Page 31 of The Player Next Door

“I mean—I did feel a little bad for Kyle. I probably was sort of flirty with him, and it does suck to be rejected.”

Logan made a face. “Everyone gets rejected; you don’t set up an elaborate revenge plot just because someone doesn’t like you the same way. But that sucks, I’m really sorry.”

“Like I said, nowhere near the level of yours. But it is why I originally thought maybe you were pretending to be interested in me as like, a joke or something.”

“What?” Logan half sat up, looking appalled. “You thought I’d do that?”

“Not now that I know you, no. But—I mean, come on. Look at us. We’re not exactly in the same league.”

Logan rolled to his back then, steadfastly refusing to meet her eyes. She shifted uncomfortably, but he shook his head. “Did it ever occur to you that you might be out ofmyleague?” he said, with unexpected heat.

“Please, I’ve seen the women you bring home. And you look like an underwear model, whereas I look like, well, someone who plays a tabletop RPG and owns a lot of sweaters with dogs on them.”

“You’ve seen the women I bring home?” he asked with an arch of his eyebrow.

“In the elevator,” she muttered, grateful that the darkness would mask the rising heat in her neck.

“Mmmm,” he said, and she got the distinct impression he didn’t believe her. “You realize that attractiveness is not just about physical looks?”

“It’s easy to be philosophical when you look likethat,” she said, flapping her hand in his general direction.

“First of all, stop acting like you look like Chewbacca. Second of all, Chewbacca probably has his takers, so maybe that was a bad example, and also you’re cute in a good way and I think you know it. Third of all—Jesus, Clare, do you know how intimidating you are?”

“Um, what?” she asked, dumbfounded. “I’m a short nerd with a baking fetish; that hardly qualifies as intimidating. And you were just telling me I need to be more assertive at work.”

“Don’t be like that,” he scolded with a new edge of roughness in his voice that sent a frisson of sparks down her spine. “That work shit is on them, not you. Don’t sell yourself short. You’re what, twenty-seven?”

“Twenty-six,” she corrected.

“You’re only twenty-six, but you already know who you are. You just—embrace it. Your whole self. I’m cocky, but you’re confident. And that? That’s intimidating asshit.”

Clare swallowed hard. “Oh.”

“Yeah,oh. I’m hot, but looks aren’t guaranteed for ever. Your sort of confidence isn’t going anywhere.”

“Now I think you’re selling yourself short there,” she countered. “And way overstating how sure of myself I am.” She was hardly that confident at work, a fact Craig was constantly pointing out, and that she herself had admitted on several occasions.

“I’m not,” he said fiercely.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m just saying—actually, I don’t know what I’m saying. But I do know that long term, someone like you would get bored with a guy like me.”

Clare wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “Oh,” she said again, still trying to parse what he’d said.Does that mean he wants something long term, or he doesn’t?“You don’t seem boring to me,” she said, deciding it was best to not address the elephant in the room at all. Maybe it would disappear that way.

Logan’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Anyway, did you get revenge on those assholes? The ones who set you up?”

He was changing the subject, something she was noticing he did when things got too personal, even if he’d been the one to take it there in the first place. But she was a little too thrown by his description of her to put up much of a fight.

“Of a sort. I was the Game Master, so I sabotaged the game the next time we played. They thought I’d just keep playing with them, I guess. But I killed off all their characters and then blew up the universe we were in, so they’d have to start all over with someone else as GM.”

Logan grinned. “Good. Serves those dickbags right.”

“It did feel good,” she agreed. “Your turn. Best revenge story.”

“Oh, I’ve got a good one,” he said, and the heaviness of a few moments ago melted away into the night. Logan told a long story about a roommate who refused to honor house rules about not eating each other’s food, some laxatives, a house with one bathroom, and the risks of toilet-based revenge.

At some point, she must have drifted off to sleep, because when she opened her eyes, the sun was rising behind them, and Logan’s thin plaid shirt was draped over her like a blanket. She didn’t remember him giving it to her, and even though he was sound asleep in the chair next to her, she could see goosebumps prickling his skin.