Page 74 of Love, Just In

My brows fly up. ‘You never told me that.’ With athud, I realise she’s been avoiding me at work. ‘Why’d you break up?’

He goes to reply but decides against it, his jaw tensing as his gaze slips to his feet. The music’s now no more than a faint echo in my ears, drowned out by my pounding heart.

The question hesitates on my tongue before it bursts free. ‘Was it because of me?’ I breathe.

Zac’s lips part with surprise. He stares down at me before his brow puckers with confusion. ‘Why would it have anything to do with you?’

I blink at him for a dumbstruck moment until my chest makes a sharp twist.

Why did I just ask him that? I could die of embarrassment!

Panic clogs my throat, and I pace backwards, colliding with a woman dancing. I mumble an apology to both her and Zac, and turn away, worming my way through the huddle of moving bodies.

I head for my table, but tears are threatening my eyes, and I can’t let Zac see me cry over this. It would be too humiliating.

I cross an empty courtyard glittering with fairy lights and stop where a sandstone wall faces a silent orchard of fruit trees, the moonlight washing their leaves in silver.

‘Josie?’

Shit.

‘I just need a minute,’ I say, angling my face away from Zac.

He comes right up to me, the glow of the overhanging lights making my tears impossible to hide. His brows pull together as he brushes his knuckles over my cheeks.

‘I didn’t mean what I said back there,’ he says with a tremble. ‘You just … you make me so nervous.’

Nervous?My lungs jam up while his chest lifts and falls with heavy breaths.

A small smile finds his face, loosening some of the tension in the air. ‘You know, I’ve finally decided on my favourite features of yours. Remember that game?’

A choked laugh slips through my lips. ‘How could I forget?’

‘For best personality feature, I’d have to say your forgiveness. No matter what I do and how much I screw up, Josie, you always look at me withthatface.’ He catches my jaw between his fingers, giving it an affectionate squeeze.

‘What are you talking about?’ I ask softly. ‘You’ve never done anything to me that requires forgiveness.’

His hand drops back down, but he doesn’t move away from me. ‘Are you kidding? What about that time I said I’d drive you home from school, but because I’d only just got my licence, I wanted to go driving around the national park, and you couldn’t, so I asked you to get the bus home?’

A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. ‘Can you believe I survived that?’

‘What about the time I nearly killed you in the snow when we got lost? Or when you were dating that uniprick, and I stopped talking to you—not just because he was an asshole, but because I was so sick with jealousy over it?’

Heat blooms in my stomach.

Zac shifts on his feet. ‘Then there was the time I met Tara and decided to ask her out, even though you and I were finally just starting to spark.’

A blush spreads across his cheeks, and I fight for what to say to that, but he keeps going. ‘So that’s the personality one. Want to hear the physical one?’

I have never wanted anything more in my life.

‘Go on then,’ I say in an effort to play it cool. ‘Ass or eyes? What’s it to be?’

He bites down on his bottom lip like he has no idea how sexy that is. ‘Your mouth.’

‘Mymouth?’ I give him an unsure smile. ‘Is this a trap?’

‘Your mouth.’ His gaze falls to the subject in question and clings there.

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