Come Again by Lauren Blakely

Author:Lauren Blakely [Blakely, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lauren Blakely Books

26

Most Worthy Adversaries

I came prepared to convince Bellamy to give Carpe Diem another shot.

Turns out, I also want this chance for me.

I didn’t expect to like Bellamy this much. But I do, and I also admire the hell out of her—her mind, her attitude, her approach.

“I’m not asking you for another podcast report,” I say, explaining my idea. “I don’t want a redo. I want to prove something to you. I don’t want you to just cover my parties. I want you to see that they really can work.”

She leans in, her elbows on the table, her gaze intense. “But I do want to talk about them on my show. Don’t you see? I can talk freely about them now.”

“About how elitist they are?” I goad her.

“Well, they are. But we’ve already dealt with that. What I want is to tell the listeners who are curious about them what they really entail.”

Color me intrigued. “Go on.”

“But I also want to be fair. So, I should come to your parties.”

I point at her, accusing. “If memory serves, you slipped in right under my nose, and I couldn’t stop you.”

“You didn’t want to stop me, Easton.”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” I tease.

“Do you really think I’m the enemy?” she asks, no snark, no cat-and-mouse game.

That’s a good question. We ripped up the enemies’ playbook at some point. Do we have a new one, though? I might like her a lot, but there’s still an underlying tension between us that isn’t going away. She believes online dating can help to find the one prince among a million frogs. I want people to avoid as many frogs as possible.

“We are what we’ve always been at the core,” I tell her. “We’re on opposite sides of the story. Lawyers in a courtroom, both making our case.”

“Opponents. Competitors. But not Darth and Luke, or Lex and Superman,” she adds.

“Some might even call us most worthy adversaries.”

She laughs lightly, and it’s so good to hear her laugh today, knowing she fought a gutsy battle this week. “So, let’s be that now. Let’s be opponents, and we’ll fight fairly.”

I park my chin in my hand like I’m waiting ever so patiently for her. “Why does it sound like you have a proposal for me?”

“Because I do,” she says with a grin.

I wiggle my fingers. “Tell me more.”

“If memory serves, this whole thing between us started with a bet. Your friends bet you couldn’t get me to kiss you.”

“I have a vague recollection of that.”

“So, how about another bet? Between you and me this time.”

Oh, I like this. “I’m listening.”

“I’ll try things your way. You try it mine,” she says.

I lift one brow. “Go on.”

“I test out your parties. Give them a shot, talk about that on my show.”

Wait.

“You want to come to my parties as a guest?”

“If you’ll have me.”

The innuendo, so help me God. “You know I love having you, sweetheart,” I say in a low voice.

She dips her face, licking the corner of her lips.

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