Page 50 of Break Your Fall

“I want,” he says with another nod.

My fingers knot in the lace ups as I try to conceal my own embarrassment at my last words. But I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t stop my thoughts. I couldn’t stop myself from offering to wear a dress for Tommy—thisdress specifically, anytime he wants me to, the one that’s brought forth his nerves and longing that I’m always going to see now.

“You said that out loud, too,” I divert back to him.

“So did you,” he diverts back to me with a knowing stare around a disbelieving tone that makes my heart squeeze.

I shift my focus and when I do, I finally notice what I couldn’t before, and a feeling courses through me, a sick-like wave when you want something but don’t want to want something.

My gaze trails Tommy’s bare, perfectly sculpted chest in the same way his gaze trailed over my dress. I’ve seen the evolution. I’ve seen Tommy shirtless. But I’ve never really opened my eyes.

Look up. Look up!

“Let me put a shirt on,” Tommy says on his way to the hall, but my instinctual response stops him.

“It’s okay.” I scoff like this is no big deal. Because it’s not. “I’ve seen you shirtless before,” I remind him.

He looks at me with a small pinch in his face. “And I’ve seen you in dresses before, but. . .”

This doesn’t have to change anything.

But … it does.

“It’s okay,” I try to maintain, because it has to be okay. I have to be able to see Tommy shirtless and not wonder what it would be like to have his bare chest pressed against my own bare chest.

“You don’t look okay,” he argues with a face that makes me laugh.

“I’m fine.”

“Well, now, I’m not,” he says as he hurries off to the back room. I’m biting my smile as he returns wearing one of his gray T-shirts.

“So,” I blurt, then say the first thing I think of to redirect the conversation—a Would You Rather game that we used to play when we were kids. “Would you rather be in a room with a bunch of moths or spiders?”

Tommy’s laughter is immediate, then he looks serious, narrows his focus. “Is the light on?”

“Yes, the light’s on,” I say with a laugh back.

“Spiders.”

“Are you afraid of moths now?” I ask with a playful expression.

“Not when the light’s off.”

I scoff another laugh and shake my head. “That would be a no-brainer for most people.”

“I have a brain,” Tommy declares with an enthusiastic point to his head, “and most people wouldn’t ask that kind of Would You Rather.” He holds my stare with pointed amusement.

“I’m not most people,” I declare back with a pointed look of my own.

“No, you’re not,” he breathes, then says, “You’re Reyna.” It’s simple, but heavy, and I flush again, but through a smile this time. He’s always reminding me of who I am. To the world, and to him.

Tommy grins at me as he points toward the kitchen cupboards. “I got something for you.”

Those words spring me forward with intrigue and excitement. I hear him laugh behind me as I whip open the correct cupboard and gasp at a box of Fruity Pebbles. I’ve been meaning to get some boxes, but I still haven’t gathered the energy to run to the grocery.

I yank on the box and hug it to my chest as I spin back around. “I love you.” The words fly out and I move on quickly, holding out the box and studying the front. “Now I can curl up on the couch and watchCry-BabyandClueless,” I announce with a smile. “Because I’m a clueless crybaby,” I add with teasing self-deprecation.

He moves to the edge of the bar. “You’re not a clue—”

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