from me,” he said following her into the foyer. “But, Brynn, I’ve gotta tell you…”
“What?” she snapped, yanking open the door and turning to face him. “What do you need to tell me? That my ass looks big? That you can see my roots?”
“No,” he said thoughtfully. “Although both are true.”
“Nice,” she muttered.
“But what I wanted to say, was that this is the second time you’ve arrived on my front porch. Once you offered sex. The second time you offered cookies.”
“And?”
“Well, I just wanted you to know…” His eyes went hot as they ran down the front of her body and she shivered at the memory of what they’d been like together.
“Yeah?” she asked, hating that her voice was husky.
Will leaned forward until his mouth was near her ear. “I think I like the cookies better.”
With that, he grabbed the platter from her hand and slammed the door in her face.
Brynn stood there for several moments caught somewhere between anger and arousal.
And maybe something that felt like pain, which was ridiculous. She and Will had been trading barbs since puberty.
But this one had felt…personal.
And she was pretty damn sure that where Will Thatcher was concerned, personal was tantamount to dangerous.
C HAPTER FIVE
Friendships between men and women should be avoided. They rarely end well.
—Brynn Dalton’s Rules for an
Exemplary Life, #48
B rynny, guess what?”
Brynn glanced up to where her sister danced happily in the doorway, grateful for a relief from her honors biology homework.
“What’s up?”
Sophie bounced into her room, flouncing onto Brynn’s carefully made bed with gusto.
“Why are you still in your cheerleading outfit?” Brynn asked, glancing at the clock. “I thought the freshman practice was over a couple hours ago.”
Sophie gave a mischievous grin. “It was.”
Brynn’s eyes narrowed, looking her younger sister up and down for signs of trouble. “Did Mel bring you home?”
“Nope.” Sophie twirled her hair and grinned.
“This guessing game is superfun, but just tell me whatever’s got you so bouncy.”
Actually, Sophie was always bouncy. And normally Brynn didn’t mind in the least. She kind of liked having a sister who was queen of the freshman class. Brynn did her best to be friendly and outgoing, but it had never come naturally. Not like it did to her sister.
“I got asked to prom.”
Brynn’s eyes bugged. out. “Prom? But you’re a freshman!”
“Yup. The only one going, that I know of.” Sophie’s voice wasn’t quite gloating. But it was close.
“With whom? Sophie, Mom and Dad are going to totally flip. Not in the good way.”
“Don’t worry, he’s totally the clean-cut kind of guy they want to see their baby girl with.”
Brynn wrinkled her nose, trying to think of options. It would have to be a junior or senior. Freshmen and sophomores weren’t allowed to prom unless asked by upperclassmen.
“Daniel Saunders?” Brynn asked.
“Nope.”
“Nick McFain?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Brian what’s-his-name with the freckles?”
“Hasn’t he had a girlfriend since like second grade?”
Brynn shrugged. “Who, then?”
Sophie flopped onto Brynn’s pillow and gave a little squeal. “Will Thatcher.”
Something sharp seized at Brynn’s chest.
She just didn’t know if it was panic…or pain.
* * *
“How many copies of The Shining does one person need?”
Will glanced over to where Sophie was pulling his DVD collection out of a box. “There are multiple releases with different special features. And you’re not putting them in the right order.”
Sophie paused in lining them up messily on the shelf. “There’s an order? For the exact same movie?”
“If you want to help me unpack, they go in order by release date,” he said, returning to his own unpacking duties.
“Nobody wants to help somebody else unpack,” Sophie muttered as she began turning the DVD cases over and checking dates. “It’s just