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But she stayed. The kitchen was clean, and she wasn’t leaving. I asked her if she wanted some ice cream.

She hadn’t said much, but she nodded. I got us two bowls and we sat on the couch with Buck. I let Hunter pick something to watch even though I didn’t think she was paying attention.

“What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” I asked her when I couldn’t take the silence anymore.

“Nothing,” she said immediately.

“I don’t believe that for a second. It’s okay, you can tell me.” She ate some ice cream before answering.

“I know I said it before, but I’ve never met anyone like you. And as much as I know should leave, as much as I think what you want isn’t going to happen, I don’t want to stop coming here. I don’t want to stop seeing you. I like you, Stace. Can’t that be enough?”

She had a valid point, even if I didn’t like it.

“It can be enough. If you don’t want me to flirt with you and annoy you and tell you how much I want you, I will stop. I don’t want to harass you. But I don’t think that’s the case.” I knew it wasn’t the case. There had been two of us participating in that kiss. And she had asked me to fuck her.

Hunter let out a frustrated sound and rubbed her forehead.

“I don’t… I…” she trailed off and then shook her head.

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Stop it,” she said without turning her head.

“Stop what?”

“Stop smiling.”

“You’re not even looking at me.”

Hunter scowled into her bowl. “I can feel it.”

“That’s cute.”

Hunter lifted her bowl as if she was going to throw it at me, but she didn’t.

“So cute and so violent.”

“Do you want me to get violent? Because I will. I know I don’t look it, but I know how to throw a punch. I may not have broken a bully’s nose, but I could if I had to.” She finally faced me.

I’d heard that one before. “Okay. Show me how to make a fist.”

We both set our ice cream bowls aside and she turned on the couch to face me as I did the same.

Hunter took her right hand and made a fist, closing her thumb around her fingers exactly the way you were supposed to so you didn’t break your fingers.

“Okay, I’m impressed. Where did you learn that?”

She made a fist with her left hand and held both up in a ready stance.

“I took a self-defense class in college and then got really into kickboxing briefly. This was before I was doing yoga. I guess I still have the muscle memory.” She made two quick jabs that weren’t close enough to worry about.

“Now you make a fist.” I showed her my fists.

“Let me guess, you learned to fight your brothers in addition to bullies?”

I smiled and nodded. “Yup. Tor and I fought a ton when we were kids. Our parents were at their wits end. They did karate and everything but then we did boxing and worked it out in the ring. We still spar together every now and then.” Some of my best memories with Tor were when we were competing together. These days it was on the softball field or the basketball court during a pickup game. Things could get intense during family game night too, though.

Our ice cream melted as I told Hunter more stories about growing up with Tor and she told me about her college days and meeting Reid and Cade. The tension between us was still there, but to a lesser degree. I still wanted to lean over and kiss her until she begged me to get naked, but I resisted. Not an easy task. Every time she laughed or tilted her head a certain way or I was aware of her body I had to talk myself down.