“That’s cute,” he said. “I should get one just like it and we can be matching twinkies.”
My lips twitched. “I can order you one and have it shipped here over one-day air. We really can match.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re fucking nuts.”
I may be.
But that was neither here nor there.
“I’m also hungry, so I’m sorry but I’ve gotta go,” I told him, walking toward my door.
“You want to go get something to eat?” he asked.
I looked back at him over my shoulder and snorted.
“You’re asking me on a date?” I laughed. “Whatever.”
He scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I turned around and leaned my shoulder blades against the bedroom door, staring down my nose at him. “It means that you’re Ace Valentine, and I’m Codie Spears. You’re Kilgore royalty and I’m the trash on the other side of the pasture. Thank you, but no thank you. I’d rather not go out to eat with you and have everyone staring at me wondering what I’m doing with you.”
His expression darkened. “Sorry, but what?”
“You heard me loud and clear.”
With that, I walked away, shutting my bedroom door quietly behind me.
What I hadn’t expected to do with my words was throw down a gauntlet to the one man who was determined to always get what he wanted.
And by me turning him down, I’d just cemented my place in his to-conquer list.Chapter 5You shouldn’t piss off short girls. They’re closer to your dick.
-Word to the wise
Codie
“No,” I said again, final this time.
My best friend, Desidara, glared at me.
“You’re doing it, whether you want to do it or not,” Desidara informed me. “Let’s go.”
“No,” I repeated.
Desi stopped and turned to me.
“Listen.” Her voice was pleading. “I need someone. I need you. You’re my best friend, and you’re back for good. I need you or I would’ve never asked you. If you don’t do this with me, I’ll never get to the gym.”
Desi looked down at her stomach.
Desi wasn’t ‘fat’ per se, but she also wasn’t skinny. She was plump with a lot of round curves, and an even rounder ass.
I was all for helping Desi. What I wasn’t for was dying in a Spartan Race that was put on every year in Dallas.
“Desi.” I looked at my best friend. “I’m not going to lie. I’m five feet tall and have trouble lifting a sixty-pound bag of dog food. I can’t even lift a fucking bale of hay off the ground more than an inch. What makes you think I can participate in some race like that? I’d die, and you’d have to drag my corpse through the obstacle course for me to be considered finished.”
Then she said the one thing that would ensure that I’d do it.
“The Valentine brothers are doing it.”
I closed my eyes.
“What do I need to do?” I stiffened my spine, looking at her with resolve and determination.
Desi grinned.
“You train with me.”
I tilted my head slightly to the side.
“When is this race?” I asked.
“In a couple of months,” she answered.
“And why do you want to do it again?” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Because I want my ex-husband to look at me like he lost something good,” she answered. “I want to fucking wow him with my awesome bod, and then I want to kick him in the balls.”
I snorted at her words.
“Where are we working out?” I asked.
“The gym in town,” she answered. “The one that everyone who’s participating in the race is working out at.”
I closed my eyes as I tried to come up with a good enough excuse not to do what she was asking of me.
However, I couldn’t come up with one.
After Desi’s divorce, I’d have done anything for her if it just got her out of her funk. Her ex-husband had really done a number on her, and if it was within my power to help, I’d do it.
No matter what.
“You do realize what you’re asking of me, correct?” I asked, sounding resigned.
Her smile went bright. “Yes.”
“And you do realize that the next time I need help with my granddad, you’re up, right?” I continued.
She rolled her eyes. “I sat with him for two weeks, an hour each day, because you asked me to. Do you honestly think that I wouldn’t have done that anyway?”
I rolled my eyes.
“You haven’t seen how he’s been acting lately,” I muttered. “Can we go out for lunch after we work out?”
Her lips twitched. “I’m not sure you’re going to want to go, but sure. Why not?”
***
“I can’t do this anymore.” I looked across the gym that everyone in the town used to work out in and grimaced.
“You can and you will,” she said, her eyes going back to the man who was doing bench presses across the room from us.
My eyes went there, too, and I grimaced.
“He’s such a showoff,” I muttered.