Olivia threw her arms in the air.

“I’ve still got it!”

She turned to Max with a cocky grin and saw realization dawn over his face.

“You … you were conning me!” he said. “With that whole ‘oh, big, strong man, how do you hold a bowling ball’ act. Weren’t you?”

Her grin got bigger.

“I couldn’t help myself! Plus, I haven’t gone bowling in years, so I wasn’t sure if I’d still be good at it, but turns out I am.”

He stared at her without saying anything.

She sighed inwardly. She knew this was how he’d react. That’s why she’d done it.

She hadn’t initially meant to pretend to Max that she didn’t know much about bowling. It wasn’t like she’d been testing him—well, not exactly. But she knew all too well that men didn’t like it when you beat them at something. She learned that at a very young age when she beat Chris Riley in the spelling bee in third grade and he didn’t want to be her friend anymore. For a long time after that, she’d lost to boys on purpose, until one time when she lost a prize she really wanted to win, to a boy who didn’t even like her in the first place. Since then she’d played to win in everything she did, which, yes, had made her lose out on a few relationships, but at least she’d never lost her self-respect.

So when Max suggested bowling, she’d known she might beat him. And despite how great he was last week, despite how much he said he liked her and respected her, she knew that with men, like and respect only went so far. And so for the first time in a very long time, she’d thought about finding a way to back out of playing a game with a man so she wouldn’t have to face losing Max. But she knew she’d always wonder how Max would react if she beat him. So instead, she challenged herself to play to win, and to win big, to win with swagger, just so she’d know, once and for all, that Max Powell was just like all of the other guys.

“Are you mad about this?” she asked. “Because, oh man, if you can’t handle— ”

“I’m falling in love with you,” he cut in. “I was trying not to even admit it to myself, much less to you, but I can’t help it. I know it’s too soon, I shouldn’t have said this, but you can’t kick my ass at bowling like that and do a touchdown dance with that look on your face and expect me not to fall in love with you on the spot.”

Now it was her turn to stare at him, speechless.