Page 49 of I Can't Help It

“It was the best kiss I’ve ever had too.” The smile she gives me is hypnotic, and I’m tempted to kiss her again anyway. “I couldn’t regret it even if I tried to.”

Tell her it can’t happen again. Tell her this was a great first date, but everything ends here.

“Let’s go back to the lodge,” she says, wrapping her arm around mine. “I’m pretty sure I saw a checkerboard set up in the lobby, maybe we can play a few rounds?”

My heart aches at the thought of turning her down, of pushing her away, of doing anything that will ruin tonight for her.

I can’t do it.

Just tell her in the morning.

“Yeah,” I drawl as she snuggles closer to me, “checkers sounds good.”

* * *

“King me.” I move my checker to an empty space of Ava’s last row of squares. “And that means you have to tell me something else about yourself.”

We decided on the game variation before we started playing, and I’ve learned three new things about Ava.

Her favorite animal is a tiger.

Cardio helps her relax.

And she doesn’t like pizza.

When she told me that last one, I joked about feeling unsafe around her.

But seriously, who doesn’t like pizza?

“Hmm…” she trails off, placing a checker on top of my current one. “Okay, well, this is going to sound cliché, but spiders freak me out.” She proceeds to shudder, as if she just saw a spider crawl across the board. “I don’t do spiders at all. One time at the office, I found a spider in one of my desk drawers, and I literally hid in the break room until someone took care of it.”

I bite back a laugh, now remembering how badly I wanted a pet spider when I was a kid. I’m pretty sure I was hoping it would bite me, and I’d end up with superpowers.

“So, clown dolls and spiders. Gotcha.”

She leans over the board to swat my arm. “I don’t have a fear of clown dolls!”

“Denial,” I singsong before motioning toward the board. “It’s your move.”

She makes a face at me, and it takes some serious freaking willpower not to kiss those lips.

Those perfect, lush, made-for-me lips.

NO.

Nopeeeeee.

We’re playing a friendly game of checkers. There won’t be any more kissing.

Even IF the tension between us is crackling more than those logs in the fireplace…

After a few more turns, Ava moves one of her checkers to my last row. “Aha! FINALLY!”

Yep, this is her first time completely making it to the other side of the board.

“Okay, king me! And then tell me something about yourself. Something like, really good since this might be the only king I get.”

Considering she only has three checkers left, that’s a definite possibility.

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