Page 12 of Just for the Plot

“I’m good. You know I can handle myself.” She bounces on her butt. “And this couch is going to be incredibly comfortable, so thanks for letting me sleep on it.”

“Oh, I was going to let you take my bed and I can take the couch. I just changed my sheets.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” She pats my cheek. “Cute of you for thinking that, though, and don’t even fight me on it. I don’t need you acting all chivalrous. I like a good couch.”

“Yeah, but I slept on a couch for almost my entire life.”Well, until Gabby gave up her bed for me every night so I had a solid sleep.She always sacrificed herself.

“And that’s exactly why you deserve the bed.” She winks and then gets off the couch, grabbing her phone from her bag. Rather than sitting next to me on the couch, she sits on the armrest and holds the phone up in selfie mode. “We need to send a pic to Gabby. I didn’t tell her I was moving, and this would be the perfect way.”

She loops her arm around me and rests her head against mine just as she says, “Smile.”

I smile and she snaps the picture, stealing my breath and sanity all at the same time.

She stares at it for a second and then glances at me. “Ooof, you’re sohandsome. Still don’t understand how you don’t have girls falling at your feet.”

She stands and texts Gabby while I try to calm the raging heat that’s pulsing through me.

That’s the first time she’s said that to me.

Handsome.

She’s complimented me on my height, my muscles, my build, but handsome…that was the first. She has no clue that she just gave me a fucking truckload of hope.

CHAPTER 3

BOWER

“You were supposed to movecloser to me, not Bennett,” Gabby whines on the phone.

“I know, but I can’t control where Adalade moves,” I answer as I throw some popcorn in my mouth.

Once Bennett left for the stadium, I moved my bags off to the side since I’ll only be here for a night, maybe two, and then went to the corner store where I picked up some snacks, because after scouring Bennett’s kitchen, I realized something important. He does not consume the kind of food I want to consume.

Seaweed wraps?

Blech, what is wrong with him?

I guess that’s what happens when you consume buttered noodles for your entire life—you branch out to things you never could have afforded.

But go for a wagyu steak, Bennett, not dried seaweed wraps.

Just something I’ll have to teach him now that I’m here.

I have his game on in the background, something I’ve started doing since reading a sports romance that revolved around a baseball team. Eight books in and I was hooked, needing more baseball in my life, so I started watching the Bombers games.

And if there is one thing I learned, it’s that Bennett is by far the best player on the team. Asher Peppers is downright nasty, never smiling, always approaching every situation with a scowl. And Nolan Hart is anabsolute menace, but he intrigues me. I know he’s friends with Bennett, so perhaps I’ll ask for an introduction, if I’m brave enough.

“I know.” Gabby sighs. “But I thought she really liked Almond Bay when you brought her here to visit.”

“She did,” I answer, “but she’s a city girl through and through. What can I say? She clearly tried the country thing and it didn’t work for her, despite me trying everything in my power to convince her otherwise, but the shops weren’t there, and she wanted variety. Be grateful it’s not New York City, like she was thinking about for a moment.”

“Oh my God, that would have been my nightmare.”

“Same. I don’t think I could have handled New York.”

“I love you, but I don’t think you could have either.”

“It’s nice here, though, and gives you more of a reason to come visit Bennett, since I have an apartment in the same building as him.”