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Kyle Bryant was content with his life, until he hooked up with his brother’s ex-girlfriend, Madison Alverez. The next morning, they’re stuck on a plane together, and then they’re sharing a bathroom while they prepare to stand up in her sister and his brother’s wedding. The situation is already awkward as hell…and he just made it worse by pretending to propose.
EXCERPT:
Kyle sure was acting odd. Kind of goofy and awkward, like a kid in high school who’d invited a girl over for the first time.
To be fair, Madison supposed, he had just confessed that he’d not gone on a date in more than two years. That was a long time to go without female companionship. And knowing Kyle, by “date,” he meant anything at all to do with the opposite sex.
Whoa, had Kyle seriously not had sex in more than two years?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked as he returned to the bedroom and handed her a fresh beer and the list of items he needed to pack. Striding over to the dresser, he pulled a stack of shorts out of a drawer and placed them in the open suitcase. Then he grabbed a pile of boxer shorts—he wore the loose-fitting kind, lots of bright colors and what looked like cartoon characters—and added them to the shorts. His cheeks got really, really red, and he wouldn’t look her in the eye while he did it, which was kind of cute.
“Have you seriously not had sex in two years?”
He dropped the pile of T-shirts he’d been about to walk over to the suitcase.
“Sorry,” she said, falling to her hands and knees to help gather the garments and place them on the bed.
“Why are you asking?” He sounded nonchalant, in that way that people who were trying extra hard to sound nonchalant did.
She refolded the T-shirts and added them the suitcase. “You said you haven’t gone on a date in two years. You don’t strike me as someone who’s into one-night stands.”
“I don’t mind one-night stands.”
“Really? Have you ever had one?”
He waited a beat. “No.”
She smiled. “Me neither.”
“Is it just me, or is this a weird conversation?”
“It’s pretty weird.”
He grabbed a couple pair of swim trunks and tossed them to her to add to the case. One by one, he passed her bundles of rolled socks, which he said were for playing golf. Apparently, he intended to play a lot of golf while they were in Florida.
Then he went to the closet and filled the rest of the case with nicer clothes: golf shirts and slacks and button-down shirts, including the one the groomsmen had been instructed to wear for the wedding.
“Toiletry stuff and a couple pairs of shoes, and I think I’m good to go,” he announced. “Plus, the chili is probably warm, so come on.” He bolted out of the bedroom while Madison followed at a much more sedate pace. As hungry as she was, her mind was on other things. Dating, sex, attractive friends…
They sat on the couch with their bowls of steaming chili and bottles of beer, and when Kyle reached for the remote, Madison stopped him. “Let’s talk about this dating issue.”
He groaned. “For a minute there, I thought we were going to pretend that conversation never happened.”
She chuckled. “No such luck. Tell me why you haven’t dated in so long.”
He buried his nose in his bowl. “Working too much, I guess.”
“I totally get that,” she admitted.
They finished dinner, and he took their bowls to the kitchen. She wandered into the room and propped her hip against the counter, watching as he cleaned out the fridge, dumping his leftovers in the trash.
“I have an idea,” she said when he returned from taking the bag out to the dumpster.
He washed his hands, then leaned against the counter and crossed his arms, facing her. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“We should have a one-night stand.”