Free Romancing the Running Back by Jeanette Murray Page A

almost a whisper. “I think I’ve got it now.”
    He nodded, then wondered why she wasn’t trying a slice of her own.
    “Uh, Josiah?”
    “Hmm?” She smelled amazing. How was it, with all the delicious smells competing in the small space, her scent was still the best one? Every time her head moved a fraction of an inch, it was like releasing a burst of new scents that enticed him to lean in a little closer. Nuzzle into that bright sun streak of hair.
    “I can’t try if you’re still holding my hand.”
    “What? Oh.” He let go of her hand and retracted his arm from around her. “Sorry. Just don’t try to kill yourself again, okay?”
    “Sure,” she said quietly, and he watched her for a moment to see if she was upset. But if she was, she didn’t show it. Just kept carving away at the cucumber, albeit slower and with more hesitant strokes than he had been, until it was ready to be sliced into thin layers.
    “Keep yourself in one piece. Cassie will kick my ass if I let you chop off any appendages,” he joked after a few minutes of silent working. What the hell was that? Silence had never bothered him before. Suddenly he was rushing to make lame jokes?
    “Wouldn’t it be Trey kicking your ass?” she asked, sharing a small smile with him. For some reason, that smile made him share back one of his own.
    “Nah. Trey’s nothing. Cassie? Now she’s the one you’ve gotta watch out for. My mama always used to say it’s the women who can wield a frying pan with deadly accuracy.”
    That made her laugh, and Josiah was determined to enjoy the rest of his lunch with Anya.
    *   *   *
    “I’m not sure I agree with the concept of working for my food,” Anya said, spooning up some soup, “but the result is pretty nice.”
    Josiah shot her a smug look as he made quick work of his own bowl. “And everything was locally grown. Nothing traveled more than thirty miles to land on our plate. Pretty cool, right?”
    That explained why they weren’t eating meat or seafood. Vegetarian all the way, but she didn’t mind. “Are you a vegetarian?”
    He paused with his fork, holding a healthy bite of salad, halfway to his mouth. “Hell, no. Why? Because this meal happens to be vegetarian?”
    Anya shrugged. “Seemed like a logical question.”
    He chewed, took a swallow of lemon water, then pointed out, “You saw me eat meat at Trey and Cassie’s cookout.”
    She had, hadn’t she? Then again, she’d been so preoccupied with hating him for his
I can wash a vegetable better
routine she hadn’t taken much notice of what went into his mouth. “Uh, sure.”
    “Or maybe you were too busy flirting with Matt.”
    That made her blink and miss stabbing the clump of hard-boiled egg in her salad. “What? Oh, come on. I wasn’t flirting. Matt was being nice.” Which was more than she could have said for Josiah that day.
    “Matt will chase anything that looks halfway decent in a skirt.” He said it seriously, but without any heat. “I love the guy. He’s a great teammate. But he’s not someone I would aim for, if you’re looking for romance out here.”
    “Well, good thing I’m not looking for romance at all,” she snapped, letting her fork fall to the plate. She wiped her mouth and settled back in her seat, too annoyed to eat another bite of the surprisingly good salad with fresh-made vinaigrette dressing. And by
fresh-made
, she meant she’d freshly made it herself, ten minutes ago.
    With her track record at picking long-term lovers, she wasn’t even remotely interested in finding a new man to stay in her life permanently. And it irritated her that Josiah would automatically assume that was her goal. As if all women walked around waiting for a prince to fall out of a tree and beg to marry them.
    Josiah merely shrugged, as if it didn’t matter one bit to him what she did with her life.
    “Why do you hate me?”
    The question was out before she could think twice. She wanted to wince at the abruptness, the