Page 90 of Double Booked

“You kept playing sexy words.”

“No. Really?” He didn’t bother hiding his grin.

“I wondered if it was just a coincidence or you were trying to seduce me.”

He laughed. “Seduction by Scrabble. It has a nice ring to it.” Ring. Somehow, the word stuck out in his mind, but he pushed it away. It was way too soon to be thinking about rings.

“You can go first,” he said, once they’d arranged their tiles.

“Okay.” She played the word match.

“Not bad.” He wrote down her total on the notepad. Then he rearranged his tiles into various words. He went with the one he’d thought of first. Using the m in her word, he played marry.

She looked at him funny and then quickly averted her eyes. He was silent as she studied her tiles. She flicked out her tongue and licked her lips, one of her nervous tells. Finally, she played the word bride. “It’s just a coincidence,” she said.

“Um-hmm.” Based on her letters, there were a lot of other words she could have made, but he didn’t point that out. He was enjoying the way the game was going and didn’t want it to end. After studying the board for a while, he played the word hitch, using the h in her word match.

She looked at the board and knitted her eyebrows.

“Hitch, as in hitch a ride,” he explained.

“I get it.” Then she played party using the y in his word marry.

Party described all kinds of events, but he wondered if she’d been thinking of a wedding party. What is wrong with me? Don’t be ridiculous!

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

How long had he been staring at the board? “Yeah. Just strategizing.”

She smiled sweetly and waited for him to play.

Finally, he had a chance to play the word that he’d first thought of. Should he though? Was he being way too obvious or, worse, cheesy? Good thing Ty wasn’t here, or he’d have called Cole out a long time ago.

“Do you need to exchange some tiles?” she asked, breaking into his musing.

“And give up my turn? No way.” With that, he set down the word, using the r in party.

When he laid down the last tile, she sighed. Lifting his gaze from the board, he met her eyes. He’d gotten pretty good at reading her these last several weeks, but this look was unreadable. He waited, his heart rate accelerating with every second that passed.

She licked her lips and studied him intently. “This can’t be a coincidence. Look at all the words we played.”

He didn’t have to look; besides, he didn’t want to break eye contact. “You’re right. It’s not a coincidence.”

She swallowed hard.

“Someday I want all these things… with you.”

“Cole.”

“I’m not trying to scare you. Someday is a broad term.”

“You’re not scaring me.”

He hadn’t realized how tight his chest was until he expelled a big breath. “I’m not?”

She slowly shook her head.

He placed his hand over his rapidly beating heart. “Thank you.”