Page 143 of The Girlfriend Zone

When I leave, I feel like my mother.

43

THE NOW

Leighton

That evening, the feelings haven’t dissipated. They’ve worsened, like this morning was the first cough of a cold, and now it’s turned into a full-on fever as I return to Miles’s home, punching in the code and stepping inside. He’s finishing up a meeting with his agent, so I’m alone.

And I try to breathe in the silence. To enjoy the space. To revel in all the reasons I told my dad I’m here.

But I still feel uncomfortably like my mother.

And I hate it.

I pace, flashing back to this morning, to Miles’s words.

Flipping to my chat with Maeve.

Cycling back to all the times I’ve spent with Birdie.

Then lingering in the memories of how I feel with Miles.

I pace in the quiet, and I weigh them. On one hand, I can’t stand the way I feel right now.

On the other hand, I think I?—

The door snicks open, and I spin around. He’s home.

His brown eyes are soulful. His hair is wild. His gaze, locked on me.

“Leighton,” he says, importantly. Like there’s something on his mind.

But there’s something on mine too. And I need to go first, since he’s taken so many steps.

Sometimes you don’t get all the time you think you need. But maybe you didn’t need it at all. I’ve spent so much time planning for the future that I don’t want to miss the present. Not with him. Not with us. “My mom had an affair with my dad’s agent before she left him. Us. It was a mess. I never wanted to be like her. A liar,” I say, closing the distance between us, then stepping intothe now. “I want to do something about the way I feel,” I say, borrowing his words from this morning. “I want to tell him.”

Miles’s eyes sparkle like a thousand stars. “Yeah?”

I laugh, powered by nerves, fear, and hope. “Why are you so excited?”

“Because I’m crazy about you, Shutterbug,” he says, then pulls me into his arms. “And I want to be with you.”

Emotions tighten around my throat as he hauls me closer, sweeps his lips across mine, then stops, cupping my face. “You want this?”

“I do,” I say, breathless. “But what about…are you afraid?”

He shakes his head. “I was. I’m not anymore. You’re worth it.”

God, his certainty is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen because it’s the sturdiest. “Let’s do it tomorrow,” he says.

I laugh. “You have a game. He’ll be in game mode.”

“He’s always in game mode,” Miles says.

“I know. But he has meetings with his coaches, and practice, and video review, and the game itself. And I don’t want to do it while he’s at work. I’ll take him to breakfast this weekend—to his favorite diner—and tell him then.”

“Good. I fucking can’t wait.”

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