Page 38 of The Love Ambush (The Sullivans #1)

“Just computer stuff.” His head pops up from where he’d been looking at the bacon he was flipping, and his eyes go wide. Did he not mean to say that?

“Like computer games? I won’t judge if you’re a gamer, Levi.”

He looks back down at the bacon, incredibly focused on what he’s doing. His shoulders rise to his ears and then down, before he turns back to me. “I’m a hacker.”

That stuns me so completely I take a step back. “Are you joking?”

He smiles. “My own brothers don’t know this secret, if that’s any indication of how much I trust you, Gentry.”

He trusts me? I’m not even sure I trust myself. “You’re serious? You just hack into what? Secret government sites in your free time? For fun?”

“It’s a side job,” he says. “A friend of mine is a private investigator. I do jobs for her when she needs the help.”

“Isn’t hacking illegal?” I ask, my stomach sinking. Of course, just when I’m changing my mind about going out with him, he turns out to be a criminal.

“Not what I do,” he says quickly. “First, I have the permission and oversight of a private investigator and, second, I very, very rarely have to hack into someone’s personal devices and that’s only after they’ve already been seized by my friend or law enforcement.

Most of what I’m doing is digging through databases my friend’s private investigator license gives us access to.

You can find out a lot about a person without doing anything illegal. ”

“If it’s legal, why not tell your brothers about it?”

He takes his time making our sandwiches, silent, then he hands mine over.

We sit on stools at the counter, and I bite into the sandwich immediately. It is so good, the bacon crispy and salty, the tomato adding just the right amount of sweetness.

I look up to see Levi staring at me. I swipe at my face. “What? Is there mayonnaise on my face?”

He clears his throat. “Uh, no.”

“What is it then? Do I chew weird?”

“You moaned,” he says. “When you bit into the sandwich, you moaned. It was distracting.”

My heart flips. “Oh. It’s really good.”

He looks away, taking a bite of his own sandwich. How are we going to be friends when all I want to do is kiss him all the time?

“Your brothers?” I ask to ease the tension. “Why don’t you tell them about your side hustle?”

His cheeks go slightly pink. “Have you met my brothers? They’ll be asking me to do stupid stuff all the time, like hack into each other's computers or do background checks on all their dates.”

I study him as I chew and swallow. “Yeah. I don’t think that’s it.”

He gives me major side-eye, clearly surprised I’m calling him out. “You a mind reader now?”

“Uh-huh. Right now, you’re wishing we went straight up to bed so you could avoid this interrogation.”

He laughs. “Not even close. I’ll never choose not to spend time with you, Gentry.”

That makes me warm all the way to the tips of my toes, a rolling wave of good feeling that thrums through me and makes me want to kiss him even more than I already did.

“Now, you’re deflecting. I’m just going to have to guess.

” I study him, considering all the options.

“They’d get mad at you for working on something other than the family business? ”

“Nope.”

“Deacon had a bad experience with a computer once, and learning about your secret hobby will only further traumatize him?”

He snorts. “Not even close.”

I take the last bite of my sandwich and think as I chew. Why would I keep anything from my siblings? “Because you want something that’s just yours and you don’t want them telling you how you could make more money or use your skills for the family business?”

He nearly chokes on his bite of sandwich, but he manages to swallow it down before falling into a coughing fit. I hop up and grab him a glass of water.

He takes a long swallow before he faces me, his expression infinitely fond. “You know me pretty damn well for someone I only dated for two days.”

I do a little shimmy in my seat. “I am a mind reader. I told you.”

He reaches for my plate, but I grab his instead and take them both to the sink. I start the water running to warm it up and grab the skillet from the stovetop.

“You don’t have to do that,” he says.

“You cooked, I clean. Those are the rules.”

He comes over to stand next to me while I wash the dishes, leaning against the counter, his gaze on me hot and penetrating.

“A second job doesn’t count as a hobby, by the way. What do you actually do for fun, Levi?”

He tilts his head back, staring at the ceiling, and I let out a sigh of relief to have his intense focus removed from me. I’m afraid he’ll be able to see straight into my soul and realize how ready I am to give in to my urge to kiss him.

“I mostly hang out with my brothers. I go to the gym and I run because I have to keep in shape for the quarterly family competitions.”

“No.” I drop the plate I’m washing and face him. “You all don’t still do that, do you?”

He grins. “Why wouldn’t we still do it? Don’t all families combine their reunions with competitive athletic games that last days at a time?”

I laugh. “I’d heard rumors about them happening at the Weston farm, but I figured they were exaggerated. I assumed you’ve all grown up and just sit around and gossip like normal families.”

He shrugs. “Sounds boring.”

“I’ve always wondered what they were like. Brodie went to one years ago, and all he would say was that it was absolutely insane.”

“You can come to the next one,” he says. “Just be prepared to participate. No one sits out the games.”

“I am the farthest thing from athletic there is.”

His smile widens. “Then we’ll add a painting competition. You can definitely win that one.”

“I’m sure your family would love that.”

“They would,” he says with a laugh. “We’re always looking for new creative ways to compete.”

I hum a noncommittal agreement, not taking him seriously at all. “You still haven’t told me what you do for fun.”

“Those things are all fun.” He taps his fingers on the counter. “I don’t have time for more than that.”

That makes two of us. I finish up the dishes, and we turn off the kitchen light before we head into the darkness and up the stairs to bed.