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

shorts she’d made from an old pair of sweatpants. She even took out her contacts, washed her face and put on her glasses.
    She returned to the living room and held out her hand.
    Jake moved his head around to catch a play.
    “Money.”
    He looked up. “For...”
    “Pizza. No freeloading.”
    Jake reached for his wallet, pulling the pocket inside out and leaving it that way. Yeah, Jake wasn’t anything near Jamison French...other than being good-looking as the devil himself. He handed her a couple bills. “That’s too much,” she said, shoving a ten back at him.
    “Keep it.”
    “No, this isn’t a date. We go halfsies.”
    “I’m drinking your beer. Keep it.”
    Eva shrugged and tucked the money into her wallet, plopping onto the wing-backed chair far away from Jake. He watched the game until a commercial came on, and then he turned to her. He wrinkled his nose. “Why’d you change?”
    “Because it’s just you.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “It means I don’t have to stay gussied up.”
    “But you did for Jamison?”
    He sounded almost jealous. Weird. “Of course. It was a date. Don’t you take a shower, brush your teeth and douse yourself in cologne when you go on a date?”
    “I don’t douse myself.”
    Eva laughed. “Well, I guess it’s better than smelling like gym socks.”
    Jake faked outrage. “I hope you know my gym socks smell like a summer’s day.”
    “Exactly. Ripe.”
    A short while later the doorbell rang and Eva answered, taking the piping-hot pizzas and inhaling the deliciousness. Seconds later she grabbed paper plates and set the boxes on the coffee table, lifting the lids. Jake dug in, pulling out several pieces, dangling the stringy cheese into his mouth before taking the first bite.
    “Ah, now that’s some good pizza,” he said, chewing and making an orgasmic face. Or at least that’s how she envisioned his orgasmic face. Yeah. She’d fantasized, in the small darkness of her room, snug beneath her down comforter, her mind going where she normally wouldn’t let it in the brightness of the day. “Come sit by me, Eva.”
    He’d patted the couch next to him, offering her a nonwolfish smile.
    “Why?” she asked, pulling out a slice of the classic pepperoni with extra cheese pizza that was her favorite.
    “Because it’s stupid for you to sit in that uncomfortable chair over there. Your couch is squishy and comfy, and I won’t bite you...even after the event that shall not be named.”
    Eva realized she was being silly. This was Jake. And even though he said he’d forgotten the kiss they’d shared...and even if he’d already brought it up as a
shall not be named
happening, she couldn’t see the TV all that well from the scratchy chair she’d inherited from her grandmother.
    She got up and slumped down on the cushion next to him, chewing her pizza thoughtfully as the Notre Dame quarterback ran the ball into the end zone for a touchdown. “I don’t want to refer to that thing yesterday as anything. You said you’d forget it.”
    For a few seconds Jake chewed. Finally, he said, “What if I don’t want to forget it?”
    Eva’s belly flopped and it had nothing to do with the pizza. “Why wouldn’t you?”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t expect it, but it was interesting.”
    She sat her half-eaten pizza on the plate, rubbing her fingers against the paper towel she’d placed in her lap. “Interesting? No, it was insane. I don’t know why...ugh, you know, this is why I didn’t want to discuss it. Why I wanted to forget about it. Makes everything so weird between us.”
    Jake tossed his empty plate on top of the pizza box. “Yes, it does, but still, I have questions that need answering.”
    Eva sat up. “It was a dumb kiss. I don’t know why I did it. Just drop it.” Of course she knew why she’d kissed him. She’d dreamed about it for three years, yearning for his body against her, almost desperate to take one little taste of Jake.
    But he