lip when he straddled me and grabbed my wrists. I’d only have to lift up a few inches for my lips to meet his, but that was not the point of this exercise. At least today it wasn’t.

“All right. If you end up like this, how would you get me off you? How would you get away?”

“Do you want me to try?”

“Yes. What would you do?”

“I thought you were going to teach me.” I batted my eyelashes and was rewarded with a grin.

He leaned down so that we were nose to nose. “Imagine that I’m big and scary.”

“But you aren’t. You’re Nico. And you would never hurt me.”

Eyes narrowed, he scrunched up his face. “Imagine someone else. One of the frat boys.”

I tried pulling my hands free and wiggling my hips. Nothing I did even moved Nico. After trying for more than a minute, I stilled, feeling rather helpless. “There’s no way.”

---