Why am I nervous?” I chewed a hangnail as I watched the judges sip each team’s drinks. They gave nothing away, which annoyed me. Like,come on, people. Give me a smile or a wince or a wink. Give me something!
“I’m not good at a lot of things, but making drinks is one of them.” Hayden’s voice came directly behind my left ear, his breath tickling my skin in a wicked, dangerous kind of way.
It was warm and unintentionally naughty. I had a lot to unpack in my We’re Over Hayden mission. But the dude made it difficult! The attention to detail? The forearm porn? The deep, low chuckle? Ugh.
I only had so much strength. If he put on his glasses and volunteered reading to young children, I would die.
Clearing my throat, I found my voice and sounded totally normal and chill. “I like your confidence, big guy. Drink making is not one of my skills.”
He placed both of his hands on my shoulders and squeezed. “Trust me. We’ll win. I have a good feeling about tonight.”
Maybe he put his hands there to distract me as the judges lifted our Sexy Santa Sidecars. It had been months since I felt this tense, this on edge, from a silly competition! They had to like our drinks. I couldn’t fathom losing this competition to my brother, let alone not winning this thing for Penny.
“See?” Hayden whispered, his deep timbre a Charlotte-specific aphrodisiac. “The dude on the left widened his eyes. The woman in the middle tilted her head to the side. They are impressed.”
“You can’t know that,” I whispered back. He leaned closer, his chest pressing into my back. This was the danger zone, baby. For two winning-obsessed people, this adrenaline was our kryptonite. I could feel his heart pound in his chest, and its erratic rhythm matched mine.
“I study people for my job, Char. I watch the pitcher for their tells. Do they grab their hat twice before a slider? Do they lean a little bit to the left before a curve? Reading people is something I do on the daily, and the judges like our drinks.”
“Do you study everyone?” I asked without thinking. “Like me?”
He laughed and stepped back. The removal of his touch sent a blast of cold air over me. I missed his heat already, which was absurd. “I know what spot you prefer to sit because you’re left-handed. Does that not answer your question?”
“You do.” I wiggled my brows. “What else do you know? Huh?” I poked his side, charmed and curious about what he knew about me from studying me. “What am I thinking now?”
“I’m a smart enough man to know to step away from this game.” He held up both hands, a huge smile on his face. “I will say it’s easier on the field than real life. So calm down, tiger.”
“Coward.” I narrowed my eyes, teasing him. Looking back at the judges, I could see they were on group six. “Uh, I want the scores! Have you heard from the team?”
He pulled out his phone, shaking his head. “Silence. Well, Garrett texted me that he found twins he wants to flirt with, and damn it. He ditched the competition.”
“No.” My stomach dropped. “He can’t… what if they are disqualified? What if they are arguing the entire time? Hayden, this is bad.”
Hayden ran a finger over his eyebrow, releasing a long sigh. “We don’t know for sure what happened. Plus the next activity is with the whole group. We can monitor it.”
“And do what? If they lose this… it’ll crush them.”
“Okay. Any idea what the third competition is? So we can mentally prepare?”
I opened up the competition app—they had coded their own app for these games; that took some serious dedication—and groaned. “Lyric Mess Up?”
He squinted at my phone. “Does… does that say we read lyrics on a projector?” His voiced cracked on the end.
“Yeah, that gonna be a problem for you, Gramps?” I teased.
He grumbled. “I should get my glasses. Do I have time to run to the room?”
Hayden in glasses will murder me.My eyes fluttered, and I dug my nails into my palms to calm myself down. Were they thick and black? Oh my. This was the opposite of good.
“Char, can you cover me if I run back for a minute?”
I nodded, barely able to get the words out. “Y-yes. Are you sure you need them?”
“Yes. My vision’s getting worse. My parents think I should do LASIK, but the thought of someone touching my eye freaks me the fuck out. Okay, I’ll run to get them. You need anything? Your shoulder still doing okay?”
“I’m fine, Hayden. Go get your bifocals.”
“Okay, I’m not there yet. Settle down, Char.” He smirked before jogging out of the lobby. Once he disappeared from view, I gripped the table and released the longest sigh of my life.
