Romancing the Grump (Appies, #4)

by Jenny Proctor

Nathan picks up the chair and moves it closer. Then he pulls a bag of Peanut M&Ms out of his back pocket, holding them up. “I thought since you said you weren’t above bribery…” Oh. my. gosh. Nathan brought me M&Ms. Is he trying to kill me here? Making himself irresistible while simultaneously telling me he’s completely off-limits? “That’s what you had to do downstairs?” I say, reaching for the bag. “You had to buy M&Ms for me?” “Let’s call it a thank you,” he says as he lowers himself into the chair. “Don’t thank me yet. I’m not even sure I can help.” I grab a couple of shrink-wrapped plastic cups from the bathroom counter, then return to my spot and open the M&Ms. Without even thinking, I immediately start sorting them into the cups by color. “Seems like you’ve done this before,” Nathan says, nodding toward the cups. “Only about a million times,” I say. “My twin is a weirdo who doesn’t like to eat blue food, so we’ve been dividing M&Ms since we were kids. I get yellow, orange, and blue, she gets red, brown, and green.” “Why blue?” “A traumatic incident when we were six involving a stomach virus and a blue raspberry iCEE.” “Sounds…painful?” Nathan says. “And gross.” I hold out one of the cups. “Do you have any problems with red, brown, or green?” He takes it and immediately pops a green M&M into his mouth. “Not even a little bit.” I don’t know why it makes me so happy that he’s willing to eat an M&M. Maybe because he’s a professional athlete who only ate salad while his te...