Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 777(@200wpm)___ 622(@250wpm)___ 518(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 777(@200wpm)___ 622(@250wpm)___ 518(@300wpm)
Shit.
I tear my gaze away, pulse pounding, and try like hell to steady the shaking of all my muscles. I’d like to believe they’re suddenly wobbling on me because I’ve been carrying heavy things all day, but deep down, I know that’s not it.
He makes me nervous.
I hate that he makes me nervous, but I guess it would be crazy if he didn’t at this point.
My heart does another somersault when I hear him let go of the bar and drop to the ground.
Panic joins the fray of my muddled emotions and I spin around, trying to find somewhere to drop these boxes so I can get the hell out of here.
“Need help with that?”
I look back at him, my brown eyes wide with surprise. If he didn’t have me so far off my game, I wouldn’t squeak, “Okay,” but… well, here we are.
Okay? That’s not even the right response.
Yes, please.
No, thank you.
You’re offering to help? Are you feeling feverish?
All acceptable responses to his question, and yet I came up with okay.
Ugh.
I’m obviously flustered, so his smirk grows even bigger. He grabs a white towel and slings it around his neck on his way over to me.
I turn and shift my hold on the stack of boxes to make it easier for him to grab, surprised and relieved at the offer of help.
Maybe he will make an effort now that we’re here and this is actually happening.
Then he brushes right past me, and the heat in my face rises as my heart drops because of course he did.
Still holding the boxes and now fuming that I fell for such an obvious taunt, I feel my wits starting to reorganize themselves. The surge of emotion settles down and the fear goes with it so I can think straight.
Yeah, that was rude, but it’s Landon Atwater—am I really surprised?
I just need to put the boxes down and leave. There’s no reason for this to be a whole event.
Mom and Hayden can figure out where all this crap goes later. I find an empty corner to drop the boxes in, then I straighten, settling my hands on my hips and stretching my back.
God, moving sucks.
It would have sucked less if Mom would have let Hayden hire movers to handle everything like he offered to, but she said she doesn’t trust them and she’d rather we move our things in ourselves.
I don’t lift heavy things for fun, so this could not be less my thing.
Landon obviously does. If he weren’t such an asshole, he would be helping us move in and getting his workout in that way, but here he is instead, working out in his gym like he would any other day.
Jerk.
On second thought, before I turn and leave, I pry open the tallest box and take out my pink yoga mat. When Hayden told me there was an in-home gym, I figured it made sense to keep it down here.
Now that I know the likelihood of running into Landon goes up in the gym—I’ve seen his abs; I should have realized that before—I think I’ll just do my stretches in my bedroom.
I gasp when I turn and nearly crash into Landon. I fall back a step on instinct, and he takes two steps closer to give me even less space than I already had.
The claustrophobic feeling of being cornered prey fills my lungs and kicks my heart into overdrive.
I don’t think, I just shove my yoga mat at him as hard as I can.
The open water bottle falls out of his hands and hits the floor, spilling all over the place. He’s caught off-guard, so I’m able to shove him back just enough to clear space between us, then I toss the yoga mat at him before he has time to think about it.
He’s a jock, so his impulse is to catch things when thrown at him.
His brow flickers with confusion when he catches the yoga mat. He’s probably wondering why he did, but I know.
I’ll commend myself for my quick thinking later, but right now, I need to get the hell out of here.
I make a mad dash to the staircase, my heart pounding with fear that he’ll follow me.
His jock instincts might mean he catches thrown balls like a doofy dog, but his jock body means he’s a hell of a lot faster than I am. I could barely get to my room ahead of him the night he broke into my house, and I had a lot more space between us than I do now.
But maybe amid the confusion with the yoga mat, he doesn’t think to chase me quick enough, so he decides not to.
Maybe he just doesn’t bother because he knows with me living here now, he’ll have all the opportunities in the world if he wants to chase me.