Page 20 of Fall for You
“It’s been a while,” he started to explain. But before he could add that maybe they’d gotten off on the wrong foot, she interrupted.
“Sorry, I wasn’t aware we were so close that I was supposed to stay in touch.”
He opened his mouth, but she kept going.
“I’ve stayed in touch with Bailey. Sort of.” Her eyes darted to the ground, her expression crumpling with regret, before her bright gaze landed right back on him. “But I wasn’t aware that the kid I used to prank would take it personally if I got busy.”
He grinned, stifling a laugh. Oh, that fire was still there all right. But it wasn’t that spark of challenge he’d expected. Nope, this woman was a freakin’ bomb just waiting to explode.
He held his hands up. “Look, clearly I pushed the wrong buttons here.”
She looked away, and for a second, he caught a hint of emotion beneath her irritation. In her pretty, delicate features, he saw a crushing amount of stress or fear or?—
“Did you need something from me?” she snapped.
He’d been staring. In silence.
Well, crap.
He cleared his throat. “No. Just, uh…hey, is everything all right?”
Her nostrils flared, and he wouldn’t have been overly shocked to see steam coming out of her ears. “I told you I’m fine.”
“Right. O-kay.” He nodded. It was so obvious she was lying, but he wasn’t sure if he should call her on it.
Tick, tick, tick…boom!
Did he really want to be within the blast radius when that happened?
“What are you doing here?” Her brows drew together. “Bailey said you live in Bozeman. With your parents.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I don’tlivewith my parents. Just…in the same town.”
“Right.” Her lips quirked up on one side. It was a smirk. “You took over for your dad, right? Followed in his footsteps…as expected.”
She was stating the truth. None of that was a lie. Nor was it an insult.
Or…it shouldn’t have felt like one.
But it did.
She was goading him.
And it was working.
A hot buzz simmered in his chest, making it impossible to talk without snipping at her. “I worked my butt off to get where I am?—”
“Of course,” she said a little too quickly.
“What does that mean?”
Ugh. He sounded way too defensive, and he knew it.
“Nothing.” She shrugged. But the animosity was right there on the surface between them, sizzling and churning.
One wrong word and they’d be hurling insults.
Clenching his jaw, he tried to remind himself that he was a grown man, not a teenage boy trying to get a rise out of this woman.
