KINSLEY: He said the movies were better than the books, Joshua. I can’t let that go. That’s blasphemy. If I were Queen, he’d be hung for treason for saying that.
ME: Well thank God you aren’t Queen.
KINSLEY: I don’t know. I think I’d be a good Queen.
ME: So you can make Harry Potter required reading?
KINSLEY: Do I detect a hint of disapproval there, peasant?
ME: No, Your Majesty.
KINSLEY: That’s better.
ME: So in other words, I have to do a full vetting of a future date’s HP preferences.
KINSLEY: No, but just tell them not to argue with me.
ME: If men in general accepted that arguing with a woman was a terrible idea, we’d all be much happier.
KINSLEY: Keep saying that stuff, and I might just date you.
I spat my drink all over my bar.
ME: What???
KINSLEY: Don’t sound so scared. I was joking.
Yeah. And didn’t that fucking suck.
CHAPTER ELEVEN – KINSLEY
rule eleven: it doesn’t matter if the book is always better. everyone is entitled to their opinion. even if you think they’re wrong.
“Tell me again why you didn’t tell Josh you’re going out with this new guy he found?” Saylor blinked at me from across the table full of books.
I sighed. I knew she’d judge me for this, and the truth was, maybe I’d wanted her to. I really didn’t know how to broach the subject of my last physical conversation with Josh and the subsequent text messages where things had gotten awkward, but this gave me an opening.
“Our last conversation was… weird.” I sliced open a box with a letter opener and set the tool down. “After my date the other night with Jamie, he came over, and it was… weird.”
“Yeah, weird, I get it.” She rolled her eyes as she started a stack of James Patterson’s new release. “But why?”
“That white dress? He seemed to have a thing about it, and I thought it was because I looked bad, but then he finally admitted that he was glad I didn’t wear it because it made me look beautiful.”
“That… goes against the point of his matchmaking,” she said, reaching up and tying her blonde hair into a loose knot. “What the hell?”
“Exactly. And then, before he left, he said he was sorry my date went badly. I asked him if he really meant it, and he said no.”
“So he was happy your date was shit?”
“Basically. I pushed it the next day when we were texting, and he didn’t reply. I confronted him again and he admitted that when I sent him a picture of me in the dress it, um.” I blushed. “Turned him on.”
Saylor’s eyebrows shot up so quickly, NASA was going to call her. “He what? He got a boner over a picture of you in a dress?”
My cheeks burned even hotter. “That’s what he said. Why would he lie about that?”
“Why would he tell you that?”
“Well, I wouldn’t leave it alone.”
“Naturally. I expect nothing less from you.” She flattened her hands on the table and leaned forward. “None of this makes any sense. I just—” She stopped.
I blinked at her, freezing myself. “What?”
“You don’t think…”
“Think what?”
She met my eyes. “You don’t think he has feelings for you, do you?”
I balked. “No. No way. That’s impossible.”
“I know, but it doesn’t make sense otherwise. I mean, sure. It could be that he’s protective over you because you’re his best friend’s sister, but the whole erection thing blows that out of the water.”
No kidding.
I dropped into the nearest chair. Why hadn’t that thought ever crossed my mind? It was the most logical answer, but it didn’t make sense.
It was Josh.
Josh.
There was no way he could have feelings for me, was there?
“Okay, but why would he offer to find me dates if he had feelings for me?” I asked after a few moments of silence. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I’ll give you that.” She waved a mass-market paperback in my direction before she set it on its stack. “None of this does, but there’s something going on.” She peered over at me. “Do you have feelings for him?”
“What? No!”
“Are you sure?”
I paused. Yes, I was sure I didn’t have any concrete feelings for Josh. Absolutely so. But that didn’t change the fact I’d felt… things. Like those butterflies in my stomach when he got too close or smiled at me just right.
But those weren’t feelings.
Were they?
“Well, that answers that.”
“No!” I protested, grabbing a stack of books from one of our most popular self-published authors and following Saylor to the new release table. “I don’t have feelings for him.”
“But there’s something.”
“Fine. Maybe there’s some highly inappropriate butterflies at inopportune times that don’t make any sense.”
“That’s how all good romance novels start, my friend.”
“I’m going to shove a romance novel up your ass,” I muttered, arranging the books I was carrying on the new release table.
Saylor laughed as she set a book stand on top of the stack of Patterson novels and put one on it so it was standing up. “I’m just saying, Kins. Either way, we need to figure out what’s going on.”
“We? We?”
“Yes, we. I bet there’s a way me and Holley can figure out how he feels about you without it being obvious.”
“You? Not obvious? Try again.”
“No, I’m being serious. Where are you going with this guy tonight?”
I straightened the books. “Bronco’s.”
“Really?”
“The fancy place didn’t work so well, so I thought I’d try a little more casual,” I admitted. I was already regretting that particular decision, because I knew exactly what she was going to say next.
“Okay, so what if me, Holley, Josh, and Colton come to Bronco’s tonight? I’ll watch Josh and see how he reacts to you dating literally right in front of him.”
“There’s a problem with that.”
“What?”
“The entire sentence, Saylor.” I turned back to the big tables to grab another stack of new releases to adjust. “Absolutely no way. My brother being there? That’s a recipe for disaster.”
She nodded slowly. “Maybe so, but it’s
