Page 6 of Mr. McBeefcake

chapter

four

Donovan

I probably shouldn’t still be standing here wearing only a towel, but it’s making Kathryn nervous. And I’m enjoying that. It means she’s not unaffected by me like she pretends to be. We still have that connection. I thought it might be lost to time and whatever the hell happened between us to piss her off so much.

“I cannot believe we’re stranded here. What are they thinking?”

“That we’re about to be brother and sister.” Somehow I manage to say that without grinning like a jackass. “And we need to get along.”

Her green eyes narrow at me behind her glasses. Then she points at me. “We are not going to be siblings. That’s stupid. My mom is marrying your dad. That’s the extent of it.”

Fuck me if I don’t love it when she’s prickly. And it’s then and there that I decide that I need to resolve things with her because I need her to fall in love with me.

I’ve been fooling myself thinking that what we’d had was just a teenage crush. No. I fell in love with Kathryn when we were kids, and seeing her now brings all of those feelings rushing to the surface.

How have I been living without her this long? Her with those wicked, thick curves and her sharp tongue. She’s got more fire and passion in her fingers than most people do in their whole bodies.

It’s fourth grade all over again when she single-handedly held a protest to protect the ducks in the park by Bluebonnet River.

Only way sexier.

“Seriously!” she shrieks. “Go put some damn clothes on. I can’t take all the man skin right now.”

I take a step closer to her. “Am I too much man for you, KitKat?”

She snorts. “You wish.” Her eyes rove over my bare chest. “Why don’t you have tattoos everywhere like most of the players?”

That causes me to cock a brow. “Keeping tabs on all the players, are you?”

“Whatever. You know I’ve always loved the game.”

“I do know that about you.” I brush past her, and she sucks in a breath. Yeah, she’s so not unaffected by me. She feels this pull between us; I know she does. I just need to get her to admit it. “I’ll go put some clothes on, then I’ll come tell you all about my lack of tattoos.”

“I’m not really that curious,” she murmurs.

And that just makes me smile. I quickly throw on some athletic shorts and an Armadillos t-shirt. But I grab my phone before I go back out there to her.

ME: Okay. I admit it. Y’all were right.

JD: We’re always right.

Hayes: About what, specifically?

Jude: He’s with Kathryn.

Hayes: Oh, yeah, we were totally right about her.

ME: We’re stuck alone in my dad’s cabin. Just me and her.

JD: So now you have her undivided attention.

ME: Exactly. I’m going to find out what happened between us in high school.

Jude: I’m telling you it has something to do with Mona.

Hayes: Oh, I bet you’re right.