Page 18 of Love Wasted

“Not you, my…never mind,” I reply, lowering my voice once again. “I’ve got to get back inside before we wake my parents. They’ll ground me for life…or at least until I’m eighteen.” I turn for the window and look down at my skirt again. “Shit,” I huff out.

Before I know what’s happening, two large hands wrap around my waist and lift me until I’m sitting on the windowsill.

“There,” he says, not even a little bit out of breath.

I stare down at him, in shock and a little awe. He is always such an annoyance and causing me so much frustration; I rarely see the moments he actually helps me, the moments he possibly sees me and not through me. I crawl the rest of the way through the window and turn, hanging out partway.

“Tha—” I begin to tell him, but Paxton interrupts me.

“You best get to bed before your parents wake up,” he murmurs before leaning forward and pressing a brief kiss to my forehead…my forehead, like he’s eighty and I’m his four-year-old granddaughter. Dammit, my heart. “Good night Cass,” he says as he turns back to his house and climbs through his bedroom window. So that’s how he snuck up on me.

“Good night Paxton,” I finally say back, but I don’t think he heard me.

I slide the window shut, crawl into bed, and pray my heart will get its act together and remember we hate Paxton Luke.

---