Page 40 of Silent Is The Heart

Aaron drops his head and groans into his arms. So, I do the natural thing and nudge his elbow with a shot in my hand just to see his reaction. Rising, he shakes his head.

“No. I can’t. Everything’s starting to feel like it’s in slow motion. I’ll start talking nonsense if I have any more.”

“You talk nonsense all the time already. How will that be any different?”

Elbowing me, he snickers. “I do not!”

The strand of hair hanging down on his forehead gives him an adorably disheveled appearance. I want to both ruffle it up to see what he’d look like getting out of bed and put it back into place since I know that’s what he’d do if he could see himself right now. Reaching out, my hand opts for stroking it back into place.

“Am I a mess?” he asks, running a hand over his head, his eyes slow to blink.

He’s perfect. So damn perfect my heart feels like it’s swelling in my chest. Raking my fingers through his thick hair, I fuck it up good.

“Yeah. You’re a mess.”

Gasping, he gapes at me, strands sticking up all over the place. “You did not just do that!”

Reaching over, his hands grip either side of my ribcage as he cracks up, and… is he fucking trying to tickle me?

“You’re not ticklish? How can anyone not be ticklish?” he slurs.

Groaning, his hands still and he drops his face into the crook of my neck, letting his weight lean into me. He lets out a sigh, and I can feel his lips move against my jugular.

“No more shots, please.”

Wow. Aaron: down for the count.

Cupping the back of his head, I lean in close to his ear so he can hear me. “Yup. A total mess.”

His skin has a hint of saltiness to it when my lips leave the spot where I pressed them against his cheek. He needs to be freaking tucked in, is what he needs. Was I ever this sloppy?

Reaching for my beer, I find a pair of eyes on me from across the table. Wolf’s brows hike, humor playing on his lips. I want to give his shin a kick, but that’d make him think he’s right.

Is he? I probably look like I’m cuddling with Aaron and just gave his cheek a peck.

I can see how that must look off to Wolf. I don’t invite guys back to our booth.Ever. I don’t wrap my arms around them and ruffle their hair. I don’t give them kisses on the cheek like teens going steady. I make them earn it and wait till we get out the door.

Fuck.

This is different, though. It’s Aaron. He’s… We’re…

Ah, double fuck.

Okay, maybe things are getting a little out of hand. It’s been a month of puzzles and dinners. I keep showing up like a lost puppy and he keeps eagerly letting me in like another lost puppy who’s looking for a pack.

Now we’re at Pulse after I gave him this whole optimistic speech about how he should get out of the house more and enjoy life. The guy never goes anywhere, but why did I say that? I was perfectly fine hanging out in his little cottage.

I cannot believe I brought him here…again. On top of Shannon’s verbal diarrhea and Wolf’s smug-ass expression, there are at least three people here that I’ve fucked, which should not matter in the slightest. However, the fact it bothers me isbothering me.

When I was seventeen, I had an excuse for acting this idiotic. I was a kid with a crush. What do you call it when you’retwenty-five and want to spend every free second with the dorkiest man you’ve ever met because just being in the same room makes you feel like you’re walking on air? Because… Ilikehow dorky he is. I fucking dig it way too much.

I’ve never had so much fun putting puzzles together. I don’t think I ever put a puzzle together before, to be honest. Now, though, I’ve become a damn puzzle connoisseur. I’ve found myself looking for ones with more than a thousand pieces so I can prolong our time together. Seriously, I cockblocked an old lady at the store last week who was reaching for the last two-thousand-piece puzzle on the shelf at the department store. The picture was of a sewing room. She looked at me like I had a dick growing out of my forehead as I scrambled past her with my find like I’d be willing to run over a family of four on Black Friday.

Aaron’s grip on my right side loosens, sliding farther around me, turning into half a hug. He groans into my neck, a sleepy sound that makes me want to take him home and curl up on his couch with him just so I can watch him sleep on me.

I know it’s not my norm. It’s so much farther than my norm—it’s new territory, but I’ve been having a lot of thoughts like that lately. They’re getting worse.

What happens, though, when Aaron doesn’t need a shoulder to lean on anymore? What happens when he gets sick of puzzles? What happens if he decides to transfer, and up and leave to some other state again? What if I’m the only one who fell down the stupid tree and hit all the branches, and he just thinks of me as his buddy or a dead husband rebound?

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