Page 36 of Fall Into Me

Other times,thesewere the sorts of conversations we had.

“Are you laughing at me?” Her hand flew up to her chest. “These are serious questions!”

“No, ma’am.” I kept my expression as subdued as possible. “Very serious.”

“What about Shithead?”

“There’s a card game called Shithead?”

“Bullshit?”

“What do you mean? You’re the one that just said it?”

Cali’s face was blank for a split second before she threw her head back, and body-shaking laughter erupted from her. Long black hair was splayed over the armrest of the chair she had draped herself over across from where I sat on the couch.

There was something about the way laughter looked on her that made her infinitely sexier. Cali didn’t laugh politely. Shedidn’t tame it down or try to change the way it sounded for anyone’s benefit.

Her laughter was loud. It took over every part of her.

Her face, her body, her hands.

She balled them into fists, and her toes curled in while she clutched at her stomach. It wasn’t just something that she did, it was something that actively happened to her.

“Fane!”she wheezed my name a second before she landed on the floor with an unceremonious thump, her glasses falling off the moment she hit the ground. That just made her laugh even more. “I’m going to pee my pants!” she yelled, voice muffled from the way her face was pushed into the carpet.

The huge, stupid-looking grin on my own face was only something I became aware of after it had already happened.

That’s what it was like to be around Calista Grey.

It was to suddenly be aware of the fact that you were happy for the first time in your life and have no recollection of when the process had even started, only that it had. That little by little, she’d taken the parts of you that were bruised and broken and helped you heal and put yourself back together with gentle hands and wide-trusting eyes.

“I can’t believe you’ve never played any of these card games. They’re life staples,” she said, still giggling. “I know!” She pushed herself up from where she’d been pancaked on the floor. “We’ll have a card game night! Ash can invite what’s-her-face, and Abbey can come too!”

And just like that, she’d started to heal another part of me without even trying.

“What’s that look mean?” she asked, the smile on her face so damn beautiful. She’d recovered, sitting back on her knees with her feet tucked under her. All she wore was one of my shirts, leaving her bronzed legs on full display. The waist-length wavesof her hair were mussed and wild like they carried the chaos of everything she made me feel.

“What look?”

She pointed at my face. “That one.”

I dragged my eyes back up to meet hers. “Just thinking.”

“Oh yeah?” She stood, crossing the small space between us to settle on my lap. Her thighs slid around me, warm and familiar, her chest pressed to mine. “Care to share?”

My hands found her back, palms trailing upward, reveling in how every inch of her fit so perfectly against me.

“I was thinking about how I read somewhere,” I murmured, my thumb brushing over the soft curve of her cheek, “How you can tell when you’re in love.”

Her breath hitched, her body stilling in my arms like she was bracing for the weight of my words. Her eyes widened, shining like I was handing her the answer to a question she’d been too scared to ask.

“They say,” I went on, watching her pulse flutter on the side of her neck. It was wild, frantic, the opposite of my own steady beat. Because for the second time in my life, I was absolutely sure of what I was about to do. Second only to the moment I stood up from the bar where I sat with Ash, walked over to the beautiful girl with long black hair and asked her to dance. “You just know when you know,” I said, my voice quieter now, like it was something sacred. Something only for her. I leaned in, close enough to feel the warmth of her breath against my skin. Close enough to let her see how deep it went, how unshakable it was. “And I know.”

Her breathing hitched again. “You do?”

“I do.”

“You’re sure?”

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