Page 42 of Late Nights

I applied some Chapstick, looking at myself one more time in the mirror. The audible clicking sound of a doorknob turning reached my ears, and I all but sprinted to the hallway, slowing down just in time to make it seem as if we were both exiting our rooms at the same time.

His mouth quirked up on one side, tugging his mouth into a small smile. “Hey.” His eyes seemed to soften as they looked at me, and I had to hold in a sigh.

“Hey,” I smiled back.

He looked absolutely incredible in his black and teal ski jacket. His dark hair was still slightly damp from his morning shower, the ends barely curled. Remembering that we were friends only was so much harder when he looked this good.

“Is that ski suit waterproof?” he asked with a smirk.

His question forced me out of my ogling daze. “Uh,” I blinked, looking down at myself. “I think so.”

“That’s good, because you have a little drool.” He motioned toward my chin.

That snapped me out of my haze. “Shut up,” I chuckled, slapping his hand away and pushing his shoulder for good measure, my cheeks feeling warm.

He laughed. “Don’t be embarrassed. I drool over you all the time.”

“No, you do not,” I objected.

How could he talk about this like we were discussing the weather? This was another level of flirting I wasn’t used to. He was clearly more skilled at flirting than I was, and I hoped I could keep up.

“I most definitely do.” His eyes traveled the length of my body. “I’m just better at hiding it since I don’t want your brother to punch me in the face.”

“West would not punch you in the face.” I wasn’t exactly sure what West would do if he saw Cannon checking me out, but he wasn’t a violent person. He’d be mad, probably worried, and more than likely tell Cannon to keep his distance, but that’s it.

“You don’t know that,” he argued. “He is very protective of you.”

“So are you,” I countered.

“Yeah, but my reasons are very different from his.” His voice seemed to seep through my thick ski suit, caressing my skin like a physical touch.

I wanted to ask him what his reasons were, but I was caught up in the way he was looking at me, not wanting to break whatever moment this was between us.

The silence stretched out for several seconds, but there was nothing awkward about it. The air seemed to crackle around us, a light buzzing in my ears.

“I still think about you in that light blue dress you wore to your parents’ charity event back in September,” he said. “I don’t think I took my eyes off you the whole night. And the only reason West didn’t catch on back then was because he was too focused on Halle to notice anything else.”

I remembered that night, and I remembered wondering what Cannon would think of my dress, if anything. And if I remembered correctly, we’d both caught each other staring throughout the night.

“You never asked me to dance,” I pointed out. I had hoped he would ask me, but he never had.

“Only because I didn’t think I was strong enough to stop at just a dance.” His eyes were smoldering now, a hunger that reminded me of how he had looked at me last night in the kitchen.

“Demi! Cannon!” West’s voice yelled out, projecting up the stairs. “Let’s go! Gavin is here.”

The heat in his eyes quickly extinguished, and he was quick to put on a playful demeanor. “Ah, Gavin. Your lumberjack man awaits.” He held out his arm, indicating for me to head down the stairs ahead of him.

I rolled my eyes, walking past him and down the stairs, our tense moment officially over.

Gavin was a nice, good-looking guy, but he didn’t have anything on Cannon.

I was sure Gavin would be giving me more attention than anyone else in our group today, but I really just wanted to hang out with Cannon. He and I were well matched on the mountain, having been skiing together multiple times.

Usually it was him, me, and West, but since Halle was new to skiing, West would be spending his day helping her, which had me looking forward to spending some alone time with Cannon. I’d somehow forgotten Gavin was likely to stick around even though I didn’t need him to be my ski guide.

But maybe it was better this way. Maybe spending even more time alone with Cannon would only be more confusing, making it more difficult to keep our friendship intact.

Knowing he was attracted to me felt great. Who didn’t want the guy they had a crush on to be extremely attracted to them?

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