Page 72 of Tell Me It’s Right

I kiss her harder, letting my fingers weave into her hair and breathing in the fresh floral scent of her.

I don’t know what she heard, why this is coming up again now. And it doesn’t matter. I can never seem to say the right thing, so all I can hope for is to be able toshowher. That maybe feeling sorry for her played a hand in offering the job, but it stopped being about that from the first moment she walked through that door.

The moment I saw her work and felt some hope that I could make this place work after all.

The moment she started putting her plans into action and I knew I’d made the right choice.

The moment she changed from quiet and uncertain to barking orders at me.

The moment hours passed as I sat at her bedside without even noticing.

The moment I saw her on the side of the road, or when I spent all night holding her hand because I couldn’t bring myself to let go even once she fell asleep.

And I’m quickly realizing kissing her now was probably the wrong thing to do too. Because now that I’ve started, I don’t know how I’ll ever stop. Nothing, not a single thing that has ever happened in my life, has ever felt more right than this.

She pulls back an inch, then another, her blue eyes wide as she stares into mine. They’re not as light as they seem from far away. There are layers to them, like the gradient of the sky right before sunset.

Now would be a good time to say something, but I can’t string a coherent thought together. I just stare back, slightly breathless and completely failing at not looking at her mouth again.

“You have never been a charity project,” I murmur, silently pleading with her to believe me. To see it in my eyes.

She steps away, forcing me to drop my hands, and when she breaks the eye contact, I feel it like a physical loss.

“I should go,” she whispers, then all but runs out the door.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

GRACIE

4:14 PMLiam missed call

Liam:Please call me back

5:00 PMLiam missed call

Liam:Gracie, talk to me

5:45 PMLiam missed call

6:00 PMLiam missed call

Liam:Please

“Finally.” I flip the page with a sigh and burrow deeper into my blanket burrito, but not so far that I can’t reach the straw poking out of my wineglass. It’s a lot to juggle, what with also trying to keep the reading light currently clipped to my book at the right angle while also not covering any words on the page, but the enemiesfinallybecame lovers and now everything is right in the world.

Except for, of course, everything else.

But that—that I’m not thinking about.

No, tonight I am binge reading, drinking an entire bottle of wine myself, and I’m only leaving the warmth of my bed for absolute dire circumstances…like needing to pee.

With a groan, I untangle myself from the blankets, carefully set my wine and book on my nightstand, and shuffle to the bathroom.

The moment my brain is undistracted, memories of what happened earlier force themselves to my attention.

Pity hire.

Downgrading.

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