Page 30 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

When I first met Travis, he seemed to be everything I was looking for in a man. He checked every single box. Except, he actually didn’t check any of them. He pretended to be what I wanted, and only after I was completely ensnared in his web did I realize he fooled me.

The revelation was gradual at first. When the full truth finally hit the day I drove back to Omaha to break things off, it packed one helluva punch. It made me question everything I ever thought I knew about love.

About fate.

I used to believe in fate.

Now, it seemed to hold true only in the fiction I wrote.

Used to write .

I took another bite.

Maybe that’s why I was stuck.

I couldn’t bring myself to write the love stories I no longer believed in.

Shit, that’s heavy.

Too heavy.

I finished off the cupcake and wiped my fingers on a napkin.

“You okay?” Beckett asked.

“Yep. Why?”

“It’s your turn.” He offered my darts to me. “Been your turn for a few minutes now.”

“Oh.” My fingertips grazed his warm hand as I took them.

I was instantly pulled back to the bookstore, sitting on the cold tile, Beckett’s warmth wrapped around me like a blanket as I slowly came back to consciousness.

How he held a cold compress against my forehead, never once rushing me.

He not only took care of me without me asking, he didn’t expect anything in return for doing it.

Yeah, this whole being upset with him thing was on shaky ground.

And if I didn’t start playing dirty, I was going to lose more than this game.

Maybe I want to lose .

I focused all of my attention on the dartboard, took a deep breath, and threw.

My dart hit the double twenty. Then a triple eighteen. And a single sixteen.

Oh, thank God, there was hope after all.

When Beckett was up again, I stepped up behind him. Just as he threw the dart, I used a sultry tone and said, “You know the favor I want is open-ended right?”

Beckett stumbled his throw, and his dart hit the wall.

Alyssa laughed.

“I tried to warn you. She cheats.”

“Playing dirty, Red?”

Another shiver, this one more centrally located, tingled inside. He hadn’t called me Red since we were properly introduced. I didn’t realize until now that I missed the nickname.

“Just keeping you on your toes.”

He threw his second dart of the round and hit the bullseye.

Damn, he was good.

As Beckett took aim for his final throw, I ran my fingers from his hard bicep to his elbow.

“Don’t miss.”

His dart hit the edge of the board, barely holding on to the one spot he didn’t need.

He looked down at me, those intimidatingly sexy eyes a mixture of mischief and heat.

“Is this how we’re playing this game, Red?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I said, feigning innocence.

I fluttered my lashes in exaggeration, and Beckett laughed. God, that sound was magical.

“Stop flirting and play,” Thoren said, rolling his eyes as though they were any kind of innocent.

Heat flushed over my chest, reminding me that we had an audience.

And though we might be somewhat shielded in our corner by the growing crowd, we were not invisible in this very public setting.

I didn’t need the lecture from Luke, if half the town told him his little sister was flirting with his best friend.

He wouldn’t buy that I was only doing it to win a game of darts.

He wouldn’t be wrong, either.

Just as I released my dart, Beckett’s hot breath tickled my neck. Thankfully, the dart still hit a seventeen. But barely.

“I’m going to get a refill,” he said, holding an empty cup. “Need anything?”

“Dr. Pepper.”

“Coming right up.”

I held the second dart, but this time when I went to throw it, I knew better and held on to it. Because Beckett tried once again to steal my tactic.

“No cheating while I’m gone,” he said against my ear, his breath a teasing caress against my skin. I shivered as I imagined his warm breath in other places on my body.

“I’ll come with you,” Thoren said to him.

My second dart landed in the double twenty, closing it out. But only because I waited to throw it until Beckett vanished into the growing crowd.

“Something going on with you two I should know about?” Alyssa asked, her expression all mischief.

“No,” I said, shaking my head so vigorously my ponytail swished from side to side. “He’s just?—”

“Best friends with Luke, Connor, and Thoren,” she offered.

“He’s the one buying the bookstore,” I added, hoping that straightened this out .

“So you’re flirting with him to what? Convince him to let you buy it instead?”

“I can’t afford to buy it,” I said, the admission causing my stomach to plummet. I threw the third dart, and by some miracle hit an outer bullseye. Huh .

“You sure about that? From what I can tell, your last book launch was a pretty good one.”

I considered it, of course. I tossed and turned last night, crunching numbers in my head. But every scenario had me coming up short, both in money and time. “Even if I could afford the building—which I can’t—I wouldn’t have anything left over to revive the business.”

And I had very little knowledge of how to actually run a bookstore. If I found a way to take over and failed . . .

“Fucking Margene Miller,” Alyssa grumbled. “Maybe our next girls’ trip needs to be to Mexico to find her ass.”

“Anyway, I’m headed back to Omaha in a few days. Probably after the going-out-of-business sale is wrapped up next week. I told Dad I’d stick around to help with that.”

“You working on your next book?”

“No.”

Alyssa’s expression shifted from curious to serious. “Will there be a next book?”

“No way! You hit a bullseye,” Beckett said, handing me a full glass of Dr. Pepper. “Tell me the truth,” he said to Alyssa. “Did she cheat?”

“No. But if she did, I wouldn’t tell you anyway.”

“Fair,” he said, picking up his darts.

The game resumed, and Alyssa dropped her question.

For now .

I sipped on my Dr. Pepper as he threw three darts in a row and hit nothing that counted toward his score.

“Can’t blame me for that round,” I said, stepping up to the line again.

“Sure, I can,” he said.

“I didn’t do anything.”

He glanced down at my lips for several beats, then at the straw in my cup. The one with a light pink lipstick tint toward the top.

“Sure, you didn’t.”

With each round, I played dirtier. So did Beckett.

When he pushed aside my ponytail to reveal the dragonfly tattoo peeking out from my tank top strap, my dart hit the board next to us. When I slipped my hand into his back pocket, his dart shot up at the ceiling.

“Christ, at this rate, you two will be here until morning,” Thoren ribbed.

Alyssa had beaten him, but I suspected he let her.

“We’re almost done,” I shot back.

“She just needs a seventeen and a sixteen,” Alyssa said in my defense. “Then it’s game over.”

“Not if Beckett hits the triple sixteen first,” Thoren said. “C’mon. Shut her out, man. You’re our only hope.”

Beckett stepped up to the line, and I stayed off to the side at our small table, slowly unpeeling the wrapper of a cupcake. I traced my tongue along the cone of white frosting.

“Shit, man. Focus!” Thoren said after he hit the single nine with his first dart.

I bit into the cupcake, allowing the frosting to cover my nose.

Beckett’s second dart landed in the regular sixteen spot, but barely.

I dipped my finger into the frosting and sucked on it.

Beckett’s final dart hit the wall, just below the board.

“What happened there?” I asked, feigning innocence as I set my cupcake down. I used a napkin to wipe the frosting from my nose, fully aware that Beckett was starting at my mouth. It made me stare right back at his.

I really wanted to find out if he was the type of man to kiss a woman breathless. Because if I was wrong about that, there was no hope for me when it came to men. Not now. Not ever.

“Would you two stop looking at each other like you want to sneak away and screw in the bathroom so Kira can win this thing already?” Alyssa shouted above the music, turning more than a couple of heads.

I was past caring.

This friendly game of darts was doing some wickedly delightful things between my legs. I couldn’t remember the last time I craved a man’s touch. Even if this never went anywhere, it was refreshing to know that maybe I could date again . . . sometime . . . in the very distant future.

“Kira?” Beckett said, handing me the purple darts.

“Yeah?”

“You missed some frosting.” He swiped his thumb along the side of my mouth, and a quiet whimper escaped my throat. I watched as he sucked the frosting from his thumb, and my panties dampened.

Triple shit .

I spun away and faced the dartboard. I had to end this game.

Not only because I wanted the satisfaction of beating Beckett, but because if this game didn’t end soon, we’d probably end up making out in front of everyone.

Or more. I didn’t need to give Kat another reason to blacklist me from her bar. The fries were just too good.

“You got this, Kira,” Alyssa cheered from the side.

Thoren made some remark intended to throw me off, but I couldn’t make it out over the pounding in my ears.

I tossed my first dart and it hit the eight, just above the sixteen. Dammit.

Alyssa came up behind me, grabbing me by the shoulders. “I know it’s hard, but focus. It’ll be so much more satisfying if you beat him.”

I remembered the open-ended favor that would be my prize, and it made hitting the seventeen spot easy.

“Yay!” Alyssa squealed. “One more, baby!”

Beckett had one elbow leaned against the high-top, his feet crossed at the ankles. “You got it, Kira.”

“You’re not going to try to sabotage me?” I teased.

He just answered with his sexy half smile.

I sucked in a deep breath and focused. I played darts a lot growing up, taught by both my brothers. I got good. Really good. If I missed this shot, I would never hear the end of it.

And if I hit this shot, Beckett owed me a favor of my choosing.

The dart sailed through the air and landed right where I aimed it—at the eighteen spot.

“Girls rule, boys drool!” Alyssa shouted as she grabbed me up in a hug and stuck her tongue out at Thoren.

“Rematch?” Beckett suggested .

“Sorry, man. I gotta head out,” Thoren said to him.

“Me too,” Alyssa said, her face turning a slight shade of red. “Beckett, can you give Kira a ride back to the farm?”

I shot her a look that said what the hell?

Alyssa ignored me.

“I got her,” he said.

“Kira, try not to give Beckett too much grief about beating him? He didn’t know what he was up against.” Alyssa squeezed me in a hug. “I’ll see you at the party tomorrow. But if I don’t, I’ll call you soon.”

Just like that, I was alone with Beckett.

It didn’t matter that the place was packed, that the music was almost too loud for regular conversation. I was only aware of Beckett and the fact I’d be riding home in his truck. Returning to a quiet house where everyone else was asleep.

“I have to get the cupcakes,” I said to him as I cleaned up what remained of the dessert table.

I felt Beckett behind me and the breath froze in my lungs. All I had to do was take a single step back, and I’d feel his hard chest pressed against my back. Would he wrap his arms around me or slide them down my hips?

“I have a confession,” Beckett said.

“Oh?” My hands wobbled as I placed the leftover cupcakes back in their container.

“I already know your secret.”

“Doubtful.”

The lid clicked shut on the container, and I spun around with it in tow, using it as a barrier. Beckett’s gaze locked me in place .

“It took me a while, but I figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“ Huh , guess I missed some of that frosting,” he said, reaching his thumb up to the side of my mouth again.

I fought the urge to turn my head, to capture that thumb with my own lips. I wanted to see his reaction when I sucked his thumb between my lips. But before I could follow through with that reckless impulse, his confession stopped me dead.

“You’re Diana Davenport.”