Page 71 of Suck My Puck

The light turns green and I speed ahead to my apartment. The whole drive, she holds my hand in hers. Warmth spreads from my joined hands, up my arms, all over me.

When I make it to the parking garage of my apartment building, I pull into my spot and kill the engine. For a second, I just sit there, relishing the warmth of Bella’s hands holding mine.

“You probably think I’m being so weird right now,” I say.

“I don’t.” She says it without missing a beat. “I get it. Sometimes talking is the last thing you want to do when you’re upset. Sometimes you just want to sit in your feelings quietly.”

I nod. “Yeah. Exactly.”

She gives my hand a gentle squeeze. “Maizie missed you today.”

I crack a smile and look at Bella. “She did?”

“Yeah. You left your hoodie on my couch and she’s been curled up napping on it all day.”

I chuckle. It feels good to do that. “I need to see this.”

Bella smiles. “Let’s go.”

We climb out of my car and walk through the parking garage to the elevators. When we make it to our floor, I follow Bella inside her apartment. She flips on the lights and I see Maizie curled into a ball on top of my Bashers hoodie.

I’m grinning so wide, my cheeks hurt.

“So cute, right?” Bella says.

“Ridiculously cute.” I walk over to Maizie, who’s snoring softly. I give her a soft pet on the head. She doesn’t move. “She’s out cold.”

“She feels so cozy and comfortable with your clothes.”

“Or maybe she likes the smell of my BO.”

Bella bursts out laughing. “Hey, are you hungry?”

“A little.”

“You want something sweet?”

“Yeah, what do you have?”

She opens her freezer door and pulls out a container of vanilla ice cream. When she sets it on her kitchen island, that’s when I notice the bananas sitting in the bowl.

“Banana split?”

A wide grin pulls at my lips. “You have stuff to make a banana split?”

She nods and pulls out jars of hot fudge, caramel, and maraschino cherries from her fridge. She smiles at me, those cute-as-fuck dimples on full display. “You’ve got me hooked.”

Chapter 25

Braden

Itake the last bite of banana split from my bowl. I set it on the coffee table and turn to Bella, who’s sitting next to me on her couch. She’s halfway finished with her own banana split.

“Wow. You inhaled that,” she teases me.

“Couldn’t help it. It was really good.”

Maizie stirs for a second before lifting her head up and sniffing. She’s cuddled against my left side. I give her a scratch behind the ears and she slowblinks at me before tucking hear head down and falling back to sleep.

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