Page 374 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Now what?” Audrey asks.
“Now we talk details.”
She nods and follows me back to the couch. I start by going over the schedule in detail, using the outline Joni dropped off earlier. The plan now is that we’ll fly into LAX together and make sure we walk through the airport holding hands. Simon will tip off a couple of photographers about when we’ll be arriving just to make sure my presence—and the fact that I’m not alone—is noted by the press. The press junket will start early the following morning with a round of interviews, followed by the premiere that evening, then a panel discussion with the entire cast, hosted by UCLA and open to the press, the following morning. “We’ll make sure you’re around during the junket,” I say. “Visible to reporters, but not on camera. I’ll decline to comment directly on our relationship, but we’ll make it clear through our interactions that we’re together.”
“Right. But what does that mean, exactly?Howwill we show them?” She fidgets with the hem of her dress, folding it up accordion style, then smoothing it out again.
“We don’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, but I was thinking we’d just touch each other a lot, hold hands. Maybe I’ll whisper things into your ear every once in a while.”
She nods, but she doesn’t look up.
I wait, sensing she wants to say something, but nothing comes.
“Hey.” I reach over and touch her knee, my fingers lingering just long enough for me to notice the silky softness of herskin. “It doesn’t have to be that way. If anything makes you uncomfortable, it’s off the table. You could tell me you’ve changed your mind altogether, and I’d say okay, no questions asked.”
She lets out a little laugh. “You just spent a billion dollars on me today. I’m not backing out.”
“Not quite a billion dollars. But okay. Then tell me what works for you.”
She’s quiet for a long moment before she stands up and holds out her hand.
I slip my fingers into hers, and she tugs me up so we’re standing directly across from each other, no more than a foot of space between us.
“Show me?” she says, her voice soft. “If I just try to imagine what this is going to be like, my brain will spiral and come up with all kinds of uncomfortable possibilities. But if you show me, I’ll know exactly what to expect.”
“Show you how we’ll touch?”
She nods, her expression serious. If she were any other woman, I might think she was trying to take advantage of the moment, but Audrey isn’t messing around. She really wants to know. More than that, I think sheneedsto know.
I reach over and slip her hands into mine, entwining our fingers. “So, we might hold hands like this,” I say, my voice low. “And whenever we’re together, we’ll stand close, like there’s some sort of magnetic pull constantly tugging us closer.”
That feeling isn’t hard to imagine at all because it’s what Iactuallyfeel every time Audrey is near. But I don’t say that out loud. Something tells me that particular truth would make her run out the door and never look back.
“Okay, what else?” she says.
I lift her hand and press it to my chest, flattening her palm just over my heart. “You might put your hand here, while we’re talking, or place it on my shoulder.”
She slides her hand up, but then she keeps going, moving it up and around to the top of my neck where her fingers tangle in my hair. “How’s this?” she asks on a whisper.
I swallow against the knot forming in my throat. “Yeah, that’s—that works.”
I lift my free hand to her waist and slip it around to the small of her back, tugging her against me. She drops my other hand and lifts hers to my shoulder, sliding it around until her fingers are clasped behind my neck.
We’re standingso close,our bodies practically flush, and I’m about to completely lose my mind. She’s all I can see, all I can smell, all I can feel.
I want her.
The feeling is sharp—a burning intensity that rushes through me like a roaring forest fire but then quickly settles into my heart with a frightening certainty.
I want her, but more than that, it feelsrightto want her. To hold her like this.
It feels like we belong together.
Audrey looks up and meets my eye. I don’t know a lot about makeup, but whatever she’s wearing, it makes her eyes look twice as big and twice as blue.
“Will I need to kiss you?” she asks. “Will that be part of what we do to convince everyone we’re together?”
If it’s even possible, my heart starts pounding even faster. “Would you be okay with that?”
