Page 46 of Tempt

“Oh please,” Gretchen hollers over the music, “this guy can most definitely dance. He took me out on the dance floor and put on quite a show in an attempt to piss this one off,” she points at Colton. I glance up at him to find him scowling as if remembering the very thing she is referring to.

“Garrett has moves,” she adds, and Colton hugs her tighter.

“Enough about Garrett’s moves,” he practically growls.

“Ah babe, are you jealous that Garrett has better moves than you?”

Suddenly she is tossed up over his shoulder, the pool stick he had in his other hand is on the table and he is carrying her toward the exit mumbling something about showing her his moves.

Most everyone laughs, but I am still stuck on her words.

“Hey,” Garrett wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close. “I was just playing,” he says, before his body starts to move to the music. “You good?”

“Um, yeah,” I don’t get jealous, or at least I never have before. But the idea of Garrett having some hidden crush on Gretchen does bring out a green-eyed monster in me.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

Garrett

I move awayfrom the guys, tucking Kyra and myself in our own little corner. “Hey, you,” she looks up and smiles, though the smile does not reach her eyes.

Something has happened, I’m just not sure what.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing,” her insistence confirms I’m right. Lifting my hand to cup her face, I place my thumb beneath her chin and keep her from looking away from me.

“I’ve spent several weeks with you, watching you, getting to know you.” She takes in a deep breath, and I kiss the corner of her mouth, resting my forehead to hers. “I like to think that I’ve gotten to know all the signs, learned your moods.”

Again she says nothing.

“You saying nothing, tells me it is something and that smile you just offered me assures me you got something on your mind. Talk to me,” something has shifted, I’m just not sure what.

“It’s stupid,” she confesses, trying to look away only I don’t let her.

“It’s not if it's bothering you. It means it's something we need to talk about, something we need to clear up, so tell me.”

She worries her lip and I wait. I was seconds away from dragging her off like Colton did Gretchen just so we could find a place to work through whatever it is she’s battling. Then she looks up at me and asks the one thing I never thought for a second could be what is on her mind.

“Were you and Gretchen ever a thing?”

I stare at her, feeling like there is no way I heard her right.

“Wait,” I lift my hand and drag it over my face, blinking a few times to clear my head. “What?”

“I told you it was dumb,” then she attempts to move out of my hold.

“No, no,” I say, “you’re not going anywhere.”

“It’s just that she’s mentioned a few times about how the two of you have done things that always managed to piss off Colton. Then the dance thing, the swimming in the lake together, it's just,” she shrugs, shying away from me. “I thought maybe before the two of them you and her may have had a thing.”

"Baby, I can assure you; Gretchen and I were never athing.”

I hear someone laugh and look over to see Mike a few feet away watching us both. Kyra notices too and when she worries her lower lip I know she is embarrassed.

I’m about to say or do whatever it takes to ease the tension, but my knucklehead of a brother takes the lead instead.

“Kyra, you do know that my idiot brother here has had a thing for you for years? I’m talking since he first saw you at the Bakery when your Gran introduced you. He’s been harboring a crush on you from that very moment.”

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