Page 44 of Drawn to You

Our hotel is close to the restaurant. The driver drops us off at the front door and I put my hand on Josie’s lower back as we walk inside.

“I had fun tonight,” I say.

“Me too.”

We have to share the elevator with a man in a rumpled suit, so I don’t get her alone again until we’re walking to our room. When we get there, we face each other.

“So,” she says softly.

“So.”

“This is where, if you like her and want to go out again, you kiss her.”

“How do I know if she likes me back?”

She holds my gaze, opening her mouth and then closing it before she finally speaks. “You’ll know.”

“I guess if she didn’t like me, she’d try to rush inside,” I say softly. “She wouldn’t look at me like she’s waiting for something.”

Josie swallows, breathing a little faster now. “Exactly.”

I reach up and cup her cheek. Her skin is soft and warm. She leans into my touch and her eyes flutter closed.

“Dane...”

“Josie.”

She opens her eyes again and says, “We can’t.”

“No?”

She shakes her head and I deflate. I won’t ask her to explain or try to change her mind, because I only want her if she wants me just as much.

I take out the key card and open the door, Josie going straight into the bathroom. She emerges ten minutes later in boxers and a T-shirt, her makeup off.

“Good night,” she says stiffly, climbing under the covers.

“Night.”

She turns her back to me, the last of tonight’s magic disappearing.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Josie

“I hearyou’re officially one of us,” Jenn says from the other side of our table at a downtown Mexican restaurant.

I furrow my brow. “Not sure what you mean.”

Elena laughs from beside me. “Did you and Dane really think you could sneak out like that, all dressed up and looking like you were about thirty seconds from ripping each other’s clothes off, and no one would notice?”

Oh. Our practice date the other night. My face heats as it sets in that we’re the object of team gossip now. If this somehow gets back to my aunt, I can kiss that promotion goodbye.

“It wasn’t what it looked like,” I assure Jenn and Elena.

Jenn raises her empty glass as our server walks past our table. “Hey, can we get another round?”

I groan. The margaritas here are so big that I’m lightheaded from the first one I finished. And the more I drink, the more likely I am to spill my guts about how I really feel about Dane.

---