“Oh my god!” She pressed a palm against her stomach, still laughing. “Did you just change my nickname to the speedy little kid fromThe Incredibles?”
Levi halted mid-step and scratched the back of his neck. And for a second, he didn’t know which made him cringe more: letting on that he’d been at all affected by her vanishing act or that he’d somehow revealed that he was a thirty-two-year-old man who clearly recalled character names from Pixar movies.
“Wait!” she added, holding out her hand as if to stop him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t tease, and maybe I shouldn’t have snuck out on you without a word last night, but my head really wasn’t in the right space for what we were… You know? But I am desperate here. My friend Emma’s family owns the inn, and they offered mea room at a great rate, but I can’t live there. I need my own space that I can decorate and make feel like home, and…” She squeezed her eyes shut, fisted her hands at her sides, and blew out a long breath. Then she met his gaze again. “I have nowhere else to go,” she admitted, all amusement gone from her expression. “I need this apartment, but I can’t afford it on my own. Please, please, please split the rent with me. I’ll take the smaller room. I’ll share my Netflix password. I’ll—”
“Okay,” Levi told her, no sign of his bruised ego in sight. Instead he found himself wanting to erase that look of worry from her hazel eyes.
“Really?” she beamed, her eyes turning glassy as she exhaled a shaky breath.
Levi sighed. “Really,” he replied, knowing that if they actually did this, they’d both have to put last night behind them. No way he was messing up this job opportunity or the much-needed recommendation he’d need from Coach Crawford for reinstatement to the NCAA.
“But what almost happened last night?” she added. “That can’t even get close to happening again. Like…ever. I donotdate men I work with.”
Levi sighed. Good. They were on the same page. It didn’t matter that he could still picture her in that black dress she wore at the bar…oroutof the dress as she climbed dripping out of his tub. From here on out, they were colleagues and roommates, and that was it.
“Like,never,” he countered. “But I do have one condition.” Shenodded slowly, and he continued by extending his hand. “We need to introduce ourselves. I’m Levi.”
Her lips parted into a soft smile as she took his hand.
“Nice to meet you, Levi. I’m Haddie.”
Chapter 3
Emma followed Haddie into the small bedroom, dropped a boxlabeledRunning Gearon the floor, and then spun to peek out onto the rest of the apartment from Haddie’s bedroom door.
“Oh my god,” Haddie whispered, grabbing Emma’s elbow. “You are the least subtle human to ever human!”
“I hear cheering,” Emma whispered back. “Do you think they’re watching bachelor-party videos to plan for Matteo’s? Do you think I should worry?”
Haddie snorted. “Are they going to Vegas?”
“No. They’re doing a pub crawl through town, which basically means hitting up two entire spots, including the inn,” Emma replied. “Matteo doesn’t even drink. But you never know.”
Haddie rolled her eyes and then popped her head out next to Emma’s to find Matteo and Levi standing at the breakfast bar in front of Levi’s laptop.
“Whatcha guys watching?” Haddie asked.
Matteo turned toward the two women and laughed, winking at Emma.
Levi pivoted quickly to face them as well, and Haddieswallowed, telling herself that the stubble on his unshaven face was not sexy and that seeing him like that every morning from here on out would not be an issue.
“Um… Coach Crawford sent some video files of last year’s team so I could get an idea of what I’m starting with.”
Haddie nudged Emma with her elbow. “See? Just a coach doing what coaches do.” She offered Levi a salute. “As you were, gentlemen.” Then she turned around and winced at her utter lack of coolness, pulling Emma back into her bedroom.
Emma closed the door behind her and leaned against it with her arms crossed. “You took a bath and cleaned out his minibar?” Emma whispered back. “Matteo’s brother? My soon-to-be brother-in-law!”
“Shh!” Haddie hissed, then grabbed her friend’s wrist and pulled her away from the door as if that would keep Levi and Matteo from hearing them through the apartment’s thin walls. “I didn’tknowhe was Matteo’s brother. And also, I did not clean out his minibar.” She shrugged. “I took what I wanted and left the rest.” Then she gasped, climbed around and over the boxes stacked all over the small room’s floor, found her purse, and inside the purse, found her bounty. “Look!” she exclaimed. “The second one! Only the best commercially produced chocolate in the universe, and I’m about to share it with you.”
The two women dropped down onto a tiny clean patch of wooden floor. Haddie tore open the long triangular package, ripped off the top half of the foil, and broke off a chunk of her prized possession, handing it over to her friend.
Emma accepted the offering eagerly, popping the whole thinginto her mouth. “I know you plying me with chocolate is a redirect, so I won’t belabor the fact that you’re still attracted to Levi, and it’s almost working,” she mused. “But I might need one more bite.”
Haddie popped a piece of chocolate into her own mouth and then broke off another wedge for Emma. If she had to buy her friend’s silence, she’d do it. “He’s my roommate and my colleague now. And you know I’d never date a guy I worked with. Again.”
Haddie had tried that. Once. She thought that she and Collin, a fifth-grade teacher at her former school, were on the same, casual, let’s-have-fun-until-this-runs-its-course page until he sprang a surprise meet-my-parents brunch on her on a random Sunday morning. That was when she knew she had to end it.
Emma sighed. “Poor Collin. I hear he still puts your photo on every New Year’s vision board.”
