Carl waggles his bushy, white eyebrows at Nettie. “You know what I’m good at.”

Nettie twists her lips. “Yeah, cooking, fool. Now get back to it. I’ve got a hungry bunch here tonight.”

Carl shakes his head and laughs as Nettie brings us out two waters and places them on the table. “You want the usual, honey?”

Xavier shakes his head. “Not today. I’m on a new protein diet to help build muscle. I’m trying to bulk up.”

“Lord, sugar. Your arms are already big as tanks. What’cha want to get any bigger fo’?”

That’s a very good question, Nettie.

He shrugs. “I’ve been thrown a bone to go after the championship belt and I have to be in top shape. I want the higher-ups in the biz to know how much I want it. How seriously I take my job.”

“If you take your job any more seriously, honey, you’ll put one of them boys in the hospital…for real.”

“You know all that’s fake, Nettie. We’re professional. Everything we do is choreographed and thought out ahead of time.”

“Mistakes happen, child. You should know that better than anyone else.” She gives him a pointed look, but he doesn’t say a word. It’s like he doesn’t have to. These two have such a history they can communicate a thousand meanings in just one look—a look that passes me by because I’m clueless as to what in the world she could be talking about.

“So that’s meat and egg whites for my boy. What about you, Anna, what’ll it be?” She turns her attention back to me.

I glance around and notice most of the other patrons are having breakfast, so I figure that’s a safe bet. “Um, I’ll take the pancakes and sausage.”

“Oh, I like this one—she’s got a healthy appetite.” Nettie nudges Xavier’s arm with her hip as she writes down our order on the notepad. “You can bring her around any time.”

Xavier rolls his eyes while Nettie cackles before turning to head toward Carl. “Sorry about that.”

I smile, liking the idea that Nettie is teasing him to lighten him up. “Not a big deal. I think it’s funny that she treats all the girls you bring in here like that.”

He rubs his scruffy chin with his fingers. “I’ve actually never brought a girl in here before.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Really? I find that hard to believe. You’re trying to tell me that this isn’t where you bring all the girls who turn you down for sex? Hoping that by bringing them here it will impress them and get them to change their minds?”

He bites his bottom lip. “Does this make you change your mind?”

The way he rakes his teeth slowly over his bottom lip draws my attention to that stupid, sexy mouth of his. I force back a sigh as I once again find myself thinking about kissing him. If he weren’t so attractive, continuing to pretend that I’m not interested would be a hell of a lot easier.

Finally, after focusing on his last question, I shake my head.

“While I find it ridiculously charming that this place humanizes you, it doesn’t change my answer. I still won’t sleep with you.”

His lips stay together, but one corner turns up into what appears to be a knowing grin. “That’s what I thought. So maybe we need to establish some friendship boundaries, so there’s no confusion about our relationship.”

I take a sip of water to quench my suddenly dry throat. “What kind of boundaries?”

“You know, some basic rules so we don’t give each other any mixed signals about moving past the ‘friend zone.’ I’m a big fan of specifying exactly where one stands.”

I rest my chin in the palm of my hand. “I suppose you already have some of these rules in mind?”

Xavier smirks and holds up a finger. “Rule number one: no getting naked in my bed.”

I laugh. The thought that I’d ever be brave enough to strip down and hop into his bed on my own is comical. There’s no way I’ll ever muster up the courage to do that. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that one.”

I hold up two fingers, ready to add some boundaries of my own. “Rule number two: no kissing.”

He shakes his head. “That rule sucks. Friends kiss. That’s not one I’ll abide by.”

“Not open-mouthed they don’t,” I argue.

He sighs and holds up two fingers. “Amended rule number two: no open-mouthed kissing.”

The thought of his lips on me in any form gets my blood pumping, but as long as I know there will be no tongue involved, I think I’ll be able to control myself. “I can live with that.”

“Third and last rule,” he says while holding up three fingers. “If either one of us starts developing feelings for the other person, we have to tell them. We don’t want any pent-up sexual frustration building between us.”

I lick my lips and bat away the idea that the ship containing all of my lust for him has already sailed, but he doesn’t need to know that. It’s not like I’ll ever act on them. “They sound like three solid rules to me.”

“Agreed,” he replies as Nettie returns with our meals.

“What are we agreeing to over here?” Nettie asks.

Xavier pulls his fork out of his rolled up napkin. “We were just establishing the rules of our friendship, Nettie.”

“Friends, huh? Okay, if you say so.” The doubt in her voice is clear. “I’ve never known you to have a girl as a friend, Xavier Cold.”

He shrugs as he cuts into his eggs. “What can I say? Beautiful here, is different.”

Nettie smiles at me and winks. “Different is good, honey.”

She doesn’t give me a chance to reply, or ask what she meant by that exactly, before she walks away and tends to the other people in the restaurant.

Anna

Xavier clears his plate and orders seconds before I even make it through a quarter of my food. When I give him a quizzical expression, he simply shrugs and informs me that muscle burns a lot of energy and constantly needs to be refueled.

I take a sip of my water as I eye his broad shoulders and wonder how much time he spends perfecting his body. “So is that all you do?”

He leans back and stretches his arm along the back of the booth, making himself comfortable. “Eat?”

“That, and work out? Do you ever have time for much else?”

He shakes his head. “Typically, no, but right now I’m on vacation.”

I twist my lips. “You vacation in Detroit? Shouldn’t a vacation be somewhere tropical or something?”

He lifts an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with Detroit? I was born and raised here.”

I quickly try to backpedal, not meaning to offend him. “Nothing. I like it here so far.”

A smile pulls across his plump lips. “I’d like to think that’s your way of saying you like me, considering you just got here today.”

I fight back a smile. He’s right. Xavier has made the first day of my new life more exciting and invigorating than any other day I can remember. “I do like you.”

He leans into me, licking his lips. “Still not enough to change your ‘friends only’ rule though, right?”

“Right,” I quickly agree. “But it is nice to have someone to talk to.”

He nods. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Xavier’s next round of food comes to the table, and Nettie smiles at me. “So, Miss Anna, are you a wrestling fan?”

I shake my head. “No, not really.”

“You’ve never seen my boy here perform? He’s really somethin’.” She pats his shoulder.

“To be honest, Nettie, I didn’t even know who he was until my cousin told me today. Then she pulled videos and photos up of him on the internet.”

Xavier chuckles, drawing my attention to him. “You really had no clue who I was, did you?”

I shrug. “Hate to disappoint you, but not everyone’s a wrestling fan.”

“Maybe you’d like it if you gave it a chance.” Xavier glances up at Nettie after checking his watch. “Tension will be on in a few minutes. Let’s turn it on and make my girl a fan.”

“You got it, sugar.” Nettie makes her way over to the counter and grabs the remote for the television hanging on the wall, changing it to a different channel.