Page 47 of The Boyfriend Swap

My mom clapped her hands together. “Wonderful. What does James think of you two dating?” She glanced pointedly at me.

“We’re holding a summit to discuss it after the New Year,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. Over the years, James and my mother had engaged in plenty of discussions about my taste in men right in front of me as if I weren’t there. Wanting to change the subject almost as much as I wanted my family to go upstairs, I removed the Tupperware of leek patties from the refrigerator and placed them on a paper towel. “You okay with heating these in the microwave?” I asked Will.

Reaching out to grab one, Will said, “No need. I’ll eat it cold.”

I slapped his hand away. “No, you won’t. That’s disgusting. It’ll take one minute to warm.”

When Will pushed his lips together like a scolded little boy, I shook my head at him and smiled. “You’ll thank me later.”

Will tucked a wavy strand of my hair behind my ear and locked eyes with me. “You’re sexy when you boss me around.”

As heat caressed the back of my neck, I dropped my gaze toward the tips of my ballet flats. Was this part of his act, or was he torturing me for the fun of it?

The sound of Jordy clearing his throat jerked me out of my trance. “Banter involving my sister in the context of sex is my cue to go to bed,” he said.

“I’m beat too,” my dad said. Looking around the kitchen in a daze, he added, “I have no idea why I’m still down here to begin with.”

“That makes one of you,” I said to my mother, who was beaming at Will and me like we were a musical duo whose Freestyle single hit the top one hundred on iTunes.

Still grinning, my mom said, “Fine. We’re leaving. Have fun, you two.” On her way out, she tousled my hair and whispered, “He’s a keeper” in my ear.

I gulped. I was pretty sure Sidney thought so too.

Realizing I wasn’t even hungry, I left Will in the kitchen to finish his feast and went upstairs to get ready for bed. Not that I believed for a hot second I’d be able to lower the volume on the confusing thoughts in my head. Could James be right? Was it possible Will had developed feelings for me? Being with Will was one of those dreams I never imagined would come true. It was up there with performing on a Broadway stage or directing my students in a concert before the President of the United States. But that was when I was a kid. I was a grown woman now.

I’d been so certain my crush would make things really awkward between Will and me, at least on my end. I’d imagined myself unable to string two words together, much less talk and laugh as effortlessly as we had these last few days. But at the start of the trip, there had been clear unspoken boundaries—Will was dating Sidney, I was with Perry, and any romantic gestures we shared were faked for the sake of my family. Thirty-six hours later and the boundaries had become blurry—I could no longer tell when Will was pretending and when he was being real. Was this because he’d developed an attraction to me, was it a case of temporary short-term impairment due to drinking, or had I dreamed up all the tension between us? Perhaps it was one sided.

And what about Perry and Sidney? I’d been happy with Perry before Will Brady reentered my life. Hadn’t I? I sat down on the edge of the bathtub, closed my eyes, and concentrated on Perry and all the reasons we worked so well together. He was fun and we both liked to dance. But Will was fun and he liked to dance too. And he was good at it. Perry was more my type in terms of occupation, obviously, but Will had a creative side as well. Maybe we weren’t as different as I thought. It wasn’t as if Perry and I (or any of my past boyfriends for that matter) spent all our time at Broadway shows, dance parties, or sing-a-longs. We engaged in non-artistic activities like going out to dinner and to the movies often too. I opened my eyes and aggressively brushed my teeth. As I took my frustrations out on my toothbrush, I hoped my gums wouldn’t bleed, but I also thought it would serve me right if they did.

Maybe James was right. While I burned away the months with Perry, I wasn’t getting any younger. He was a good time, for sure, but would he be there for me if I needed him? Perry thought a night out could cure all ailments, and sometimes it could, but how about when it couldn’t? Would he stick around? And, more importantly, would I want him to? If the deer-in-headlights reflection staring back at me in the mirror was any indication, it was clear I had no idea. If nothing else, this boyfriend swap experience had given me a lot to think about. James had urged me to talk to Will, but for now, I would leave it alone and get through the remainder of the holiday the best I could. I nodded at myself in the mirror to seal the decision and returned to my bedroom where Will was sitting on the edge of the bed in the process of removing his socks.

“Do you even remember kissing me?” I asked, gasping the second the words slipped off my tongue. Apparently, the pact I’d made with myself to let it go was sealed in non-stick spray.

Will looked up at me with a surprised expression. “Of course I do. Why would I forget?”

I shrugged. “I figured I’d gotten lost in the shuffle with the hundreds of girls you’ve kissed since.”

Will raised an eyebrow. “Hundreds?”

My eyes widened. “Thousands?”

Will shook his head and smiled at me. “I don’t know how I got the reputation of being the Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia suburbs, but I don’t think I’ve reached the three-digit numbers in women I’ve kissed. But if I have and just forgot, I do remember kissingyou.”

Feigning nonchalance, I said, “Was just curious,” before pretending to pick something off my closet floor.

“Is that all you wanted to know?”

I closed my eyes and breathed in and out deeply before turning around to face him. “Did you think it was a good kiss?” Although I wished I could crawl into my closet and dig a hole to China, I fought to keep my eyes on him and live up to the boldness of my question.

The corners of Will’s lips turned up slightly and he nodded. “I thought it was a great kiss. Did you?”

What I wanted to say—the truth—was that it was one of the best kisses I’d ever had. I wasn’t so far gone as to have thought about it every day over the last ten years, but whenever I’d think about Will, my pulse instinctively raced in memory of the seconds right before, during, and after the kiss. In slow motion, I’d recall his face coming closer and closer to mine as we met in the middle of the circle and how I closed my eyes at the first brush of his lips against mine. If I tried hard enough, I could still remember how it felt—tender yet intense. “Yes, I did.”

Will’s face lit up for half a second, but the brightness disappeared before I could capture it in my mind and was replaced with an unreadable expression. “I’m exhausted. Mind if we call it a night?” He scooched to the top of the bed and slipped under the covers. “Goodnight, Snow,” he muttered, his eyes already closed.

Further discussion was off the table for the night, which was probably a good thing. My first instinct had been to leave things alone, even if my mouth had refused to cooperate—why did I have to bring up the stupid kiss? With any luck, or a Christmas miracle, things would be back to normal in the morning.

Chapter 12

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