Page 22 of Bad Boy Crush
“What about Lou?” May plucked a truffle fry out of the basket.
“What about me?”
“Do you want a gorgeous male specimen? Anthony Renaldo is stacked.”
“Like Sunday morning pancakes,” Lisa agreed wistfully.
Lou laughed, though she couldn’t argue. “Ant and I are finding our way back to friendship.”
Lisa folded her arms on the table. “Well, that’s no answer at all.”
“He’s competing this weekend at the Paul Bunyan games,” Elliott offered.
“Is he!” May clapped her hands. “What changed his mind?”
Three sets of eyes were on Lou, and she realized she had a choice to make. She could deflect, or she could tell the truth. Her friends might be able to shed some light on the confusion that had been cluttering her mind for the last few days.
“I interviewed the state champion,” she started, choosing option B without an internal debate. “He’s a cocky twentysomething who was in the middle of working up his courage to ask me out.”
“Ohh, younger man. Cute?” May asked.
“He’s…cute.” But not hot. “While we were talking, Ant interrupted and decided to join the competition after all.”
“Because he was insanely jealous,” Elli concluded. Lou shook her head but May butted in with an alarming statement.
“Ant has been crazy about you for years. We can all see it.”
“Definite tension whenever you two are around each other.” Elli lifted a crunchy breaded coconut shrimp by the tail. “I know you wanted me to believe that you hated him for not telling you about Liam’s affair, but I think you were more sad than angry. Ant’s a good guy and he really cares about you. I mean, he removed a ginormous fallen tree from your yard free of charge.”
“I offered him money. He wouldn’t take it. Need I remind you that it was your boyfriend who called him to remove that tree, not me?” Lou realized she was being defensive and held up her hands to stop herself. “Let me tell you what happened the next day, and then you can tell me if you think he’s ‘crazy’”—she air-quoted the word—“about me.”
May and Lisa leaned forward, and Elli’s eyes widened with interest. Lou let a beat pass so they could quench their literal thirsts before she spilled the metaphorical tea.
“He dropped me off at home after the interview, and I helped him fill out the online form to register for the festival.”
“He drove you to this interview?” Lisa raised one eyebrow.
“At Pate Mansion. The tree was blocking my garage,” Lou explained. “He promised to buy me lunch the next day when he came over to finish the job.”
“Finish the job,” May trilled. Lisa and Elliott chuckled.
“Anyway,” Lou pressed on, “I argued, insisting to buy his lunch since he wasn’t charging me for the tree removal. He refused, for some reason.” She held up a finger to stay Elli’s pending interruption. “The entire time we filled out the form, he was sending me these heated looks, and he was nervous—his foot bobbing up and down. At one point he touched my leg and squeezed. We were talking about Liam and how we both lost him. I don’t know. Maybe I read into it, but I was feeling vibes. You know?”
Her friends nodded, rapt.
“Then he kissed me on the forehead, and I know that doesn’t sound sexy—”
“The hell it doesn’t,” Elliott sneaked in.
“—and then by Sunday it was a whole new Anthony Renaldo.”
“What happened Sunday?” Lisa asked.
“Nothing! No tense moments. No lingering glances. No forehead kisses. No touching at all. He finished sawing up the tree, piled the brush and limbs into his truck, and then he and Brady hauled the trunk over to Brady and Elliott’s house.”
“It makes a nice seat for the firepit,” Elli said.
“No ‘vibes’ during lunch?” Lisa quirked her lips.