Page 81 of A Novel Love Story

“Fine.”

“Fine!”

“Fine—”

“No, it’s not fine,” he caved, whirling around to me. “Because just the thought of another person doing things with you. For you.” And his voice dipped into a growl, his eyes darkening with the promise. “To you. It drives me crazy.”

His confession made me suck in a breath. “But you could have already.”

“Yes, but I want you to remember when I do.” He took a deep breath, steeling himself. “I just don’t want a one-night stand with you.”

My eyes widened.

Oh.

“Then,” I said, my voice quiet and shaky, afraid to ask, “what do you want?”

He came up to me, and bent a little so that he could look me in the eye—the same way he looked at me that night on the stairs—and he kissed me lightly on the lips. Softly. Gently. Like I was made of spun glass. So featherlight, and yet I felt it all the way to my toes.

“This,” he whispered, a secret between us. “Repeatedly. Until we are so sick of each other—”

The front door flung open, and Maya came in like a storm. Anders and I jumped away from each other like we’d been burned. He quickly shoved his hands into his pockets, and I busied myself with the end cap.

Maya didn’t suspect a thing.

“Girls’ night!” she cried, inviting me to drinks over at the Roost. Her cheeks were sunburnt, her short black hair curling around her ears.She and Ruby must’ve had a great time at Stellar Lake. “You’re in, right?”

“I …” I hesitated, glancing at Anders.

“Oh, come on! This might be your last night here! Celebrate it with us?” she asked, taking me by the arm.

Behind her, Anders mouthed, “Go,” with a relinquishing nod, and returned to his endcap Michael Crichton display. He began to glue up tiny cutouts ofT. rexeseating men on toilets across the top of the shelf.

“Sure,” I told her.

“Excellent! Only girls, sorry,” she added to Anders.

He putJurassic Parkface-out. “I’m hurt, Maya, I thought I was an honorary member?”

“Times they are a-changin’,” Maya replied cryptically, and pulled me out of the bookstore and across the street to the bar. I glanced back one last time at the bookstore, and Anders was framed in the window, watching me go.

I WISH I COULD SAY THAT I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO GIRLS’night, but my mind was still in the bookstore, staring into its owner’s lovely green eyes. Helikedme—he actually likedme. I didn’t quite know how to feel. Elated? Nervous? Scared that he likedme? Happy that he did? I’d read such declarations a hundred times over, but none of them prepared me for it. He wasn’t real, yet the butterflies in my stomach most definitely were.

Gemma and Junie were already set up at a table, drinking a beer and a mojito, and I wondered when I could return to the bookstore. They waved me and Maya over, and Maya was impressed that her sister had actually closed the shop early to join them for drinks.

“Once in a blue moon is fine,” Gemma chided. “You make me sound like a workaholic.”

“Just the busiest of bees,” Maya replied, grinning, and her sister shoved her playfully in the arm.

Okay, I couldn’t go back to the bookstore—I didn’t want to missthis, either.

There had been a few girls’ nights in the books: All of the heroines were best friends. Junie, and Gemma, and Ruby, and Bea, and Maya. I guessed I was taking Bea’s spot, since she’d left town. But before she had, they had always gathered around the front round table in the bar, ordered an extra-large plate of onion rings slathered in cheese and chili, and sought assistance or camaraderie, or therapy, from their friends. It was a lot like my book club, I realized, and as the women all laughed and gibed each other with inside jokes, I found myself missing them. I wondered how they were faring without the Super Smutty Book Club readathon this year and my box of Riesling to get Matt through Janelle’s Cock Count tally. (She made a mark every time the word “cock” was used. Last year, we got up to sixty-nine times. It was nice.)

“Bea said she wants to come home to visit soon,” Junie said.

Gemma asked, “With or without Garnet?”

Maya knew that answer. “Without. Ruby said that her brother rolled back into town today, grabbed some clothes, and left for the city. Living that punk rock dream,” she added dolefully, giving rocker horns. I took a large gulp of wine, because apparently I had the honor of seeing him for the two seconds he was back in town. Lucky me.

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