Certainly not twenty-six-year-old Tess.

Friends. I tested the thought, rolled it around in my brain. And I smiled to myself, stepping out of the shop and into the summer heat.

I could be friends with Luke Bennet, so long as he never wanted to kiss me again.

8

Rhymes with Yes

LUKE

I wanted to kiss Tess Monroe.

I’d wanted to kiss her the second she walked into the shop yesterday, wearing overalls and a Cure T-shirt. I’d wanted to kiss her as I watched her scrub the wall with her little face wrinkled up in concentration. I’d wanted to kiss her when she fell off the ladder and into my arms. And all day today while we painted the shop, I only thought about one thing.

I wanted to kiss her. And I was accustomed to getting what I wanted.

“Did you hear me?” Kash asked impatiently.

“Hmm?”

He rolled his eyes, his long body stretched out on the bottom bunk in our old room. “Man, what’s with you?”

“I’ve been scrubbing and painting the shop for two days. I’m tired.”

“Right,” he said. “And the redhead in the overall shorts has nothing to do with it.”

I leaned back in the wooden desk chair I’d taken up residence in, the hinge squeaking. “As if Tess Monroe would willingly give me the time of day.”

He shrugged. “Seems to me like she’s given you the time every hour, on the hour, for two days. What’s with her? She was different today.”

It was true. This morning, she’d walked into the shop, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to work with a smile on her face. She’d only insulted me seven times, and one of those was a backhanded compliment. My stats were down: the day before, it’d been twenty-three insults and a jab with a broom handle that I couldn’t be sure was accidental.

Not that I was counting.

“I dunno what’s gotten into her, but I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I’m just taking the boon and moving on.”

“Man, she looked so cute with that bandana in her hair and paint on her nose. And her ass in those overalls…” He whistled up at my old bunk.

I fought the urge to chuck my Batman paperweight at him.

“So are you going after her or what?” Kash asked, smirking.

“I just got her to quit treating me like a dog. Pretty sure anything more is off the table.”

“Maybe I’ll go after her then. Think I’ve got a shot?”

I snorted to cover my immediate fury at the thought. “She’s a girl with standards, Kash. If I don’t have a shot, you’ve got none in hell.”

“Maybe she just needs somebody older. More mature.”

“We were born in the same year, asshole.”

“I’m just saying. Maybe she’s looking for stability. Everybody knows you’re about as stable as uranium.”

“And you’re running your mouth like you want a foot in Uranus.”

Kash laughed. “I’d love to see you try.”