Page 13 of Sunkissed Colorado

“I promise you, Callum, I would sooner chug a gallon of generic light beer thaneversleep with you. I’d rather eat glass shards.”

“Okay,” I grated out.

“I’d rather spend a month listening nonstop to my mother’s unsolicited advice.”

“I’ve got the picture.”

“Forget the money you owe me. I don’t need it.”

With that, she pulled a ten from her purse, tossed the money on the bar, and walked away. I stood there, stunned, watching her leave.

Well, that was a first.

THREE

Zandra

I stormed backto my motel room, fumbling with the key before finally getting the door unlocked.

“Callum O’Neal was there,” I announced after slamming and locking the door. “Right behind the bar. Can you believe that?”

Chloe wandered out from her hiding place under the bed, probably as thrilled with these accommodations as I was. The Pine Cone Motor Lodge was about as awful as motels got, reeking of stale cigarettes and onions. Give or take a whiff of cheap perfume.

But with my bank account so low and my credit card balances already inching up, a resort hotel on a mountain top had been out of my price range. Just a tad.

Would’ve been smarter to take the hundred bucks Callum owed me from our bet. But it was the principle of the thing.

I headed to the mini fridge to pull out dinner for both of us. “He’s just as arrogant as he was in high school, strutting around like a peacock who expects every woman in the vicinity to start drooling on command. Well, not me.”

When I’d first walked into the brewery, he’d looked instantly familiar. He still had that same shaggy hair, medium brown with just enough curl to make it perpetually tousled. Those thick-lashed eyes that had probably gotten him out of trouble countless times. Backward baseball cap snug on his head. In high school, it had been the Broncos. Tonight, his cap had read SRFD. Silver Ridge…Fire Department?

Not that I’d been memorizing details or anything.

“I don’t even care that he didn’t recognize me,” I continued, ripping open my pouch of tuna to mix in mayo and some pre-chopped veggies I’d picked up at the store. “I’ve changed a lot since high school. I mean, I should hope so, considering how long ago it was.”

If I was being honest, Callum had changed in ways too. Like the tattoos down one arm. His square jaw sported more stubble than it had when he was a teenager. He’d gotten even more muscular, his biceps straining against his T-shirt. Round glutes that filled out his jeans to an obscene degree.

Nnrgh. Okay, his ass was on point. He’d gained bulk in all the right places, and fine, it did look good on him. In an obvious, unoriginal way.

“The man is a walking advertisement for testosterone. Didn’t think he could get cockier than he was in high school, but he managed it.”

Chloe wasn’t paying me much attention, focused entirely on her dinner. I dug into my tuna and munched on a bag of baby carrots.

Maybe it had been a little bit fun, playing that guessing game with him. Trying to get him to figure out who I was. He’d almost made me laugh a couple of times. Plus, an easy hundred bucks to earn, even if I hadn’t taken it in the end.

“But then he just expected me to want to sleep with him, Coco.” She flicked her tail. “You would not believe this guy’s confidence. It’s remarkable, actually. Scientists should study him. He’s fascinating.”

To science, obviously. Not fascinating to me. I wanted nothing to do with the man.

He was the kind of guy who did whatever he wanted, regardless of consequences. Grinning happily the whole time.

Hopefully Callum didn’t work many bartending shifts at Hearthstone, because I had every intention of avoiding him.

Of course, I’d been dunking on Callum for being essentially the same person as in high school, but what did I have to show for all my supposed growth? A room in a questionable motel. A business wardrobe with no job to wear it to.

At least I had the freedom to eat whatever I wanted now. Ian had always thrown a fit if I opened a can of tuna fish within a five-mile radius of him.

The smell, Zandra. How can you stand that?