Read Online Sweet Southern Nights (Home In Magnolia Bend Book 3) by Liz Talley - Free Book Online Page A

to give her a noogie. Who did that? Especially when she’d been so successful in holding back her feelings for him for the past three years. But, like a valve bursting on a pipe, she’d gone and spewed forth the desire she had for him. It was another problem piled onto a plate that felt suspiciously full at present.
    “So we gonna talk about what happened yesterday?” he asked.
    “No. We’re not.”
    He studied her for a few minutes as she pretended to be impassive. Finally, he reached out and picked up the TV remote control. “So you want to watch Ohio State and Notre Dame?”
    “Do what?”
    “Play football.” His voice was incredulous.
    “Not really, but sure.”
    Jake put the game on. A couple of announcers were discussing the OSU quarterback’s injury and how with one turn of an ankle, his college career was over.
    Yeah, tell her about it. One innocent little misread and things could turn upside down fast.
    About mid-beer, Jake looked over at her. “So you wanna talk about why you had to talk to my mom?”
    “No.”
    “Eva, this is ridiculous.”
    “It’s not ridiculous. It’s none of your business.”
    He actually looked miffed. Turning his attention back to the TV, he finished his beer and sat the empty bottle on the coffee table littered with health magazines and one copy of
Parenting
, which she’d snagged at the grocery store yesterday.
    Charlie coming to live with her scared Eva silly. She knew nothing about living with a boy. Her half brother, Chris, had already been eight years old when she emerged on the scene, and since he lived with his mom, her father’s first wife, in Belle Chase, Eva rarely saw him. And by the time she could actually interact with Chris during his visits on random weekends, he was too busy for a snot-nosed girl. Not that Eva dealt with sinus issues or anything.
    As a teen, she’d rarely babysat. And when her father had married his third wife, Claren, Eva had been in her twenties. The odd time they’d brought Charlie over to visit, she’d been at a loss for how to change a diaper or even how to entertain him. The only time her career put her into contact with kids was when she conducted a field trip tour of the fire station.
    Mother material she was not.
    She tucked her feet under her, careful not to touch any part of Jake’s naked leg. Unlike Jamison’s very put-together style, Jake wore athletic shorts, a T-shirt he’d cut the sleeves off, and his thick hair looked as if he’d raked his hands through it a million times that day. A five o’clock shadow finished off the gruff, sexy image. Polished wasn’t Jake’s vibe. Rumpled sex god was more like it.
    “I guess I should go,” he said. Jake looked uncomfortable, something he never seemed to be. And it was her fault. She’d screwed up, and now she was acting as if things were different. If she wanted to erase the kiss and its repercussions, she had to go back to being herself.
    “You don’t have to. The game’s nearly over, and I think Georgia plays South Carolina next. I could order pizza from Gumbeaux’s.”
    See? Everything was normal. Just like always. They’d watch TV, share a pizza and never, ever talk about the kiss.
    Ever.
    “Sounds good but I don’t like this vibe between us. You’re acting weird after the ki—”
    “Uh-uh. Don’t say it. Please. It never happened.”
    But it did. She knew it. He knew it. But maybe—
    “Fine. It didn’t happen. Erased.”
    She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. So pizza?”
    “Yeah. Get extra olives on my half,” he said, toeing off his sneakers and propping his socked feet on her coffee table. As if he was her brother. As if he’d already forgotten.
    Gotta love the single-mindedness of a dude.
    Perfect.
    “I know what you like.” Eva uncurled and padded toward the kitchen to grab her phone and the number for Gumbeaux’s. After ordering Jake’s extra hamburger, extra olives pizza, she slipped off to her room to change into a T-shirt and some