Page 49 of When You Smile

This was already a breakup speech, and they’d never even been a couple. Taryn couldn’t take it. “But it was a mistake we shouldn’t repeat, given your current situation.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’d like to revisit it many times over. That’s why I’m here.”

Well, that certainly shut her up. Taryn played the words back not one, or two, but three times in her head to verify she’d heard correctly and understood their meaning.

“Taryn?”

“Sorry, I was caught off guard. I had assumed…”

“That I was here to tell you the opposite. Yeah, I gathered.”

Taryn felt the edges of her mouth pull. This was good news, but something held her back. Almost as if she got too close, the amazing bubble might burst.

“Look at me.”

Taryn did. That helped. Their connection had always been a powerful one, and this moment was not different. A full smile bloomed. “I like looking at you.”

Charlie nodded. “Yeah, well, looking at you has been my undoing these past few weeks.”

She could hardly imagine that scenario playing out but liked the idea very much. Charlie had been struggling with an attraction to her for weeks. She’d have to unpack that little enjoyable gem later. There were bigger matters. “What about you and Danny?”

“I told him everything, and we’re not together anymore. I explained that I couldn’t let this thing between us go unexplored.”

“Oh.” She pulled in glorious air and felt a burden lift. Charlie was giving them a chance. They were going to explore. She didn’t have full confidence, but she did have feelings that had just been fully let out of the box she’d held them in so closely. “Well, now I’m nervous.”

“Same. But I have a feeling that’s temporary, don’t you?”

“Yeah, because it’s just you and me.”

“I don’t think there’s anything just about us.”

The comment sent a shiver across her skin. Charlie had a way of eliciting those. “You’re right. There’s not.” For an extended moment, they simply watched each other as electricity crackled on low. “Now what?”

“I’m going to walk you home and hope I get to see you tomorrow. Can I?”

“Charlie, you’re going to find that there aren’t many things I would deny you. You tend to have a way with me.”

“My way with you?” Charlie looked skyward, opened her mouth, and closed it, thinking better, perhaps, of the quip that was on the tip of her tongue.

Taryn laughed. “Decided not to go there?”

The pink rushed to Charlie’s cheeks immediately. Adorable. “Not just yet. No.”

Yet. Taryn exhaled slowly because the whole insinuation nearly sent her up in flames. Her heart kicked rapidly in her ribcage as she imagined taking things farther with Charlie, alone in a room with time on their hands.

“Come on,” Charlie said. “I’ll walk you to your door.” Without a word, she threaded her fingers through Taryn’s and met her eyes with a soft smile. Their hands intertwined that night had not been on Taryn’s bingo card, but she would memorize the sweetness of this moment and play it back whenever she was alone. As they walked, a barrage of emotions hit and expanded in her chest.

“I’ve missed you,” she said quietly to Charlie. “Three days was too much to be apart.”

“Come here,” Charlie whispered, impulsively pulling her beneath a shadowy tree just off their path. Taryn followed her under the branches. An invitation, and not one she’d ever turn down. Charlie’s back was pressed against the trunk, and that brought on all kinds of thoughts. It took Taryn a moment to adjust to the darkened space, but when she did, she was hit with the one-two punch of Charlie’s earnest gaze and her slightly parted lips, full and perfect. Charlie cradled Taryn’s face and pulled her mouth down into a very much longed for kiss. Tentative at first, a soft press, before Charlie’s lips began to move possessively, expertly. Good God. That’s when the wheels came off the car, and Taryn went hazy. Her bones melted. Her blood ran hot. Charlie was her only anchor in a spinning world that was too good to be real. Yet it was. Tonight was her reality.

“What do you feel?” Taryn murmured when they came up for air. “I’m a jumble.”

Charlie smiled against her lips. “When I kiss you, my body hums and my toes disappear. I can’t feel them.”

“I don’t know what kind of review that is.”

“Oh, you can trust me implicitly when I tell you it’s a good one.” She tilted her head and leaned in. “Kiss me again.”

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