Page 60 of The Lucky One

“Paul...” I whispered.

He pulled himself free and paced around the room as if he was looking for something. I stood frozen with my arms around myself, trying to understand the intensity of my longing.

Paul stopped his madman walk. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

A movie—? I nodded.

I settled on the couch, accepting a blanket and leaving a conspicuous amount of space next to me—but he sat on the floor in front of the couch.

“What do you want to watch?” he asked.

“How about a horror movie?” I suggested, and he nodded, impressed.

“Heck yeah, it’s been forever since I watched one of those.” He smiled and flicked to the horror genre on the TV.

I didn’t ask why because I already knew the answer.

Emily.

That was the answer to any question about Paul.

Once A Rulebreaker...

Emily

We ran hand in hand off the stage, down the stairs, through the back door and out into the fresh evening air.

“I can’t believe we did that!” I squealed. My cheeks burned with adrenaline.

Jon leaned against the brick wall, grinning. “Shit, me neither!”

I laughed for no special reason. “I thought it was a piece of cake for you?”

“I would never have seen myself doing that either. Fuck!” Jon yelled up into the air, on a high. “We make a pretty good team.”

I swung my arms around his neck and admired him up close. “We make the best team.”

He leaned in to kiss me, and quickly our first tender kisses turned into wildfire. Jon picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his hips. It was such a rush, I wanted more.

“Jon!” a familiar male voice called. We broke the kiss.

I squinted at the newcomer. “Dave?”

Dave and Natalia came out the back door, cheering.

I tilted my face to Jon. “Why didn’t you tell me they were here?”

“Didn’t know myself.” Jon put me down. “We used to come here a lot back in the day, but I hadn’t been in ages.”

I went up to Natalia and she pulled me into a big hug. “Oh, Emily,” she said, “you did amazing!”

Dave clapped Jon’s shoulder. “Yep, and you weren’t half bad either, bro. I had no idea you dig poetry.”

“Fuck off,” Jon growled, but then they laughed and did a bro handshake.

“So what should we do now?” Natalia said. “The night is young and so are we!” By the slur in her voice, I could tell she was already a bit tipsy.

I looked at Jon. We still had time left before I had to be home, but this was our first real date, and I didn’t want to end it with a risk of relapsing.

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