potato sack. The light blue skinny jeans couldn’t have been more formfitting if they’d been painted on. The plus was how they showcased toned legs and a sinful ass while the oversized cream-colored sweatshirt hid the nice curves he knew she rocked on that petite frame.
Truth was, Kaden was usually drawn to leggy women, the ones who were closer to his six foot two inches. Bristol couldn’t have been but a few inches over five feet. Still there was something about her that did it for him.
“I’ll be sure to tell him you said that.” Kaden grinned. “He likes when women call him sweet.”
Speaking of sweet, Bristol was sweet enough to cause a toothache and sassy enough to square a man’s shoulders. Not to mention, she was as stubborn as she was beautiful. Oddly enough, he didn’t even have to wink to make Bristol blush. Despite the fact they’d spent countless hours in her presence, usually at one Walker function or another, he always detected a hint of nerves when she was around them.
“So, will you be attendin’ the fall festival?” she asked while they stood watching as a group of kids built a block fort around Keegan.
Fall festival? They’d just had the back to school festival, hadn’t they? He did a mental calculation, realized the fall festival was only a few days away. Next weekend, in fact.
“Is it just me or does Coyote Ridge have a festival for everything?”
Bristol smiled up at him, a flash of those pretty white teeth. “I think the mayor’s responsible for that.”
“It hasn’t always been that way?”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “Not like this, anyway. We’ve had one or two a year, but only for the past couple of years has it ramped up. It’s kinda nice.”
Nice wasn’t the word he would’ve used. Saying there was a festival for everything wasn’t an exaggeration. Just in the past year, he’d been suckered into attending a Valentine’s festival, Founder’s Day festival, Easter, Memorial Day, the Kick Off to Summer festival, July Fourth, Back to School, some kind of Ode to Pets festival, and now the town’s long-running annual fall festival.
How exactly did anyone get anything done around this place when they spent so much damn time decorating and organizing events?
“I think it’s her way of revitalizin’ the town,” Bristol continued. “Mayor Stewart is all about bringin’ the residents together.”
Kaden found himself mesmerized by Bristol’s glossy pink lips and the twinkle in her eyes. He wanted to kiss those lips again, to slide his tongue along the seam and dip inside, hear her reaction. It had been too damn long since he’d gotten a taste of her.
“Does that mean you’ll be attendin’?” he asked, breaking the hold she had over him and forcing his eyes to meet hers.
Bristol grinned. “Of course. Mayor Stewart roped me into it.”
“I find it amusin’ you refer to her as Mayor Stewart considerin’ Bianca’s your best friend.”
Bristol laughed. “One of them, yes. But I do it because it irritates her.”
That made him smile. He liked her sassiness. Kaden only wished she’d turn all that attitude on him sometime.
“Well?” she asked, still staring at him.
Kaden frowned. “Well, what?”
“Can I add you to the list of people attendin’?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
Kaden held her stare and offered his best smile. “What’s in it for me?”
Chapter Two
What’s in it for me?
That was a loaded question if Bristol had ever heard one.
More so because there were so many answers she wanted to give. Not a one of them appropriate. Not only because she was currently at work and there were a few dozen kids in the building. No. Her reasoning had everything to do with the fact that she had sworn off Kaden and Keegan Walker. No matter how much she wanted to play with fire, Bristol knew there was no way she walked away without a burn or two if she entertained the idea of mixing it up with them.
Even knowing that—plus running the mantra over in her head a couple dozen times a day—she couldn’t seem to help herself. The ridiculously attractive twins appealed to her on a base level, even if they scared the daylights out of her.
Not that she would admit that to anyone. Well, no one except for Bianca, the one person in the world who probably knew everything there was to know about her. She could blame margarita night as the reason she’d blurted out her deepest, darkest fantasy. Lord knows she hadn’t intended to do it, but now that it was out