Page 25 of Twins For My Bestie's Brother

The drive to Lily’s is long and quiet.

However, my head is doing a great job of filling the silence. My thoughts have been racing all night, double time since our kiss on the dance floor. She probably knows now. That one kiss probably told her everything about my years of wanting her.

“So . . . I should probably start joining you for your morning runs,” Lily says, offering a distraction from my loud brain.

I veil my excitement. “Only if you want to.”

“I probably can’t keep pace with you, but—”

“I’ll keep pace with you.”

Lily giggles. “That will look so stupid. Your legs are too long.”

I rub the steering wheel to try and calm my nerves. “We can just walk too. That’s fine.” A couple of weeks of not running won’t be too bad. I can just go for runs another time or longer bike rides or—"

“We can hit the Labor Day festival too. Everyone will be out and about so that would be a good time to be seen. Holding hands and . . . whatever.”

I chuckle as I pull up to a stoplight.

“What’s so funny?”

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

Lily shifts in her seat, turning toward me and leaning on the center console. “Come on, you have to tell me.”

I can smell the liquor on her breath and the citrus scent of her hair. Damn her. “Nothing, it’s nothing.”

“Jackson. . . ”

I stare up at the traffic light, waiting for it to turn green. “Just . . .andwhatever.”

Lily doesn’t say anything. I glance at her. She’s looking right at me with a smirk.

“Just funny to think about what . . .whateveris,” I say. God, I’m being much too forward. But that one kiss can’t have been a mistake. Lily wastherefor it. Not just physically present, but I could feel her energy pouring into me. Neither of us had to try hard for that kiss to be really good.

So ‘and whatever’ could be more of that. More touching. More kissing. And . . .whatevermight come after that. If I let myself go there, I’m going to have a very obvious problem between my legs.

Lily leans closer to me. Her lips part.

My heart starts to pound. Here? Now?

“Light’s green,” she says, her voice low and sultry.

I shudder back into gear, gluing my eyes to the road.

And she laughs. A laugh that creeps down my chest and into my pants. Fucking hell.

After we drive in silence for another minute, I speak up. “Anyway, how about I take you out on a picnic or something? Wecan do it in the town square on a Friday night or something, and people can see us.”

“That sounds like a great idea. A picnic.Andwhatever.”

I try to laugh, but my breath is trapped in my chest. “Okay, Lily, listen, I didn’t mean to imply that we ever had to do—”

“No, no, I like ‘and whatever’.”

I grip the steering wheel harder and throw on my blinker.

Thankfully, Lily fills the void of my embarrassment. “’And whatever’ leaves a lot of room for possibilities. Like picnics and dinner dates and . . .whatever.”

---