Page 29 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

TWENTY-ONE

KIRA

“Nope. No boys allowed,” Alyssa said as both Thoren and Beckett filled a nearby high-top with a giant plate of food.

My stomach rumbled at the sight of it, despite having inhaled a bacon cheeseburger and Kat’s special seasoned fries less than an hour ago. Considering dessert awaited us—courtesy of Aspen—I shouldn’t be tempted to steal a nacho.

But I did anyway.

“Careful,” Beckett said, one corner of his mouth tipped up in a half smile.

I shouldn’t like it. I shouldn’t like anything about the man buying Mom’s bookstore.

The same man who kept it a secret, and blindsided me earlier today.

But tell that to the butterflies throwing a fucking rager in my belly, remembering the way he held me during my panic attack.

They caught a whiff of his delicious scent—some unfairly sexy mixture of pine needles and manliness—and shut off contact with my logical brain.

“You wouldn’t want to get kicked out for stealing.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I was kicked out of here.”

If I were smart, I’d call it a day and head back to the farm. Except, I didn’t have a ride since I left my Jeep behind when I dropped off Husker.

“So I’ve heard,” Beckett said.

“You ladies aren’t afraid of a little friendly competition, now, are you?” Thoren’s question was directed ninety-nine percent at Alyssa. They were locked in a staring contest.

Those two had a special love-hate relationship on account of Thoren breaking her heart over a decade ago when he enlisted in the Army without telling her. But I was too distracted with my own dilemma of the six-foot-two variety to unravel whatever was currently happening in their soap opera.

“You suck at darts,” Alyssa said to Thoren.

“You’re good, though,” Beckett said to me, his voice low enough so only I could hear. I made the mistake of flickering my gaze to his, and my traitorous nipples tightened as a result.

“Stalking is totally a serial killer thing.”

Dammit, was I flirting? Stop flirting with the enemy, Kira .

I averted my eyes, but instead of looking back at the dartboard, or the table of cupcakes, or at Aspen or Alyssa, they traveled of their own accord, taking in the delicious way Beckett’s biceps strained the sleeves of his T-shirt.

Maybe I should’ve let him dive underwater and save me from drowning the other day so I could experience exactly what those muscles were capable of for myself.

What the hell, Kira? You’re supposed to be mad at him.

“I was being observational.” Beckett nodded at the tabletop filled with an array of cupcakes. “What’s the occasion?”

Aspen brought them along to celebrate my twenty-fifth book release. Something I forgot all about until Lila called earlier. I made the mistake of putting her on speakerphone in front of my friends.

But if I were being honest, I was secretly thrilled that my best friends wanted to make a thing out of it. I’d forgotten how much fun celebrating the little things could be, and made a vow to do it more often. Even if I never published another book, there would be other wins worth acknowledging.

I hoped.

“Who says there’s an occasion?” I asked, my guard going up of its own accord.

The last time I shared my excitement for a book release with a man, he reached right into my chest, yanked out my heart, and stomped on it thoroughly.

“Oh, please,” Alyssa said, rolling her eyes, reaching across me to steal a nacho. “Are you still keeping that a secret, Kira? Or should I say Dia?—”

“Yes, it’s a secret,” I hissed between gritted teeth, feeling the heat of Beckett’s curious gaze as I gently elbowed Alyssa in the side.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Fine. My lips are sealed.” She made the juvenile gesture of zipping her lips with her index finger and thumb and throwing away the key. “You two playing or what? Aspen has to head home, so it’s just the four of us.”

“Sorry, kids. I have to open the bakery tomorrow.” Aspen gave me a quick hug, lowering her voice as she said, “Enjoy your dessert.” Her twinkling eyes glanced at Beckett, then back at me. “You earned it.”

“I’m not?—”

But Aspen didn’t wait around for my rebuttal.

Just as well. She’d rendered me speechless.

Fuck, was I that obvious? I was supposed to be pissed at the man.

If my best friends could see right through me, I had to be extra careful around my family.

I came back to make amends for the drama I caused last summer, not cause more of it.

And sleeping with my brother’s best friend seemed like a good way to do exactly that.

“Well?” Alyssa asked again.

“What’s the game?” Beckett asked.

“Cricket,” Thoren volunteered. “But we’ll play the easy way, without the order. That work for you ladies?”

“Sure. If you need the handicap, old man,” Alyssa said to him.

“I’ll play,” Beckett said, looking at me expectantly as Thoren and Alyssa continued to quietly banter.

“Are you some secret dart shark or something?” I asked him.

“Or something.”

The answer reminded me of something he said at Ghost Lake, and a shiver went through me from head to toe. But not the bad kind of shiver that should shock some sense into me. Oh, no. This was the sinfully delicious kind of shiver I’d written about in many romance novels .

You cannot sleep with Beckett Campbell.

Not tonight.

Not ever .

“I should warn you,” Alyssa said to Beckett, “Kira cheats.”

“I do not.”

“I’m not worried,” Beckett said, his gaze locked on mine again.

I should have asked Aspen for a ride. This whole exchange felt dangerous, and yet, I couldn’t seem to help myself. I leaned into it.

“Your funeral,” I said, giving him a flirty shrug before spinning toward the dartboard to retrieve my purple darts.

“Care to make a little wager?” he asked when I returned to the table.

“What do you have in mind?”

“If I win, you tell me your secret.”

My heart pounded in my ears. I was good at darts, but I had no idea if Beckett was a secret world-class dart champion. Considering he’d been in the military, I suspected he had decent aim.

“And if I win?”

“What do you want?”

I wanted many things I had no right to want.

I wanted him to push me up against the wall and kiss me breathless.

I wanted to rid him of that fitted shirt and trace my fingertips over all those tattoos as he told me about each and every one.

I wanted him to sneak me into his bedroom and put that mouth to other good uses, too.

My resolve to stay mad tonight was clearly shot to hell. I blamed too much time in the sun for scrambling my brain, since I was drinking Dr. Pepper and couldn’t attribute my poor lapse in judgment to the alcohol.

To keep myself from saying anything stupid, I shifted focus.

“I would say a bookstore, but I don’t think that’s on the table.”

“Kira,” he said, his gruff tone so gentle it stirred something inside me.

Or maybe it was the compassion lingering in his eyes that threatened to undo me. Those damn eyes that were both intense and kind at the same time. It would be so much easier to hate him if he were rude, unapologetic, or selfish. But so far, Beckett Campbell proved to be none of the above.

“Looks like I’m not the only one keeping secrets,” I finally said.

“I tried to tell you.”

“When? When we were outside by the firepit the other night for almost an hour?”

“I should have told you then.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I was distract?—”

“Can you two stop bickering and start playing?” Thoren hollered over the music. “I have a bet to win, and it’s boys against girls.”

“Fat chance,” Alyssa said to Thoren.

I knew this game well and was good at it, whether we aimed for numbers in order or not. I stepped up to the line, finding my center so I could focus on my shot, but barely. I could feel Beckett’s eyes on me.

Why did I have to like it so much ?

I took a deep breath, and focused on the twenty section.

My dart landed just above the triple twenty slot, in a single zone.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. It wasn’t what I was aiming for, but at least it was close. Twenty was better than zero .

“Not bad,” Beckett said.

I aimed the second dart but missed the twenty by one slot section.

“I tried to find you last night,” Beckett said as I took aim with my final dart of the round. “You were asleep.”

Dammit, he was right. I was avoiding him.

I threw the final dart, but it bounced off the board and landed on the floor. Shit .

I retrieved my darts, but when I tried to return to the table, Beckett blocked my path.

I put out a hand to avoid a full-on collision.

Big mistake. My palm flattened against his chest, and there was no question that all his cut lines, hard muscle, and man were not an illusion. Not when I could touch them so easily.

I jerked my hand away as though I touched a hot burner. In some ways, I had.

“Do you want the bookstore?”

“I don’t live here,” I reminded him.

“That’s not what I asked.”

I didn’t know how to answer that, so instead I said, “If I win, I want a favor.”

“What kind of favor?”

“A future favor.”

“Done. ”

“Just like that?”

“Do you want me to argue?”

“Nope.”

He stepped up to the line, his first dart hitting the triple twenty I’d aimed for three times but missed.

Double shit .

Beckett threw again, hitting the double nineteen. This was not looking good.

I pilfered a cupcake and took a bite.

Alyssa squealed with excitement the next board over, throwing off Beckett’s third throw. She hit a bullseye. Thoren looked at her with the same adoration he had at sixteen. Maybe someday, those two would figure out they were meant to be together.

Maybe not.

Was anyone ever really meant to be together?

I took a second generous bite of a confetti cupcake filled with some type of delicious cream I couldn’t quite pin. Cake batter?