Page 31 of One Whopper of a Love Story

“There is a way. Look at how I’m positioned and picture the legs of a table. If you want to knock over a table, you need to get it off balance. Make sense?”

“Okay.” I tried lifting my hips, thinking that might shove him forward. It didn’t.

“Pull your elbows down toward your hips. You won’t be able to push their hands up if someone has you pinned, but you will probably be able to move them along the ground. Try it.”

After a deep inhale, I yank my elbows down, and surprisingly, they moved, pulling Nico’s hands with them.

“So now I’m not as balanced. What is something else you could do to throw me off balance even more?”

I lifted my hips, bucking him forward. While it felt like I’d toppled a giant, I was still under him, so clearly it wasn’t exactly successful, except for the fact that my face was practically buried in his chest. That would be bad if it were anyone other than Nico.

“Good job. Now if you do those two things quickly, then you can use what I taught you about tucking the arm. And once my arm is tucked, buck me forward again and see what happens.” He shoved his hands back to where they started. “Start from the beginning.”

I yanked, bucked, tucked, and bucked. Nico landed to the right of my head, and I scrambled away as he rolled.

On my feet, I grinned. “I did it.”

“You did.” He grabbed my shoulders. “You’re quick. Do you want to try it again?”

“Yeah. And don’t go easy on me. I need to be able to do this.” I stretched out on my back again.

He got back into position, and when he leaned down probably to whisper something sweet, I worked the routine, and freed myself.

Nico blinked from where he landed on the floor. “You caught me by surprise. Excellent tactic.”

“What were you going to say?”

Rolling his neck from side to side, he stared at me. The tease dancing in his eyes made me giddy.

I stepped closer to him. “Sorry for saying you aren’t big and scary. That’s just because I know you. If I met you in a dark alley, then I might be scared.”

“Might be?”

“You’re kind of adorable, so I might be tempted to climb you like a tree.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “We’ll circle back to that later. Let’s get started so I have time to eat.”

“What were you going to say?”

“I’ll teach you self-defense any day of the week.” He kissed my forehead. “How’s the muscle ache?”

“Better. I drank a lot of water. It helped, I guess.”

“Good.” He handed me weights, and we started our reps.

I’d completely lost my filter with Nico. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind, and I was eagerly awaiting the last day of his ‘just talking’ habit.

Chapter 16

Nico

All the way to the river, Layla talked about who’d come into the shop today, how happy Tessa was now that she was married, and what she thought we should do for dinner. I loved when she shared her day with me. A day was just a tiny slice of her life. It was way too soon to think about sharing my life with her. For now, I was sticking to tiny slices, and maybe a few chunks.

I parked under a tree and helped her out before grabbing the rods, bucket, and tackle box. We were the only people on the bank that afternoon, which was perfectly fine with me.

Layla laid out the blanket and set the small cooler on one corner to keep the blanket from leaving us if a strong breeze came through. She eyed the tackle box as I readied the rods. “Are you using a lure or real worms?”

“Worms, but I won’t make you touch them.”

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