The Enemy (It Happened in Charleston, #2)

by Sarah Adams

Tonight, I will crush Ryan Henderson under my black stilettoed feet.

And just like that, I was eighteen again, faced with the woman who drives me insane—but mostly from how much I want her. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes narrowed, and I could see she had no intention of burying the hatchet. Nope, she threw down the gauntlet. This old flame between us is still kindling, and I want to kiss her now more than ever.

She looks more like the girl I secretly crushed on in high school, and it’s making my stomach twist.

All I know is that June says she hates me. But I don’t hate her. In fact, I think I’m just as crazy about her as I was back then.

I hate that I have body image issues that I can’t seem to get over.

“Has it never occurred to you that the only reason I picked on you in high school is because I was crazy about you? Or that messing with you was the only way I could get you to look at me?”

He smiles, and his eyes fall and settle on my mouth. “June, I’m not your enemy.” Those dark eyes hold my mouth for five heartbeats before they pop back up to meet my gaze. “I never was.”

“Do you miss him?” I ask, but I’m not sure I actually want to hear the answer. “No. I miss who I was before him, though.”

“Because he wasn’t even attracted to me anymore. Said I’d gotten too comfortable around him.”

“I could bash on that woman with you right now if that’s what you want. I could also list a hundred different ways I think you and your body are perfect. I could tell you that I check you out from head to toe every time you walk away from me, and that, last night, I had a dream about you that would definitely make you blush.” She chuckles against me. “But I think what you need is to hear that your ex was a self-serving ass. You’re beautiful, June. His words had nothing to do with you and everything to do with his teeny-tiny—”

“June, I’m not interested in becoming the next guy in your long string of one and only dates. I like you—I have for a long time—and I’m done hiding it. I want to give us a chance, but one date is not gonna do it for me. So, are you ready to give up your rule?”

Fact: People stuck in their college days are more annoying than ingrown hairs.

I want Ryan in my life.

So, this is what happy feels like?

I need Ryan, and that scares me.

“Son, just ‘cause you’re good at something doesn’t mean it’s what you were made to do.”

Some of us need to live through the healing rather than talk through it.”