Page 42 of Stuck With the Billionaire Grump

When I came home to Mermaid Shores, I had to do whatever it took to erase that memory from my mind. To overpower it with something else. I wanted to get my first kiss over with as soon as possible. I didn’t want to feel that sickening thrill and crushing disappointment again. So, I chose someone nice enough. Friendly enough. Cute enough. And Eric was willing and eager, as most teenage boys tend to be.

Even so, it took me a long time to forget about Theo Danvers.

In fact, I clearly never truly forgot about him at all.

I swallow back the unfamiliar knot of nervousness forming in my throat. I’ve never felt like this around a man before. Never. Not even the few that I’ve casually dated over the years. I always thought feeling like this—fluttery and warm and dizzy—was amere myth. Love was a myth. Or, at the very least, whatever love was… it wasn’t worth the misery of potentially losing it.

I take a deep breath and tell him the truth.

“I think I liked you, too.”

I’m almost certain that time stops. The rising moon pauses, hovering among the stars with bated breath as it peers down at us. The crickets chirping throughout the woods go quiet in an effort to hear us better. Even the ocean in the distance seems to quiet her raging waves.

“You…? What?” comes Theo’s reply.

I don’t know what to say, so I merely shrug. His hand is still on my waist. In fact, I’m almost certain he’s tightened his hold. Maybe without realizing it.

Then, his gaze lowers to my lips.

I can’t make sense of what’s about to happen. I’m supposed to despise this guy. He’s the thorn in my side, a ghost from the past returning to haunt me.

Despite all of that, I think I want to kiss him.

I lean into him slightly.

A suddensnapechoes to our left, freezing me in place. A branch breaking underfoot.

“There you guys are!” shouts Eric with a booming laugh that pierces the night and shatters the moment.

Theo yanks himself away from me, and this time the pine trees relent. He stumbles backward a few steps as Eric approaches.

“Everyone was wondering where you went,” he explains, seemingly unbothered by witnessing us tangled in a questionable and compromising position. Either that, or he’s very good at keeping his true thoughts off his face. “I swore I saw you run into the woods, though, so I volunteered to hunt you down. You guys okay?”

I force a smile. “Yeah, Eric. We’re fine. I just, um, tripped over my own feet. Theo was helping me.”

Theo is silent, frowning at Eric.

Eric shrugs, still grinning. He jerks his chin at Theo, his hands shoved casually in his pockets. “Hey, man. Theo, right? I didn’t know you and Lucy were friends.”

When Theo doesn’t say anything, I answer, “We’ve known each other for a long time.”

“Ah, just like us, then!” Eric, clearly not picking up on the tension of the scene, keeps talking as the three of us start heading out of the woods. He smacks Theo lightly on the arm as if they’re old friends. “Lucy and I met when we were teenagers.”

“That’s nice,” Theo grinds out.

I bring up the rear behind them, glancing between the two of them and trying to figure out why I feel so strange and naked now that Theo’s touch is gone from my waist.

Eric leans toward him conspiratorially, tossing a wink over his shoulder at me. “In fact, I had the honor of being her first kiss. It was fate, I think. I mean, Lucy was away at camp all that summer, and then I ended up leaving town not long after she got back. We almost missed each other. Of course, we haven’t seen each other since then, but it’s a good memory nonetheless.”

“How… nice,” Theo replies.

Is that the only word he can think of?Nice?

My stomach flips at the thought of him putting two and two together. If Eric was my first kiss, right after camp ended, that meant Theo was actually almost the first boy to kiss me. Not that those things really matter in the grand scheme of things. But those firsts are always more cemented in your memories than the ones that follow. First kiss. First love. Blah, blah.

Eric continues chattering all the way back, telling Theo all about that summer without any prompting. I almost want to tell Eric to stop talking just to put Theo out of his misery, but I hold my tongue. Both of us are silent.

When we emerge from the woods, practically everyone is soaking wet. Eric is immediately distracted and wanders off, and I swear I hear Theo breathe a sigh of relief. Over by the porch, Josie and Elijah are kissing each other goodnight. The girls are gathering by the back door, preparing to head back to the slumber party. The boys are diligently picking up the remnants of the broken balloons scattered across the dark lawn.

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