Page 18 of The Perfect Love

I settle in and enjoy the delicious food. And the company.

It’s cozy and relaxed. Rae called it a family dinner because these peoplearefamily to each other.

Trevor’s arm rests over the back of my chair, and after a moment, his fingers twirl through my hair. That ridiculous tingly, sparkly feeling floats through me again, and combined with the comfort of this place and these people, my fears fall away and the playful side of me comes out again.

Trevor shifts in his chair, moving the tiniest bit closer to me, and I take it as an invitation.

Slowly, I rest my hand on his thigh. He tenses for half a second, then relaxes and gives the slightest tug on a strand of my hair.

I grab my drink and take another sip, trying to cool myself down because I can see myself getting into trouble with this boy. In the best possible way.

Trevor

I don’t know what’s happening.

When I let my idea of the future shift from baseball and on to other things I wanted, I wasn’t expecting the universe to drop my dream girl at my feet.

Thisalmostmakes up for the tree thing.

When I saw Chelsea standing on the deck, all long wavy-curly auburn hair and the kind of curves I can imagine my body pressed against, it was like seeing my fantasy come to life. But then our eyes met and her hand touched mine, and for a second, I believed love at first sight was a real thing.

I’m not stupid enough to believe I’m in love with her, but the connection was instant—and that’s leaving the physical attraction out of it.

Though she seemed a little shy or uncertain to start, as she settled in, she opened up and I got to see the spicier side of her as she quipped about Aaron and Rae’s PDA along with the rest of us, ribbed Sarah for the way she was looking at Joel, and casually teased Miles about how particular he was being in setting up the logs in the fire pit.

Between hanging out with everyone and now the two of us alone, we’ve been sitting by the fire for hours now.

“No way you’ve readA Court This Cruel and Lovely,” Chelsea says, standing up and inspecting the marshmallow she’s been roasting. She gave everyone a whole tutorial on how to make them when the fire first started dying down to coals.

When I asked her how she knew the perfect way to roast a marshmallow, she smiled and told me she wasn’t going to reveal all her secrets and that I had to work for those.

That playful smile of hers hits me square in the chest every time I get to see it.

I put another marshmallow on my stick and rest it on the edge of the fire pit.

“Tell me you’re not going to say something sexist about how men can’t read romance novels.”

She rolls her eyes as she sits back down in the chair next to me and pulls her marshmallow off the stick.

“No, but it’s not as popular as some of the bigger ones out there likeA Court of Thorns and Roses.”

“I’ve read that series too.”

She purses her lips as she stares at me, then a knowing smile spreads across her face. “You started reading romance books with a girlfriend. Sarah?”

My eyes dart to her and I almost drop my stick into the fire pit. “She told you about us?”

“It came up in passing.”

She takes a bite of her marshmallow, and it takes everything in me not to stare at her lips as she licks some of the stickiness off them.

“How long were you two together?”

“A few years.”

Her eyes go wide. “Really? When did you break up?”

“Almost four years ago. We started dating pretty much as soon as we were allowed to—around thirteen. Then we broke up halfway through junior year of high school. Took a bit, but we’re good friends again now.” I rotate my stick to get my marshmallow evenly browned, since the queen of marshmallow roasting is sitting next to me. “For the record, you’re wrong, though. I didn’t start reading romance books with Sarah. Mysteries were our thing. I don’t typically read basic romance. Usually it’s fantasy stuff because my mom and my sister read a lot of those types of books, and I got tired of them trying to drag me into their conversations when I had no idea what they were talking about. It started withACOTARand it’s been all downhill from there,” I say with a grin. Mostly because that series was the base level of enjoyment, but I’ve actually found several really great series since then.A Court This Cruel and Lovelybeing the start of one of them.

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