The Bookworm's Guide to Faking (The Bookworm's Guide #2) - Emma Hart Page 0,66

consider your offer?”

“How heavy are the boxes?” He glanced around at the myriad of boxes that were in a mess and driving me nuts.

“Well, they’re books, so I expect USPS to take each box and send it for less than ten dollars.”

“Smartass. I can’t lift anything too heavy, remember?” He shrugged his bad shoulder. “I could hurt my shoulder and put my recovery back.”

Shit. Of course.

I sighed. “What’s the use of having a hot baseball player in my debt if I can’t even get him to move heavy shit around?”

“I’m hot, huh? Why? Did you want to perv on me?”

Looking over, I saw the glint in his eye. Yet again, he was baiting me. I’d slipped up in my last sentence, and he was trying to get me to do it again.

Oh, screw this.

WWTHD?

What Would The Heroine Do? It was a question I had to ask myself. I happened to be reading a fake relationship romance, and I knew exactly what she would do.

She’d play him at his own game.

I wasn’t going to win by being awkward and a pain in the ass, and I really wanted to win.

I didn’t know what I was winning or what the prize was, so this was a slightly dangerous game, but I wanted to win.

“Yes,” I said, tilting my head to the side. “I did.”

My change in attitude threw Seb for a moment, but he recovered quickly. “I can make that happen.”

I waited.

He pulled off his sweater and sat there in his tight white t-shirt.

“What am I supposed to perv on?” I asked. “If you’re not moving anything, you’re just a hot guy in a t-shirt watching a girl do all the heavy lifting.”

“I didn’t want to have to do this to you, but you leave me no choice.” He gripped the back of his t-shirt and pulled it over his head in one swift motion.

Just like guys did in books.

Swooooooon.

“Is that better?”

“If I said no, will you keep going?” I raised my eyebrows and pointedly glanced down at his crotch.

He looked as if he were about to say something, but stopped himself, then smirked. “Either you’ve suddenly gotten sick or me holding that baby has addled your brain.”

“Addled my brain? Settle down over there, Mr. Darcy, no need for fancy words.” I took the cheap laptop we used for stock taking and set it on the desk. “Can you work a laptop, good sir, or should I call for your horse?”

He strolled across the room, deliberately slowly, and adjusted the belt of his jeans. My eyes dropped to his hands and, by definition, his lower stomach where those stupid ass ‘v’ lines were taunting me.

“I think I can figure out a laptop, ma’am.”

“It was fun ‘til you called me ma’am.”

He clicked his tongue. “Yeah, kinda sucked all the joy out of it, didn’t it?”

“Little bit.” I logged into the laptop and brought up the software. “It’s pretty simple. I have three boxes left from this week’s delivery that my delightful business partners never got around to doing—”

“Probably because they knew you would.”

“—So I’m going to call out the number, you type it in the search bar just here.” I tapped the screen. “And then I’ll count, and you just log how many copies there are right here.” Another tap. “Think you can manage that?”

“Can I take it to the sofa?”

I glanced at the sofa Saylor had just moved out here. Mostly so she could read while she was pretending to organize stock. “Sure. As long as you don’t mess up my stock intake.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility.”

“So don’t mess it up,” I repeated.

“This was a terrible decision,” Sebastian muttered, moving to the sofa.

“I know.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN – HOLLEY

rule nineteen: fake it. even when you feel something real, fake it.

“That’s the most tedious thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“It’s really not that bad,” I said, locking the store behind us. “And it only took that long because you messed up.”

Seb huffed. “I did not mess up.”

“You said we had ten thousand copies of A Night to Remember. We had three. I don’t even know how you did that.” I tucked the keys to the store in my purse and zipped up my coat. It was snowing again and it was way darker than I was happy with.

Ivy and Kai had picked Tegan up almost two hours ago. Seb and I had been stuck in the back after he’d somehow managed to create an entirely new formula in the software that had it doubling