Page 31 of The Proposal Pact
Holy mother of muscles, I swallow my tongue. Sheriff Hot Asshole, shed his jacket somewhere along the way and now all I see is a tight white T-shirt, straining against his arms. That light, warm skin I can still feel on the tips of my fingers, glistening with sweat.
“I’d say you already do.” Hope giggles and my eyes shoot down the line to hers.
“You mean him?” I throw my thumb over at the sex-on-the-stick-with-a-badge. “He’s hot as sin. Sorry, Julie, but I want a Jacob in my life. Not Luke on steroids. Sorry, Gracie.”
But even as I say it, I know the only thing I really want is to be loved. Like, really loved because I’m not sure I even know how that feels. I’m not sure I ever experienced it. But for now, I’m going to settle for taking back control of my life, for setting it back on the right track and then we can discuss love.
“Hmm, I don’t know.” Zoe looks Callum up and down. “It feels like there’s more to him, like he’s covered in layers.”
“Like Shrek?” I ask.
“The ogre?”
Julie bursts out laughing. “Oh my goodness, I promise to give you free matcha every day if you call him that from now on.”
I grin, waggling my eyebrows. “Girlfriend, you didn’t even have to bribe me, but I’ll gladly take it.”
“Remind me again, what was so wrong with the old couch?” Luke grits out as they finally set my brand new, floral boho couch in rich colors, on the floor.
“It was gray,” I tell him, getting up from my spot.
Luke looks at me for a long second, like he has a colorful curse on the tip of his tongue. After all, it was them who had to carry it all the way down from the fourth floor and bring a new one back up, but then his eyes move to his wife, back to me and he settles for, “How dare it lack some color.”
“Right!” I slap his shoulder, grinning at his grumpy tone. “That’s what Gracie and I thought.”
“At least it was comfortable,” Callum decides to add.
“Callum, why don’t you test it out? See if this one’s as comfortable for sleeping as the last one was?” Alec needles him from his spot in the kitchen.
“What are the chances you all will magically forget what you heard here today and keep your mouths shut about it.”
Hope, Grace, Zoe, Julie, Alec, Jacob, and even Joy and Luke all say at the same time, “None.”
“Great,” Callum deadpans, that burly tone of his always making me laugh.
“Do you guys want a beer?” I ask, pulling out a case from the fridge.
“Sure. Thanks, Soph,” Luke says, accepting the bottle I hand him. “You want one?” He then asks his grumpy companion, but I click my tongue and pull the case away.
“Oh no, he has a thing against beer.”
“What? Since when?” Luke frowns, his eyes volleying from his friend to me. The friend who’s shooting daggers my way.
“Give me that damn beer.” He snatches the open bottle from Luke and gulps half of it in one go. “You should know better than listen to criminals.”
“Who’s a criminal? Sophie?” Grace asks in a high-pitched voice.
“You invited a convicted felon into our town.”
“Nu-uh, we were never convicted. Sophie promised to go out with the arresting officer, and he let us go with a waning. Hey”—she turns my way—“did you ever end up going on that date?”
“Nope. But I did avoid the neighborhood like the plague.”
Callum looks over at Luke. “Did you know about this?”
“No.”
“Why are you so calm about this?”
