Page 58 of Baby, It’s Hotter Inside

“The hints of grey and silver in your hair are stupid hot. There’s nothing about you that’s old fart. You’re a sexy beast, Nash.”

“A sexy beast?” I repeat.

“Oh yeah. At least I think so.”

“Roni, you’re playing with fire right now and you need to step back.”

Her lips part and a small gasp falls from them. I want nothing more than to crowd my big body into her and kiss her like my life depends on it. Her phone rings, breaking the spell, and I’m able to walk away. I go back to my fudge to check on how things are, and remarkably, I had gotten to a place in the process where it’s just hardened. It’s not as pretty as it normally is, but it’ll still taste the same. We can actually sell this batch to Sprinkles, the ice cream shop down the street, and they can heat and serve it on their sundaes.

“What?” Roni says into the phone. “Are you serious? What is wrong with him? I mean surely there’s someone else he could chase around on break.” She sighs. “Yeah, thanks for the heads up.” She hangs up and slides the phone into the pocket on the side of her leggings, which I hadn’t noticed until now.

“Your leggings have pockets?” I ask, like a complete dumb ass.

She spins around to face me. “Some do.”

I nod to the pocket. “What was the call?”

She blows out a breath. “That was Harper Rhodes, dang it, I mean Crawford. Can’t get used to the fact that she and Johnny got married already. Anyways, she’s working in her family’s shop today, and evidently Pete went down there and met some of his buddies and she overheard them talking.”

“About you?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be your fake boyfriend whenever he’s around. Next time you want to go out dancing and to shake your ass around like that, you call me, and I’ll come with you. I’ll keep an eye on you. Keep you safe.”

She nods. “It’ll just be until Pete goes back to Texas Tech at the end of Christmas break.”

I nod because I don’t know what else to say. What I want to do is walk down to that ice cream shop, find Pete, and break his fucking neck. But technically he hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s just being a creep.

“I bet if we go out to Jingle Farm’s Christmas Market tomorrow and walk through the fairgrounds holding hands, that’ll solve everything. Then he’ll leave me alone.”

But maybe by then I won’t be able to. God help me.

“I don’t think it’s quite that simple,” I say.

“Just you wait. We’re going to be the cutest couple in that whole Christmas market.”

chapter thirty-two

Roni

I thought we’d made plans, but evidently I’m some kind of an idiot. Either that or Nash has a broken neck somewhere. In this case, I’m hoping I’m just an idiot.

Still, I’m bummed that my plan didn’t work.

ME: Fake boyfriend is a no-go. He didn’t show up to get me.

AMBER: Because he’s already here.

ME: Where?

AMBER: The Christmas Market. He’s here with Ian and that whole group of guys.

ME: #sigh

ME:

AMBER: None of that. We do not give up that easily. You need to just get your sweet ass down here. Give me a second and I’m going to video call you.