Finding Perfect by Kendra C. Highley
Published by: Entangled Crush
Publication date: September 14th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Romance,
Synopsis:
For “Perfect Paige” Westfeld, today is “D” Day. As in, she just got one on her calculus test. With her dreams of Stanford, her reputation, and her parents’ expectations at stake, Paige needs to find a way to save face before everything she’s worked for goes up in flames.
Ben Franklin (yes, he’s related) is from the wrong side of town, with the wrong clothes and the wrong kind of life. He also knows an opportunity when he sees one, and he’ll be happy to tutor Paige—if she makes him into the kind of guy her best friend, the hottest girl in school, will date.
It’s the perfect arrangement. And Paige is determined not even the inconvenient—and utterly imperfect—attraction simmering between her and Ben will ruin it…
Ben Franklin (yes, he’s related) is from the wrong side of town, with the wrong clothes and the wrong kind of life. He also knows an opportunity when he sees one, and he’ll be happy to tutor Paige—if she makes him into the kind of guy her best friend, the hottest girl in school, will date.
It’s the perfect arrangement. And Paige is determined not even the inconvenient—and utterly imperfect—attraction simmering between her and Ben will ruin it…
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EXCERPT #1
Ben rocked from foot to foot, then said, “Want to come in? I mean, it’s not much, but—”
“I’d love to!” she answered in a rush, before he could change his mind. He raised an eyebrow and Paige
almost laughed—he and Zoey could play Eyebrow Battle Royale when they went out. A wave of cold washed
over her. She had to stop thinking about how this would all end, otherwise she’d make herself sick. “Well, are
we going in or not?”
Looking nervous, he let her in a side door near the carport. The first thing she noticed was the house
smelled like… “Brownies? You have brownies? For real? Where are they? Can I have some?”
He hung his keys on a hook by the door and turned to her, smiling. “My mom usually cooks stuff before
she goes to work. We can go look.”
They went through a tiny utility room—more like a hallway—into a small, clean kitchen. The rest of the
room, because it was all one room, had a little dining table and a living area with a sofa and a TV. Paige took all
that in with one quick glance, then zeroed in on the baking pan on the range. Speechless, she merely pointed
and gave Ben a single, pleading look.
By now he was laughing. “If I’d known you had a brownie fetish, I wouldn’t have worried so much
about bringing you home.”
He pulled the foil off the pan and cut her a big square. The first bite was heaven. “Ohhhh my God.
Mmmm.”
“Okay, so fetish was the right word. You sound a little like a porn soundtrack.” He cut a brownie for
himself. “What, you don’t eat brownies at your house?”
“No.” She had to eat another bite before explaining further. Heavenly bliss on a napkin. “My mother, in
addition to being randomly rude—I’m so sorry for the way she acted, by the way, because she was a total bitch.
No idea what her problem was. Anyway, she’s a health fiend, and an all-organic champion. No junk food is
allowed in the house. When Mom bakes, it’s low-fat, gluten-free, and non-GMO. She wouldn’t even let me buy
something good at my own bake sale today. I have to buy candy bars on the way to school and hoard them in
my locker if I want a fix.”
“Wow…that sucks,” he said emphatically before popping the rest of his brownie in his mouth.
She nodded, too drunk on chocolate to bother answering.
His expression softened, and he reached out to brush her cheek. Goose bumps covered her arms and she
gulped down her brownie. “What is it?”
He leaned forward, looking down into her eyes, before smiling. “Crumb on your cheek.”
She flushed head to toe, not sure if she was embarrassed or something else. Good God, she needed some
air. Their faces were inches apart. All she’d have to do was lean forward and tilt her mouth up and they’d kiss.
Would that bother him? Scare him off? He swayed closer to her and his hand drifted from her face to her
shoulder.
No, to hell with worrying about it. She wanted him to kiss her. She turned her face up to his, and their
lips were a breath away from touching. He stared down at her, mouth slightly open, and any second now, any
second and he would kiss her. Any second…
EXCERPT #2
“So why are we doing this again?” he called.
Even though he had no idea what she had in mind for this little stage play, he’d gone along with good
humor. Hell, he was even washing her car for real. Which was funny because a clean car was beside the point in
this plan.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing and all will become crystal clear.”
He gave her a long, weird look, then shrugged and went back to work. Paige joined him but spent part of
her time focused on the street corner. Any minute now…
“Your tires are low,” Ben said, peeking at her around the front bumper. “If you have an air compressor, I
could air them up for you.”
She propped her fist on her hip. “Does this look like the kind of house that keeps an air compressor on
He made a face, then laughed. “No, this looks like the kind of house where they call the dealership for
“Exactly.”
They worked in silence until—there! Paige snapped to get his attention just as Zoey turned onto her
street. Ben looked at her, and from the startled expression, she knew she was going to have to coach him
through every second of this close encounter.
She gave him a stern look. “Take off your shirt.”
His already flushed face turned a deeper shade of red. “What? No way!”
Zoey had pulled up to the curb, and the BMW idled while she dipped out of view, probably to grab her
purse. They only had a few seconds, and desperate times called for desperate measures. Paige stalked over to
the hose and, under the guise of washing the suds off her car, “accidentally” sprayed Ben right in the chest.
His eyes popped wide open as he stared down at his soaked shirt. “Why?” he growled under his breath.
“Off,” Paige growled back, then turned to greet Zoey. “Hey! Thanks for letting me borrow your dress
for the party next weekend.”
Zoey handed her a dress bag, looking at something beyond Paige’s left shoulder. “Yeah, sure.”
Zoey didn’t say anything else, and Paige hazarded a look behind her. As ordered, Ben had stripped off
his shirt and oh…my…God.
Okay, so she had guessed he had nice shoulders under those T-shirts after all the work at the tire store,
and she’d definitely copped a feel when they’d cuddled on the back porch, but she couldn’t have known he was
that ripped. He was lean—leaner than most of the football players anyway—but he made the most of what he
had, from the tight biceps and defined pecs, right down to the hard, flat stomach and the tantalizing trail of light
brown hair running from his navel into the waistband of his shorts…which, oh hell, were riding low on his hips.
She didn’t want to blink so she could keep staring. Jesus.
Doing a great job of pretending he didn’t notice them hanging on his every move, he reached across the
top of the Mustang to soap up the roof. He was a quick study, for sure, stretching in ways that showed off his
arms and shoulders. Then he walked over to the bucket and very deliberately bent down to soak the sponge. She
might need to sit down. His back was just as good as his front.
She’d created a monster. A very hot, slightly wet monster.
AUTHOR BIO:
Kendra C. Highley lives in north Texas with her husband and two children. She also serves as staff to four self-important cats. This, according to the cats, is her most crucial job. She believes chocolate is a basic human right, running a 10k is harder than it sounds, and that everyone should learn to drive a stick-shift. She loves monsters, vacations, baking and listening to bad electronica.
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I'm so excited to read it!
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