Bitter Rival: an enemies to lovers romance

by J. Sterling

  “Dinner,” he said.

  I knew he wasn’t going to give me any chance to change my mind. And to be honest, I liked that he was being so bossy, and I wondered briefly what that said about me.

  “Right. Dinner. Okay,” I agreed.

  “I really don’t want to go out of town. Do you?”

  I knew what he was truly getting at. Was I okay with being seen by people who would do nothing but gossip about the two of us being together?

  The idea of having to drive over an hour away in order to be surrounded by strangers seemed so ridiculous, especially when most people knew who we were anyway, simply from a business standpoint.

  “I like supporting our local businesses.”

  He cocked a grin before saying, “Me, too. I’ll pick you up at six thirty, okay?”

  I couldn’t speak, so I nodded, and as he walked away from me, I did nothing but watch him go.

  Why did my archnemesis have to be so damn good-looking? And why was I so attracted to the one man I wasn’t allowed to be with? Life wasn’t fair.

  As I made my way back toward my house on the property, I started thinking about my parents again. If I thought my dad was going to go crazy about James and the fire, it was going to be tenfold once he learned about the dinner date I’d agreed to go on because of it. It was pointless to pretend that James and I could keep anything to ourselves. When we’d agreed to go to dinner locally, we’d both known exactly what that meant—that the entire town would know about the date by morning. I figured that I would lie to my dad and convince him that I was just talking to James about the fire and working out logistics about potential smoke damage and how we could prepare against fire in the future. I only hoped he would buy it when the time came.

  * * *

  Three knocks against my wood door alerted me to the fact that James Russo was standing on the other side of it. Should I invite him in or answer the door with my purse in hand, ready to leave? This was new territory for me—not the dating part, but a date with the one person I wasn’t even supposed to like. I had no idea how to act, and I suddenly wondered if I was overdressed as I glanced down at my heels and little black dress.

  Slowly opening the door, I smiled when I saw James standing there with a bouquet of wildflowers in his hands. Everything else faded away when I looked into his blue eyes.

  “Hi.” He grinned, and I knew I was a goner.

  How had I ever pretended to not be attracted to him?

  I was sure he could see right through my facade.

  “Hi.” I smiled back and opened the door wider, inviting him in without thinking.

  He was wearing dark slacks and a black button-up shirt that perfectly matched my outfit. We looked like we had coordinated our clothes even though we hadn’t.

  “These are for you.”

  He held out the flowers, and I took them. Our fingertips brushed, and I couldn’t ignore the spark that ignited. James gave me a look, and I knew that he had just felt what I had and was searching for my confirmation, but I couldn’t give it to him even if I wanted to.

  There was a tremendous push-and-pull battle that warred inside me. One second, I was willing to risk it all, and the next, I was too scared to breathe wrong, afraid he’d see everything I was trying to hide.

  I walked into my small kitchenette and searched in vain for a vase. I pulled out a glass pitcher and put the flowers in there, deciding that it suited them better. “They’re so pretty. Unconventional.”

  “Just like you.”

  I laughed at his cheesy line because how could I not? “I’m unconventional, huh?”

  “You’re definitely not like any other woman,” he countered.

  I decided that if James thought of me that way, I definitely didn’t want to change his mind.

  “That’d better be some kind of compliment, Russo,” I teased, playfully narrowing my eyes at him.

  He took a handful of steps toward me and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me against him. “It’s absolutely a compliment.”

  The way he looked at me screamed danger, and I shoved at him before moving a safe distance away. I had no idea how to navigate any of this with him. My dad’s threats rang in my ears as my internal war continued to rage.

  “Are you ready?” I cleared my throat as I asked.

  He laughed deep and throaty, clearly enjoying how uncomfortable his presence made me. “Yeah, Julia, I’m ready.” He waved an arm for me to go ahead of him. Such a gentleman.

  We drove in silence toward our tiny downtown, neither of us knowing what to do. The sexual tension between us almost took on a life of its own. It felt thick and tangible, like something I could reach for and pull out of the air. My hand wanted to rest on his thigh. My fingers itched to rub the back of his neck, play with his hair, and feel the scruff of his beard. My body betrayed me with every mile, but my mind stayed firm.

  When we parked, I made sure to open my door before James had a chance to. I couldn’t have him reaching for my hand and interlocking his fingers with mine even though my body wanted him to and hated me for not giving in. With James, even the simplest of gestures were dissected, overanalyzed, and stopped.

  He held the front door open for me, and the hostess did a double take when she noticed it was the two of us coming in together. Her expression looked completely shell-shocked, and I couldn’t blame her.

  “Uh, hi, you two.”

  “Hi, Samantha,” James and I both said in unison.

  “You’re here together?” she asked, her tone wary and untrusting.

  James laughed as he said, “Yes. Hell has officially frozen over.”

  She leaned toward me and whispered in my ear, “Are you here willingly? He didn’t kidnap you, did he?”

  “I can hear you,” James said, and Samantha genuinely looked embarrassed. “Look at her, Samantha.” He waved a hand up and down the length of my body more than once. “Does this look like a woman who isn’t here willingly?”

  “Hey”—my voice rose, calling more unwanted attention in our direction—“what is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means, you look gorgeous.” James quickly covered. “And I don’t think you’d dress up for a kidnapping.”

  My face heated with his compliment, and I knew I was blushing.

  “Sorry. It’s just that this is all very unexpected,” Samantha apologized.

  “Trust us; we know,” I offered with a small smile.

  “Okay, well, I’ll show you to your table,” she said before grabbing two menus and leading us through the restaurant where literally everyone stopped what they were doing to watch us.

  A few people pulled out their phones, and I knew that they were either firing off text messages or taking pictures to send around. I suddenly wished I could hide.

  What had I gotten myself into? Had I lost my mind after the fire?

  “Don’t you dare,” James said as he pulled out my seat for me and waited for me to sit.

  “Don’t I dare what?” I asked as I sat slowly, as if I might change my mind at any time.

  “Think about leaving.”

  I gave him an incredulous look. “I’m not.”

  He grinned as he sat down across from me, his stupid blue eyes sparkling in the light. “You are. I don’t blame you. But don’t give in to them. Please. Just be here with me.” He sounded so sweet and sincere; I wondered how any woman ever ignored his pleas. “You promised me one date.”

  “I know I did,” I said, trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’d agreed to it in the first place.

  Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea. If my parents had been in town, I definitely would have said no. Them being halfway around the world had given me the confidence and freedom to say yes to James even though I knew there would still be repercussions.

  “Well, well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise?” Ginny Stevens sauntered up to our table and placed a glass of water in front of each of us. She pushed her glasses up her nose and tucked her short gray cu
rls behind her ear.

  Ginny owned this restaurant with her husband, and I’d known them both for as long as I could remember. If I was right, her husband, Hank, was probably cooking tonight’s meals in the back.

  “Is it?” James asked her with a sweet smile.

  She reached for his cheek and pinched. “Of course it is. We’ve all been betting on this for years.” She winked before tapping the pad with her pen.

  “Betting on what?” I hoped I sounded as confused as I currently felt.

  She turned her attention toward me. “Betting on the two of you. We might be a small town, but we’re not blind or stupid. We all knew that your parents’ plan to keep you two apart would eventually backfire.” She pulled out the seat between us and sat down. “To be honest, we didn’t think it would take this long. We’ve had to start the bet over three times already. It’s about time you finally showed up”—she glanced between the two of us—“together.”

  “I’m sorry we took so long, Ginny,” James offered with a smile while I sat there with what had to be a horrified look on my face. “What was your first guess?” James asked, not at all bothered.

  “I was sure you two would sneak around in high school. I had you not making it to junior year without at least one slipup. I almost won, too.”

  A lightbulb went off in my head. “Even you heard the rumor?”

  “I knew it wasn’t true. Don’t ask me how, but a woman knows, and I knew.”

  “It wasn’t true.” I glared at James from across the table, wishing I had known that someone else believed me back then. I’d felt so alone at the time with no one to talk to or turn to.

  “So, how long has this been going on?” James tried to change the subject, but I wanted Ginny to make him squirm a little more. He deserved it for all he’d put me through back then.

  Unfortunately for me, she didn’t. “For a while now.”

  “How long is a while?” I asked, starting to feel naive for not realizing that this had been happening behind our backs.

  She laid a wrinkled hand on top of my arm. “Honey, you wouldn’t have known,” she started, as if reading my mind. “We obviously kept it from you both. We didn’t want the bet tampered with in any way. But we started talking about it as a joke at first when you kids were in elementary school. You know, the whole wouldn’t it be funny if they ended up together type of thing,” she said with a wink before giggling. “At some point while you were in middle school, we started the first bet.”

  I found myself suddenly invested, wanting to know more. “Why did you have to restart it so many times?”

  She swatted both of us in the arms as she rose to her feet. “Because you two kept taking too long! That’s why. We had to start breaking it into intervals.”

  A loud laugh escaped. I couldn’t help it. “Well, I hope the bet includes someone giving me a place to live for when my parents find out.”

  Ginny jutted out her hip. “You send your father to me if that happens. I’ll remind him where he came from.” She pointed her pen at me before reaching into her apron and pulling out a notepad. “Now, do you two know what you want to eat?”

  We hadn’t even opened the menus, but James spoke up anyway, “What are your specials tonight?”

  “They’re good,” Ginny announced, sounding slightly annoyed that James would even have the nerve to ask.

  “Then, we’ll take those,” he said, and she nodded, walking away.

  “Any idea what we’re going to be eating?” I asked with a soft laugh.

  “Nope,” he answered.

  I lost myself in his smile before letting my eyes fall to his perfectly trimmed facial hair. That damn beard really might kill me.

  “What are you looking at?” he asked, a cocky lilt in his voice.

  “Your face.”

  “Oh. Well, keep admiring then.”

  I rolled my eyes as I reached for my water and took a sip, hoping to quench my desire. “I’m done.”

  “My turn then,” he said before locking on to my eyes and licking his lips.

  My body quivered before begging me to crawl across the table and right into his lap.

  Stupid, stupid body, my mind scolded.

  Being here with him like this was almost too much for me to rationalize. My body was determined to win this war.

  “We’re definitely getting caught,” I said a little more nervously than I had intended.

  The weight of my decision to be here with him suddenly started to bear down on me. I was out in public, with James, and was currently biting down on my bottom lip to stop myself from fantasizing about him.

  “Of course we’re gonna get caught. It’s a small town, Julia. Everybody finds out everything.”

  I sucked in a quick breath, wondering which part of this he didn’t seem to understand. How could he say those words like they were no big deal; like there weren’t consequences?

  “We’re not supposed to be together, and I’m definitely not supposed to be anywhere with you.”

  How had I ever agreed to this?

  My parents were going to find out, and my dad would probably fire me the second he stepped foot on California soil, if he didn’t send someone to kill James first.

  “Why are you so worried?” He reached his hands across the table for mine, but I moved them on top of my lap instead. He looked defeated as he leaned back and tilted his head, his blue eyes boring into mine. “Honestly, Julia, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Our parents get pissed at us and what, tell us we can’t be together? We’re not kids anymore.”

  I practically choked on the air around me at his simplicity. “Well, for starters, my dad will not only fire me, but he’ll kick me out of my house and disown me as well.”

  “He wouldn’t,” James said in disbelief until he saw how serious I was. “Your dad would really do all that?”

  “Wouldn’t yours?” I asked as my eyes started to mist over.

  “I don’t think so,” he said incredulously.

  “Well, my dad’s serious when it comes to this.”

  “When it comes to what exactly? Keeping us apart?” He looked downright shocked, and I wondered if we were existing in the same universe at all anymore.

  “Are you really this surprised?”

  He reached for his glass of water and downed the entire thing before wiping his lips with his thumb. “Honestly, I am.”

  An annoyed huff escaped from my lips as I pinched the bridge of my nose between two fingers. “Isn’t it the same over at your house? Can’t imagine your dad approving of you hooking up with the La Bella girl.”

  “Yeah,” he started as he reached for his napkin and unfolded it, “you’re definitely a taboo subject, but my dad has never once threatened to take the winery away from me. I think my mom would throw a fit if he tried. That’s pretty messed up, you know.”

  “It’s kept me away from you for this long.” The truth slipped from my lips before I could take it back.

  I watched as his expression fell before he drew in a long breath, and his eyes lit up, as if the realization from our past years hit him all at once.

  “That’s why you’ve always stayed away from me.” He moved to the seat next to mine and reached for my hand under the table. As our fingers interlocked, I squeezed them tighter instead of pulling away. “Because you were scared of losing everything, not because you weren’t interested.”

  “I never said I was interested,” I said with a grin. But I was desperate to change the subject, to steer him away from the topic of him and me because absolutely nothing for me had changed, and I didn’t know how to handle it. My father would still take everything away from me without a second thought, so my feelings for James didn’t matter; they couldn’t. “So, did you hear about how the fire had started?”

  He stared at me like he knew exactly what I was doing and why. He squeezed my hand once before releasing it and moving back to the seat across from mine. “A transformer blew, and it sparked some dry brush.”


  “Yeah. You caught it just in time. How did you do that, by the way?”

  “I was in the barn and smelled the smoke.”

  “You were in the barn? Doing what?”

  I’d watched James go in and out of the barn a lot when we were younger, but I never knew what exactly he did in there. He shifted in his seat and looked like he was having an internal battle, although I had no idea why.

  “Tell me, James. What do you do in that barn all the time?”

  He rattled the ice around in his otherwise empty water glass. “Are you sure you want to know?” He cocked an eyebrow at me.

  I planted my elbows on the table and rested my chin on top of my hands in anticipation. “Tell me everything.”

  He hesitated before a weird look I couldn’t place passed over him. “I box,” he offered nonchalantly with a slight shrug.

  Leaning back, I repeated, “You box? Like you have a whole setup in there or what?”

  Hearing him say that for whatever reason didn’t really surprise me, but now, all I could do was imagine James punching things, all shirtless and sweaty, muscles bulging.

  “Oh, yeah, sure.” He picked up his glass again and downed what little was left of the ice as if this topic made him uncomfortable. “I was beating the shit out of my poor punching bag when I smelled the smoke.”

  “How were you not exhausted after the competition?”

  “I was too mad to be tired.”

  “Mad at what?” I knew what he had been mad about, remembered how angry he had gotten when Todd asked me out, but I was baiting him for the answer. I wanted to hear him say it out loud. I needed to hear him say that he was jealous, that he had feelings, even if I couldn’t return them. It was selfish and immature, but I still pushed.

  “You went out to dinner with that asshole. I couldn’t stop seeing the way he looked at you.” He started to sound agitated, the thought getting him all worked up again, and I hated how much I loved it. “God, I was so angry with you.” His eyes crinkled around the edges, almost like he was in physical pain from just thinking about it. “I was so mad, Julia. And so fucking hurt.”

  My world instantly stopped spinning, the air growing heavy with his admission. This was one of those life-defining moments; I was sure of it. The kind where I was presented with two options—to either carry on per usual, lying to myself and James about my feelings for him, or cross the line that no one in our family had ever dared to cross.