Page 18 of Bad Boy Crush

“I’m out of practice.” Ant turned to her, smoke pluming from his ears. “Too late to sign up?”

“Are you—” She started to ask if he was sure. She’d invited him to participate in the events multiple times, as had Brady, Donny, and probably every other person who lived in the Cove. Ant had been adamant about his decision not to compete. Hunter’s goading must have been the tipping point. “It’s not too late.”

“I started training months ago. You can’t pull it together in a week.” Hunter’s cockiness was approaching assholeishness.

“It took you months to practice tree chopping?” she snapped.

“Mastery takes time.” Hunter frowned.

She glanced over at Ant. His smile was absent and his chin elevated. Either he’d appreciated her standing up for him, or he was planning on flattening Hunter with a punch to the nose.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you both at the games!” She kept her voice cheery, hoping to dampen some of the ire between these two.

“I guess so.” He extended a hand to Ant. “Best of luck.”

Ant offered a slow blink and kept his arms at his sides. “Thanks.”

The standoff lasted the count of two before Hunter offered his hand to Lou instead. “It was a pleasure being interviewed by you, Ms. Daniels. I’m going to check out those nachos while I’m here. Maybe I’ll run into you in town.”

“Maybe.”

He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles, his gaze glued to hers. “See you around.” He swaggered to his truck, his chest puffed and shoulders back. The engine started with a loud blubber, sending black smokestacks out of the pipes on the roof, before he peeled out of Donny’s driveway.

“What a fuckwad,” Ant said.

She untangled her arm from his. “I referred him to Salty Dog. He was curious about the best eats in town.”

“That wasn’t all he was curious about.”

“Oh, come on. He’s like four years younger than me. That’s weird.” She rolled her eyes, playing down that she too had suspected the state champion was coming on to her.

“I’m six years older than you.” Ant took a slow perusal of her outfit.

“That’s…different.” She pursed her lips. Was he implying that he was someone she might go on a date with?

“Where do I start?”

Flummoxed by her last thought, it took her a beat to reply. “Start what?”

“The Paul Bunyan thing. What do I do?”

“Right! That. Of course. Um. I can send you the information. There’s a PDF form online.”

He held up a hand. “I’m too impatient for that, Lou. Why don’t you go over the pertinents when I take you home? We’ll square away everything then.”

“Okay.”

“Unless you want to go for beer and nachos.” He raised his eyebrows and watched her carefully. She couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.

“My place is fine. No problem.” Her smile shook. She’d piled a whole lot of assumptions on top of a simple conversation with her friend. She had to remind herself of that fact since, at the moment, she wasn’t seeing her friend. She saw nothing but broad shoulders, long eyelashes, and a sexy protective streak a mile wide. Not to set womankind back a few hundred years, but she liked that he’d been possessive over her.

Much more than she should have.

* * *

Ant shifted on the chair at the dining room table, the very one he’d crafted for Lou and her ex-husband. He was leaning, the knuckles of one hand resting on his thigh, the other propped on the hip of the leg he was bouncing up and down.

Lou took her attention from the screen to address him. “We’re almost done.”

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