The Summer I Destroyed You (The Summer #4)

by Elizabeth O'Roark

“The only thing I just heard,” I reply, turning to walk inside, pushing sweaty hair out of my face, “is that you think I’m hot.”

“I would never talk about how heavy anyone is or was,” he says, turning for the back door. “Especially not if she was my kid.”

He sends Snowflake in my direction and pulls up his shirt to dry his face with the underside. Classy. But he’s got the abs of a Greek god and there’s something intoxicatingly male about the gesture, so I’ll let it slide.

But who will take care of Snowball if I leave? And who will secretly ogle Liam? Those jobs aren’t going to take care of themselves.

I wonder if that made him laugh. I hate that I care.

As soon as we start to walk, he scoots me to the inside of the sidewalk,

“Why does the fact that you were an athlete make you suddenly seem hot to me?”

“You already think I’m hot.”

“I wouldn’t want you any other way.”

“What word would you use for a woman who’s awful and trying to destroy everything you care about, but who you also are more than a little obsessed with?”

“You didn’t think I’d want you there?” he asks, pulling me toward him with his hands on my waist. “Then you must not have noticed I can’t stand having you anywhere else.”