Page 8 of Dating Your Grumpy Neighbor
5
EMMETT
I have no idea what Wyatt was saying to Felicity, but they both appear a bit guilty when I see them talking on her front porch as I walk over to pick her up. My annoyance is short-lived, though, when Felicity turns and we lock eyes. Once again, I feel that beacon of light shine out of her, and a little more of the darkness and anger inside me dissipate.
“You ready to go?” I ask.
“Yeah, let me run inside and get my clutch,” she says, turning and heading back inside the house.
“What are you doing here?” I hiss at Wyatt.
“Can you blame me for wanting to see proof when my best friend says he’s going on a date after he’s sworn off love forever?"
“It’s not like that,” I say.
"Really? Well then, you should probably tell your tongue because it’s been dangling out of your mouth since the moment you saw her in that dress.”
Fuck.
He’s right. That dress is going to make it very hard—shit, not hard, nothing about me is currently hard. That dress is going to make things very complicated for me on so many levels.
“It’s okay to like her,” Wyatt says, but before I can respond, Felicity returns.
“Let’s do it,” she says with a smile.
"Yeah," Wyatt's eyes widen in amusement as they meet mine. "You twogo do it.”
I will make him pay later.
Well, this wedding has already gone better than mine. Mainly because the bride actually stuck around the whole ceremony, and there wasn't a yoga instructor to be found.
Morbid humor is the only thing making this situation manageable—that and Felicity.
“You may now kiss the bride,” the minister announces.
Felicity’s hand reaches over and takes mine as though it’s the most natural thing in the world for her. And I can’t deny that it feels good holding her soft hand in mine. She squeezes tight, not taking her eyes off the bride and groom as they kiss for the first time as husband and wife.
I expected to feel some sort of negative emotion at this moment—hurt, anger, bitterness—but nothing hits me, and I'm still not sure why.
“She looks so happy,” Felicity turns to me. Her eyes are filled with joyful tears, and her smile could light up a stadium with the sheer happiness radiating off her.
Suddenly the answer hits me, both in my head and my heart—it's Felicity. She's somehow cracked open my hollowed chest and restarted the heart that I thought had shriveled up and died.
This wasn’t the plan, but the many nights I’ve spent sitting on my porch since I moved in have given me a glimpse into the woman beside me that I may have otherwise missed. The way her face lights up whenever she laughs. How she talks to her plants when she's in her garden. Even when she flips off a jackass standing on her lawn yelling. Her light drew me in without even realizing it, and soon I couldn't get enough.
I've sat outside nearly every night, needing that fix of being close to her even though she was still so far away. But she's not so far away now. She's right here next to me, her hand in mine, and I want so much to tell her what I'm feeling right now—but I can't. Words have never been my strong suit. My ex may have thought I didn't have emotions, but that wasn't true. I just didn't have the words to express them in the way she wanted to hear them. There's no way I’m going to mess things up with Felicity, especially on the off chance that she might feel the same for me.
It’s now or never. I need to take a chance. I lean in and brush my lips gently across hers.
FELICITY
Emmett iskissingme. Emmett is kissingme! And oh my gosh, it shouldn’t be, but it’s a kiss I feel all the way to my toes and back. Butterflies flutter wildly in my stomach, and the urge to open my mouth to deepen the kiss is stopped only when he pulls back.
"Whoa," I whisper as his eyelids lift slowly to meet my stunned gaze.
How is it that the guys that you least expect are always the ones that are the best kisser?
"Whoa—good? Or whoa—bad?" he asks, his tone low enough that only I can hear him over the sound of the music playing as Jane and her now-husband, Carter, walk down the aisle together.
