Curvy Valentine Match

It was time to up my game and use all the weapons in my arsenal.

Mara

The only way to start any day was with a steaming hot mug of black coffee. Most people expected me to be a fan of all the creamy, fancy coffee drinks we served at Bread Box, and they were fine really. If you didn’t actually like the taste of coffee. I liked my coffee black with a hint of sugar, and if I was in a bad mood or had a restless night’s sleep, black and strong was how I preferred it.

There was still no trace of Lonnie anywhere I’d looked, and too much of my free time these days was dedicated to searching for the lost teenager, which was why my morning coffee came in a bigger than normal mug, hot as hell and so black it was almost bitter. I needed the caffeine to power through a run, and I needed the jitters to give me some motivation to keep searching for Lonnie. Where are you, girl?

Wherever she was, I had no doubt she was with Kyle. As smitten as he was with her, she was just as enamored with the good looking popular kid with everything going for him. Together, they were trouble waiting to happen. Except Lonnie believed she was too smart to get into trouble, and Kyle didn’t even know the meaning of the word.

A knock on the front door interrupted my thoughts, and my feet began to move automatically as hope sprang that I would see a familiar pair of green eyes staring at me when I opened the door. Nope, not green. Blue. The dark sapphire blue with streaks of silver that I knew well. Too well. Xander.

“I’m busy,” I told him grumpily and closed the door in his face.

I tried, but Xander, it seemed, was done pretending to be a nice guy, and shot his arm out to catch the door before it closed. “Wait.”

I grabbed the door, leaving no more than a couple inches of space for me to peek through. “What?”

His blue gaze tracked over my mostly bare legs up to my hot pink shorts and the faded grey tank top I had on. “Nice socks,” he said as his gaze lingered on my heart covered athletic socks. “You still run?”

I resisted the urge to shiver at the heat in those dark blue eyes as they traveled up and down my body, and nodded. “Not as often as I would like, but it’s still the cheapest way to stay in shape, so yeah. I run. Why?” It was a stupid question, I realized, when I took in the black basketball shorts he had on and the white t-shirt that clung to his chest and biceps.

“Can I join you?” He flashed a charming boyish smile that reminded me so much of the one he’d used to get me to sneak out to meet him, to get me to sneak him inside Helen’s house. That smile had gotten me to do plenty of things a smart girl would have avoided like the plague.

I did my best to look like it didn’t matter to me what he did. “I can’t stop you.”

“You could if you wanted to, but we both know that you may hate me, but you also still want me.”

I snorted and shook my head. “I want a lot of things that are terrible for me, Xander. Doesn’t mean I do any of them.” This time I did shut the door in his face because I needed to put my running shoes on, which gave me just enough time to get my act together before spending time in his presence. The cocky bastard was right. As much as I hated him, there was a part of me that would always be a lovestruck teenager where Xander was concerned. He made me smile, hell the man could make me giggle, and I wasn’t a woman who giggled, and I wanted to be around him. Just as much as I wanted to avoid him.

When I opened the door, Xander was bent over on my postage stamp lawn, stretching his muscles. Bent over, touching his toes, giving me a long appreciative look at his ass. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” The amusement in his voice, for some reason, made me angry and I glared.

“Don’t read anything into it, Sheriff. You know you’re eye candy.”

His laughter boomed as he stepped in close while I stretched to warm up my muscles. “I know some people think so, but I’m glad to hear that you’re one of them.”

I rolled my eyes and started to jog. “Up to the high school, through the woods and around the park?” It was the route I took on the days I had the time and the energy to run a few miles. It was the perfect stress reliever, not to mention a great way to combat all the extra calories from tasting breads and batters all day.