Her Plus One: Stand-alone Friends to Lovers, Military, Boy Next Door, Home for the Holidays (Pine Haven Holiday Romance Book 1)

by Jenn Sable

  Scott smiled and crossed his arms, and his button-down pulled tight over his biceps and across his chest. “Your face was priceless.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and propped my elbows onto the table. “I’m glad that you find this so amusing. You do know that we’re from a small town, correct?”

  Scott rounded his eyes playfully. “Take it back. Pine Haven is a thriving, wooded metropolis of nine thousand people in total.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Who all know one another! If anyone from Pine Haven is here, then your charade will be the talk of the town. I’d like for people to talk about my new design studio in Pine Haven over a rumor that I’m pregnant with your illegitimate child.”

  Scott glanced over his shoulder, then back at me, and leaned forward. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “We’re in Greenvale, snow pea, a whole twenty minutes away.”

  I bit the inside of my bottom lip. I refused to acknowledge the flurry of butterflies that tickled my stomach each time he referred to me as snow pea. “What’s with all of the nicknames? Testy, snow pea, and whatever the other one was that you called me.”

  “Wildcat.” His eyes glowed, and his boyish smile irked me. He acted as though he was enjoying our conversation.

  I cleared my throat. “Whatever, you can call me Tess like everyone else. I don’t like your nicknames.”

  Scotts eyes dropped to my mouth. “Why?”

  I blinked and shook my head. “Why what?”

  “Why don’t you like my nicknames? I’m just teasing you.” Scott slowly studied my features, and his eyes turned into shiny, liquid pools.

  I swallowed, and a hint of a smile graced his lips.

  “Is it because they make you blush?”

  I sputtered out a laugh and hated how heat returned to my cheeks. “You’re impossible.”

  His lips twitched. “Nothing’s impossible with the right amount of effort, snow pea.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Right. Anyway, I’d rather not have the rumor mill buzzing. I’d rather our names not be in the same sentence.”

  Scott shook his head slowly but never broke our eye contact. “I don’t get it, Tess. You’re nice to just about everyone except me. Can’t we let bygones be bygones? I just saved the day. The least you could do is thank me.”

  At the mention of letting bygones be bygones, I stood and attempted to outrun the fresh wave of frustration that threatened to overwhelm me. “I didn’t think jerks were capable of being heroes, but I guess you proved me wrong. Do me a favor, Scott, and don’t try to play my hero again.” I gripped my purse and ignored the pinch of guilt over the sparkle that dimmed in Scott’s eyes and marched toward the exit.

  Scott had done it to me again. Every damn time I saw the man, he silenced my brain and twisted my tongue. He was one of the most arrogant, macho, egotistical, and aggravatingly handsome men in the world, which drove me crazy. And it wasn’t a good crazy, either.

  “Tess?”

  I turned, and my chest collapsed with relief when I saw Sophie walking through the restaurant on the arm of her grandfather and property magnate, Borris Dunn. “Oh, thank God, it’s you.”

  Sophie smiled. “Did you get my last message? Did Scott show up and help?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Oh, yes, he showed up and helped, if that’s what you want to call it.”

  Sophie quirked a brow. “I told him to say that you had a water leak at the studio.”

  “Yeah, well, he went rogue and came up with a new plan.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, no. What’d he say?”

  I glanced at her grandfather, who eyed me closely from under his bushy brows. I tucked a few strands of my dark-blonde hair behind my ear. “Oh, you know, something ridiculous.”

  Borris sighed. “Spit it out, Tess. What’d that boy say now?”

  I shrugged and hated the fresh blush that bloomed on my cheeks. “In typical Scott fashion, he thought it would be hilarious to tell my date that I was carrying his unborn child.”

  Sophie and Borris turned and locked eyes briefly, then looked back at me with renewed interest. Desperate to be out of the restaurant and out from under their curious gaze, I shrugged helplessly, promised to call Sophie later, and fled.

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