Page 35 of Breakaway to You

Zeke shook Seth’s hand. “Will do.”

We waved goodbye, and then it was just Zeke and me at the table. Awkwardness began to set in. It was weird that less than two minutes ago, I’d wanted to pull Zeke toward me and kiss him again. And not for pretend.

I’d already been struggling to not think of Zeke as more than a patient. It had taken extreme effort on my part to distance myself from him emotionally during our therapy sessions. Especially after we’d spent time together outside of the therapy room, both at a hotel lobby and at his apartment. But now that we had kissed? How was I going to be able to hide that just the sight of him had my heart racing?

Zeke leaned his elbows on the table, casting me a glance. “So are we going to talk about that kiss?”

I smoothed down my hair, trying for nonchalance. “What about it?”

He shrugged. “I thought it was a pretty good kiss.”

My brows rose. “Prettygood?”

He seemed amused by my response as he smiled and said, “What would you say?”

Oh, no. I hadn’t expected him to ask me that. What should I say?

I could tell the truth—that it was by far the best kiss I’d ever had. But how embarrassing was that? The best kiss I’d ever had was fake? That was more than I was comfortable admitting.

Or I could downplay the whole thing. Tell him it was a great kiss and that we were fantastic actors. He didn’t need to know that kissing him had changed me. Because how dramatic was that? I hadn’t believed kisses could be life-changing. I’d thought that was something romance writers made up to make it seem like their main characters had some deeper connection. Kissing Zeke had not only made me a believer in the so-called life-changing kiss, but now it had me wondering if he and Ididhave a deeper connection and that was why I was having such a hard time keeping my feelings for him in the therapist-patient zone.

I wanted to smack myself in the forehead. I sounded like some lovesick woman going gaga over a hot hockey player.

“Piper?” Zeke asked, a look of concern on his face. “Everything okay?”

Oh, my gosh. He’d been waiting for me to answer his question, and I’d gotten lost in my thoughts.

His lips tipped up. “Or was spacing out your way of saying that our kiss was out of this world?”

I instantly started laughing at his lame joke, grateful that he had eased the awkwardness I’d put myself in.

“Something like that.”

“That’s all you’re going to give me?” he playfully accused.

“All you gave me waspretty good,” I pointed out.

He inhaled. “Fine,” he said on an exhale. “You want me to tell you what I really thought about it?”

I nodded. He had no idea how badly I wanted to hear his thoughts about our kiss.

He leaned in closer to me, our arms now pressed together as his head dipped toward mine. “It just might be my favorite kiss to date.”

A shiver raced through me, the words ‘favorite kiss’ seeming to skate along my skin.

I turned my face toward him, our mouths mere inches apart. His eyes dipped down to my lips. Was he going to kiss me again? Was it wrong that I wanted him to, and not because we were trying to convince anyone about our fake relationship?

I wanted to tell him I felt the same way but remained quiet, worried that speaking would deter him from closing the breadth of space between us.

“Enough with the kissing and mushy stuff,” Holden said. We broke apart as he joined us at our table. “We get it. You two are into each other.”

Right. We were still in a bar, not in our own little world. When I was with Zeke, it was easy to feel like it was just the two of us. He was all-consuming and had a way of overwhelming my senses.

“We finally get you to join us for a post-game celebration,” Holden said to Zeke, “and as much as we like you, Piper,” he said to me, “this guy needs to bond with the team.”

“Oh, right. Of course.” I took a step away from Zeke, suddenly feeling out of place. “You guys have fun, and I’ll head back to the hotel.”

Before I could take another step, Zeke grabbed my hand, pulling me back to his side and wrapping his arm around my waist as he glared at Holden. “If you wantmeto stay,shestays.”

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