Page 72 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“He was on one of her segments highlighting little genius whiz kids or whatever. He was her human calculator.”
“Dude, you are good at math,” Griffin says. “But you can like, calculate stuff in your head?”
Brody shoots me a look, shaking his head.
I only grin. “Dance, monkey, dance,” I say, and he rolls his eyes.
“Give me a math problem,” Brody says to Griffin.
“Any math problem?” AJ asks.
“I mean, notanymath problem,” Brody answers. “I can’t do calculus in my head. But your basic calculator stuff. Big numbers, small numbers, whatever.”
“Seven thousand, six hundred twenty-two divided by sixteen,” Ryan says, jumping into the conversation.
“Four...hundred seventy-six point three seven five?” Brody says. He made his answer a question, but he’s playing it down. He knows he got it right. I’ve never seen him get one wrong.
“You just made that number up,” Griffin says.
Brody chuckles. “Go ahead and use a calculator and check my math.”
Aislynn holds up her phone. “He’s right. I already checked.”
“No way,” Griffin says. “And you did this on the Ellen show?”
“And he was adorable doing it,” I say, handing over my phone. I already have the video cued up.
Brody shakes his head. “Oh, you’re going to pay for this later.”
I bite my lip, liking the idea of later no matter how he plans to make me pay.
On the ride home, I lean back into my seat, kicking off my shoes and dropping my feet into Brody’s lap. I’m wearing his hoodie—something he insisted on when I complained about being cold—and it smells like him in the best way possible. I feel like I’m snuggled in a Brody cocoon.
I don’t really expect to leave my feet in his lap—I’m more trying to tease him than anything—but then he wraps his bighands around my ankles, sliding them down until his thumbs are pressing into the balls of my feet with gentle pressure.
I let out a low moan. “Oh man, I was not asking for a foot rub, but if you’re offering...”
His lips lift in a soft smile as he shifts both hands to one foot and begins massaging in earnest.
I let out another whimper. “How are you so good at this?” I ask, my eyes falling closed. “And how did I not know you were good at this? Is this something your twenties taught you?”
He shrugs, his hands still on my left foot. “When I was a kid, I used to give my mom foot rubs whenever she spent a long day in the goat barn.”
I can’t even with this man. I shake my head and let out a laugh. “Are you freaking kidding me right now? Could you be any more perfect?” I drop my head back and close my eyes, draping an arm across them like a pair of oversized sunglasses. “It’s not even fair, you know that, right?”
It isn’t fair. So much about this situation isn’t fair. I’ve been eating up his attention all day, but do I truly think I can be what Brody needs? I’m supposed to get on an airplane in less than twenty-four hours for a job that’s a thousand miles away. How can I be thinking about a London job while simultaneously thinking about making a life with Brody in Silver Creek?
Brody shifts my feet off his lap and opens his arms in invitation, his fingers gesturing me forward.
Fear pulses low and deep, but I don’t let myself dwell on it.
I’m so tired ofthinking.
Worrying.
For once, especially after the day we’ve just had, I want to lean into whatever this is and see what happens. Maybe it was all the time spent next to a raging river, or the thrill of seeing Brody conquer that river. But suddenly, Iwantto do something reckless.
I want to forget that I’m scared or that people might get hurt.
