Up to the Challenge (An Anchor Island Novel) Read Online Free PDF

he’d damn well get one. On her terms. By the time he’d lowered two chairs from the next table over, she had a plan.
    Keeping her voice casual, she said, “Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?”
    Four legs hit hardwood. “What did you have in mind?”
    “Tips.”
    The corner of his mouth turned up in a grin that made her toes curl. “I could show you some moves, but I never mix money and sex.”
    “How about you stop thinking with your dick for a minute.” That wiped the grin off his face. “Fifty dollars says I can earn more tips than you can. You up to the challenge?”
    He leaned on the chair and rubbed his chin. “Fifty dollars and all I have to do is make more tips than you? That’s too easy.”
    “A hundred.” She could take him and earn an extra hundred for the garage fund.
    “What kind of a man would take a hundred dollars from a lady?”
    “You see any ladies around here, twinkletoes?”
    He nodded. “Good point. Okay, I’m in. Joe and Beth will be here by six. We cut off tips at five thirty and start counting.” He headed toward the kitchen. “Then you can pay up.”
    “Where are you going?” she asked.
    “To grab one of the big pickle jars. I’m going to need it to store all my tips.”
    As he disappeared into the kitchen, Sid dropped another chair and mumbled, “Not if I shove that jar up your nose.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    L ucas prided himself on being in shape. He ran three to five miles every day. Took the stairs at work. Ate his vegetables and took his vitamins. But he’d never been as tired as he was by three o’clock that afternoon.
    No wonder his dad had a heart attack. Running this bar for a day had Lucas ready to cry uncle. By the end of the week, he’d be in traction.
    Sid hadn’t even broken a sweat and she’d been covering a third of the floor. Much more ground than the small space behind the bar. Lucas didn’t know what it was about the woman that made him say the stupid shit he had that morning. Some men might make a habit of inviting women to check out their package, but Lucas wasn’t one of them.
    Still, he couldn’t say he regretted it. Not after seeing her reaction. Sid just begged to be teased, and heaven help him, Lucas enjoyed sparring with her. Maybe the next six weeks wouldn’t be as awful as he’d first thought.
    He figured she chose the station along the windows, which stayed full throughout the day thanks to a view of the water, to increase her earning potential. But traffic wasn’t the key to this contest. Courtesy and charisma, two qualities Sid clearly lacked, would win him an easy victory.
    Dollar bills filled Lucas’s pickle jar to the halfway mark by mid-afternoon, but how much Sid had tucked in her apron was a mystery. His suggestion they count when the action slowed between lunch and the early dinner crowd resulted in her suggestion he take a flying leap.
    The friendliest suggestion she’d made all day. Sid Navarro could make a sailor sound like a nun in comparison. If she hadn’t been blessed with the tongue of a viper, the termagant might actually be attractive. Her dark hair was once again pulled up in a ponytail, and he’d caught that whiff of watermelon again. He’d never have pegged her for the fruity shampoo type, but that scent reminded him there was a woman beneath those shapeless clothes.
    The T-shirt was obviously cut for a man, and the baggy shorts hit at knee level. The green high-top Converse should have made her look like a twelve-year-old boy, but the shapely olive-tone calves above them were unmistakably female.
    The woman was a walking contradiction, leaving him torn between anger and unexpected arousal throughout the day. Pushing her buttons had quickly become addicting. Watching her every thought flit across her face, he had a feeling she didn’t get flirted with often, since she had no idea how to flirt back. And though he could see she’d wanted to run every time he got close, she always held her ground and