Stirring Up Trouble by Andrea Laurence

I’d have thought of it by now.”
    â€œSounds like you two are having quite the battle.” They stopped on the sidewalk outside the diner. “Pepper told me a little about it. Maddie’s got you in a tight spot.”
    â€œThat’s one way to put it.”
    Emmett looked over Logan’s shoulder in time to see the Chamberlains spill out of the courthouse and onto the sidewalk. They were talking all at once, although Emmett couldn’t hear what they were saying. Just when he thought they might all load into Norman’s car and drive away, Madelyn spotted him. She quickly hugged her family and started down the sidewalk toward him.
    Crap.
    Logan glanced in the direction Emmett was looking. “Uh-oh. Here she comes.”
    â€œYeah, Logan, can you give me a second here? Order me some coffee and I’ll be in in a minute.”
    â€œSure thing.” Logan clapped him on the shoulder and went inside the diner.
    Emmett stood patiently, waiting for the storm. He slipped his hands into his pockets and forced his muscles to relax. He felt like he was strung tight as a drum, but he wouldn’t show that side of himself to her. He liked her to think he didn’t care about any of this. It made her cheeks flush an angry pink that traveled down her neck and disappeared into her blouse. For a moment he considered exactly how low the flush might go, but that wasn’t helpful. It was bad enough he had to spend twenty-four hours of community service with her. Doing it with an unwanted erection would make it that much more unpleasant.
    Madelyn stomped across the street, stopping a few feet away. She looked irritated, with her classic features drawn into a frown. He didn’t know why she’d be upset with him. He’s not the one who chose the sentence, and he certainly wasn’t excited about the outcome, either.
    â€œYou look smug,” she noted.
    â€œDo I?” Emmett stretched his face muscles to erase the offensive expression. “I must be excited about my opportunity to serve my community.”
    â€œPlease,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. The movement pressed her breasts up and he could see a hint of cleavage at the V of her conservatively buttoned blouse. “You can’t possibly mean that.”
    He shrugged, knowing it would irritate her. “I don’t have a problem with it. I’d prefer not to serve the time with you, but you can’t have everything the way you want. It is a punishment, after all.”
    She snorted. “You think I want to spend it with you? It’s bad enough I’ll have to close my shop repeatedly over the next month. Doing it to pick up trash with you is just adding insult to injury.”
    â€œLook at the bright side. You could’ve gone to jail. I don’t think prison orange is your color.”
    Her nose wrinkled at him. “He wasn’t going to send us to jail. Judge Griffin is friends with my grandmother. He’d never do that. At least not to me,” she noted pointedly.
    Boy, Fancy Pants sure thought highly of her social status. He took a step closer to her, invading her personal space. She tensed as he got closer, recovering in time to lift her chin defiantly to look up at him.
    â€œMaybe,” he said in a low voice that only she could hear. “You might have enough family influence to wiggle out of anything, but I’d wager that even the Chamberlains’ power has its limits. You can bet your sweet ass that if we get arrested for fighting again or cause a scene in public while we’re serving our sentence, the judge won’t be as lenient on either of us. You heard what he said about us getting along. Like it or not, you and I have to find a way to coexist or you’re going to find yourself baking cookies at the Tutwiler Prison for Women.”
    Madelyn flinched when he said that and he was glad. She wasn’t the kind of woman who belonged in a place