“So, Tess…”
His voice deepened and dropped off to form the S in my nickname. The word left his mouth in a deep puff of air that hardly moved his lips. Why must he call me Tess? It was my name, but personalized. Loganized. I’d prefer Jailbait.
I had to say no. Stay strong. If for nothing else than to prove something to the male herd behind me.
“How much is the bet?”
Laughter sprang into his eyes. “What do you mean?”
I spoke slower, gaining my edge back. “How much is the bet if I go out with you?”
“Geez, Tess.” He held up his hands. “I just got here, but…if you want to go out, I mean...”
“Logan Marten, I’m going to ask you one more time. How much?”
An uncomfortable grin bit his face. “It wasn’t my idea. Jake forced my hand. A hundred bucks.”
“Jake’s here?” I immediately flipped around in my chair, searching our audience for the man in question. A lanky cowboy nearly bursting with mischief met my gaze and raised his glass. I shook my head slowly at him but was unsuccessful at keeping the grin from exploding onto my face. With my best friend happily married and living in Colorado, I had been reluctant to move back to Eugene. Most of my friends had moved away. I was lucky Margo had come home for a family wedding this week. The knowledge of two guys being here, who had played such a prominent part in my youth and summers, shouldn’t have filled me with so much joy, but it did.
“You are aware that, by the principle of the thing, there is no way I can or will say yes, right?”
“Aww, come on, Tess. I just thought I’d give you a chance to fulfill your teenage fantasy.” He couldn’t even get through his sentence before he cut himself off, laughing.
My toes curled. “Are we really going there?”
He gave me a meaningful look. “I think we’vebeenthere, haven’t we?”
I wiped a drop of sweat from my brow.
He leaned closer, stealing a drink from my water. The casual familiarity of that move did nothing to soften me toward him. NOTHING. He took a minute to compose himself before saying seriously, “It’s a good chance for us to kill two birds with one stone. I get to take money from Jake, and you get…”—he motioned theatrically across his body—“all this.”
I didn’t allow my eyes to follow the trail his hand was making across his chest and, instead, pushed at his shoulder. “Be serious. I’m not going out with you.”
Cue sad trombone.
“Tess…” His voice was low and sultry as he fingered the bottom of his shirt. “Do I need to take it off?” His eyes lowered seductively, highlighting his dark lashes across his cheek. I could feel my face heating and the laughter ready to burst out of me, but I had to hide it. He was kidding, of course, but I needed to gain composure before I called him out on his bluff.
“Yeah, actually.” I leaned back in my chair, arms folded, chin up, leveling him. “Take your shirt off. Right now.”
His tongue flicked across his bottom lip as he studied me. “And then you’d go out with me? Or you just want to see me half naked?” He leaned closer, and with his eyebrows raised suggestively, whispered, “Again.”
I didn’t look at Margo to see her face, but I could guess at her thoughts decoding this conversation.
“Might depend on what’s under there. I haven’t seen you with your shirt off for quite some time.”
“Though probably not for lack of trying, right?”
He made no effort to remove his shirt, and for a long moment, we sat grinning at each other. My mind bounced from a laundry room long ago, to eating late-night bowls of cereal next to him on the couch with Kelsey, to a certain water fight on a trampoline. My foot wouldn’t stop fidgeting. I was calm and as still as a statue up top and a dog chasing a squirrel down below. I couldn’t stop smiling at him, and I wasn’t sure why. Or what I should do. Margo was still there somewhere in my peripheral vision, but I couldn’t even break my gaze to check. Logan was crowding every inch of my space.
I was going to do it.
There was no way I could say no to him. I braced myself for all the ribbing I would no doubt get by saying yes, but…it was the crush of my youth, and dang it all, itwasa teenage fantasy. I was going on a date with Logan Marten.
Enter Jen.
“There you are, handsome.” We both turned as the red-headed beauty brought a plate of food and set it in front of Logan. “I thought you were with the construction boys over there.”
“I’m saying hi to an old friend.” Logan smiled at her.
