Page 327 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
My gut tightens. I don’t need more reasons to be impressed with this woman, especially when she doesn’t seem all that impressed with me. But hearing her name like that—Dr. Audrey Callahan.And she’s a published author? I’m falling into full-oncrushterritory. Except, somehow, this crush feels bigger—different from anything I’ve ever experienced before. Maybe because Audrey is different.Better.
I study her for a long moment, this time letting myself fall into the pale blue of her eyes. They’re ringed in dark navy, but near the iris, they’re the color of the early morning sky.
Audrey doesn’t flinch under my scrutiny. She may be young to have accomplished so much, but she knows how to hold herself, how to go after what she wants. Which makesmewanther.
“All right, Doctor Audrey Callahan. I’m going to make a deal with you. I’ll give you access to my property so you can study your white squirrels on one condition.”
She nods. “Anything. I’ll do anything.”
“No more hiding,” I say. “At least not from me. You use the main driveway. You check in with Nate. And you let us know where on the property you’re going to be.”
She cocks her head to the side. “I already told you I wasn’t hiding fromyou.”
I motion toward her outfit. “You’re saying when you got dressed this morning, you didn’t hope, even for a moment, that your disguise would keep you out of sight from me?”
“Itwouldhave kept me out of sight if I hadn’tgasped.”
I raise my eyebrows and lean forward the slightest bit. “That’s true. Whydidyou gasp, Audrey?” I ask, my tone playful.
She folds her arms across her chest. “I felt a bug run across my shoe.”
“I bet.” I mirror her stance. “Youreallyseem like the kind of woman who is freaked out by bugs.”
Her shoulders drop and she moves her hands to her hips, the leaves sewn down the seam bouncing as she does. “Fine,” she finally concedes. “Yes. Igaspedbecause I was not prepared to see twelve inches of your exceptionally defined abdominal muscles. Is that what you wanted me to admit?”
I turn on my famous smile—the same one she completely ignored when we first talked in the feed store parking lot. “I’m just having a conversation, Audrey.”
I can’t explain why this is so fun for me. Except, maybe it’s not all that complicated. I haven’t had toworkto get a compliment out of a woman in years. And this one seems utterly and completely unimpressed. Well, by everything except my abs. “Now, do you agree to my terms or not?” I say.
She purses her lips. “Right. Your terms. So I’ll come to the main driveway, check in with your scary hulkish bodyguard, and then I can go wherever I please?”
“As long as you tell us where you’re planning to be. And Nate’s harmless. I promise he’ll be nice.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” she says dryly. “He wasso nicewhen he was flashing his gun at me and threatening to take away my camera.”
“He thought you were taking pictures ofme,” I say, enjoying the way she’s bantering with me. “And considering the fact that I was mere moments away from stripping down to nothing and diving in my pool when he picked you up on our security cameras, I’m glad he reacted the way he did.”
Her gaze drops to my torso, sliding up to my chest and shoulders before she lifts it back to my face. “You swim naked?” she asks, her voice small.
I smile playfully, lifting my shoulder in an easy shrug. “There are some perks to living alone.”
She shakes her head, like she’s breaking out of some sort of trance, then clears her throat. “Fine,” she says haughtily. “For the squirrels,I agree to your terms.”
I don’t miss her emphasis on squirrels. She really wants me to know she isn’t here for me, which somehow feels like both a good thinganda bad thing. “What’s your number? I’ll have my manager text you, then you can work out the details with her.”
Audrey holds out her hand. “Here. I can just plug my number in and send myself a text.”
I pull my phone back, away from her reach. “Nope. Then you’d havemynumber.”
“So?”
“So…you might feel tempted to share it or sell it or who knows what else with it.” Sadly, I’m only half-joking. I’ve been burned before, and changing my number is too tedious for me to want to do it again. Also, Joni would kill me if I gave my number to someone I’ve only known as long as I’ve known Audrey.
Audrey blinks in surprise. “You really think I’d do something like that?”
Her question is serious, so I give her a serious answer. “I don’t. Mostly, I’m just trying to avoid getting in trouble with my manager. She’s as much of a guard dog as Nate and takes protecting my privacy very seriously.”
Audrey shakes her head. “People bother you that much?”
