“You’re saying that wasn’t your ‘kiss me’ face?” There’s a mild challenge in his tone.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
He looks relieved. “Oh good. It just wouldn’t be fair to you if I kissed you.” He wedges his pole and starts tying a lure like there’s nothing more to talk about.
“What do you mean, ‘it wouldn’t be fair’?”
“Because, Chef Tabitha”—his gaze flicks up to mine—“I’d kiss you so thoroughly that you wouldn’t remember ever tasting anything else in your life but me.” He goes back to tying his lure. “Can’t ruin your career like that.”
Oh my.
Heat unfurls low in my abdomen, and I swallow hard. But he’s acting like this is all no big deal, and I’m not about to let him see he’s gotten to me, so I nod slowly, like I’m considering his words.
Faster than he can blink, I scoop up an enormous spray of water with my paddle, the bulk of it splatting right in his face and making him gasp.
“You need to cool down, friend.” I have the paddle settled innocently in my lap by the time he finishes sputtering. “You’re right, Sawyer. Being friends is way more fun. Welcome back to Camp Oak Crest, Stretch. Game on.”
Chapter 17
“Idon’tknowhowyou did it, but you cheated.” I cross my arms and glare at Sawyer, who holds the largest speckled trout I’ve ever seen anyone pull from the lake.
“Don’t be a sore loser.” He pats the fish’s head.
“You ever known me to be a gracious winner?”
He smirks. “No. No, I haven’t.”
“Tell me how you cheated.”
“Better idea: admit defeat and tell me how you’re going to cook this fish. I want to imagine it.”
We’ve been on the lake for two hours, and that’s about an hour longer than I like to fish, but Sawyer had made the time go fast with his jokes. He’d even answered direct questions about his family and college and work, stuff he dodged in the old days.
I sigh. “Fine. You win. But I don’t know how I’m going to cook the fish yet. Where am I doing this?”
He raises his eyebrows. “How do you feel about my house?”
I hoped he would say that. I want to see what kind of space he chose for himself. “Sounds good. I’ll have to do an incredibly thorough amount of rummaging to figure out what I have to work with.”
“Why does it sound like your rummaging will go beyond my kitchen?”
I lift and drop my shoulders. “Who knows what culinary inspiration might be hiding in your sock drawer? Or medicine cabinet? I’m inspired by all kinds of things.”
He only laughs. “Rummage anywhere you want. I don’t keep secrets.” I open my mouth, but he corrects himself before I get a word out. “Besides the thing about being Ben and Natalie’s silent partner and planning anOcean’s Elevenlevel caper to lure you back here to the scene of my adolescent love crimes.”
“Maybe don’t say love crimes when you’re trying to get a woman back to your house in the woods. And maybe not ‘lure,’ either.”
He closes his eyes for a few seconds. “If I call some old girlfriends on the phone and put them on speaker for them to testify that I’m generally pretty smooth, will you believe them?”
I tsk. “Tough sell since I knew you when you were twenty.”
He gives me a hangdog look before he straightens, a glint in his eye. “How about our first kiss? The one that counted. That was pretty smooth.”
I drop my eyes to his mouth. “It wasn’t bad. If only there were a way to refresh my memory…”
He smirks and stows his winning fish in a small cooler. “We better put you to work before you start trouble,friend.”
I laugh as he grabs his paddle and steers us to the private dock. When he ties off the canoe and reaches down to pull me onto the dock with him, I’m curious enough to see inside his place that I resist the impulse to pull him into the lake.
