Page 60 of P.S. I Dare You

Our eyes catch and my heart stutters without permission.

Redirecting my thoughts is the easy part. Keeping my body from reacting to a sight like this is the part that’ll give me a run for my money.

“Oh. My,” Tierney says in a deep Joan Crawford-esque manner, lifting her palm to her chest as she drinks him in. Subtle is a language she’s never been able to master.

I mouth the word “sorry” to my neighbor and link my arm into hers in an attempt to drag her away.

“Excuse me,” she says to Jude as she jerks her arm from my grasp. “You two are neighbors?”

He looks at me then to her before his full lips pull into a smirk. He’s amused.

“We are,” he says.

“Have you met yet?” she asks, her finger pointed as it moves between the two of us.

“We have,” he says. “Last night.”

Turning to me, Tierney’s liquid blue eyes widen and she fights a smile. I’m sure the second we’re out of here, she’s going to go off on me for not mentioning him, but there’s nothing to mention.

I have a hot neighbor. So what?

“You know she’s single, right?” Tierney says.

“Oh, my god.” I turn away for a second. “Tierney. Stop.” Glancing back, I say to Jude, “I’m so sorry. She’s pregnant and crazy hormonal and she has no filter.”

“Are you trying to imply in front of this ridiculously beautiful specimen of a man that I’m a hot mess?” Tierney asks, one auburn eyebrow perched.

“Yep,” I say.

“Don’t sweat it,” Jude says, pulling his phone and earbuds from his shorts pockets. He speaks to her but looks to me. He’s still a stranger, but there’s something going on behind those olive-green eyes of his that seem to intensify the longer he stares at me. “Love, see you around.”

Turning away, Jude heads toward the elevator, but I stay back. It’d be awkward if we all piled in now.

“I can’t believe you said that,” I say once he’s gone, lightly punching her arm before clapping my hand over my mouth. “What are we? Fifteen?”

Tierney laughs. “Lighten up. Your neighbor is hot as hell and you’re single as hell. I was just putting that energy out there. If it’s meant to be, something will come of it.”

“I don’t want anything to come of anything,” I remind her. I’ve told her this a hundred times this year alone. I don’t want to date. I’m focusing on myself for a while and then I’ll see what happens. “What if he asks me out now?”

Not that I think he would …

And for all I know, he’s got a wife or fiancée or girlfriend or something.

But still—if he did ask me out and I said no, it’s going to make bumping into him around The Jasper real fun.

“Fine,” she says, throwing her hands up as we make our way to the elevator. “I’ll leave the divine interventions to fate from now on.”

I chuff through my nose.

Good. Because I don’t believe in fate.

END OF SAMPLE.