Page 71 of Romancing the Grump
My heart is pounding hard enough that I can feel it in my ears, something she can likely feel because her hand is still pressed against my chest.
“Are you okay?” I finally ask.
“Yeah. Thanks for catching me. My ankle twisted. I thought I was going down there for a sec.”
I chuckle. “In here? Not sure you would have gotten far.”
“Not without taking Eli and Bailey’s shelves with me.” We’re quiet for a beat before she asks, “Want to hear something crazy?”
“Okay.”
“Until you looked at me through the glass, right before the Chicago game, I’d never seen you smile.”
Once again, she’s completely taken me by surprise. “That can’t be true,” I say. “We’ve spent a lot of time together.”
“Apparently not enough.” She lifts her hand from my chest, then I feel her fingers slide across my beard until shereaches the corner of my mouth. One finger taps gently against my bottom lip, right near the edge, and it’s all I can do not to lean forward and bite it.
“Right here,” she says softly, “your lip will twitch the slightest bit. Like you want to smile. But I’d never seen the real thing. Now that Ihaveseen it, all I can think about is seeing it again. I’ve been hunting for jokes all week just to see if I can get you to crack.”
“Jokes, huh? You found any good ones?”
“Several,” she says. “But not therightone.”
“Therightone? How are you going to know it’s the right one?”
It’s a shame we’re standing in the dark because I’m smiling right now. Somehow, the darkness is making it easier. Giving us permission to do and say things we otherwise wouldn’t.
When we open the door, letting light flood in around us and go back to the group, I’ll start thinking again. I’ll remember to be reasonable and logical and disciplined when it comes to what I will and won’t think about Summer Callahan.
But here, in the dark, I let myself smile down at her without worrying about anything else.
“I’ll just know,” she says, answering my question. “I’ll hear it and think,this is the one! This is the one that will break him!”
More likeshe’llbe the one to break me. She already is. Weakening my resolve. Making me forget everything I thought I believed in.
On the other side of the door, a pair of feet-shaped shadows step close, then someone knocks, three quick raps.
“Uh, sorry to interrupt,” Eli calls through the door, “but can someone throw out a head of garlic?”
“Guess that’s our cue,” Summer says. Her hands fall away from me, and seconds later, the pantry floods with light. I squint into it—how long were we actually in there?—and Eli raises his eyebrows.
“Sorry,” Summer says easily as she moves past him. “We were just…discussing some very important strategies for the Catan game later. Weren’t we, Nathan?” She shoots a look over her shoulder that I feel all the way down in my toes.
I swallow against the tightness in my throat. “Yep. That’s—yeah.”
On the shelf directly in front of me, I notice the garlic Eli must be looking for. I reach out and grab it, then quickly follow behind Summer.
“Here,” I grumble as I drop the garlic into his hand. “Sorry. Also, we’re gonna kick your asses at Catan.”
Despite the obviouscoupletheme of the evening, I have a good time. Or maybebecauseof the obvious couple theme? It feels like the universe has given me unexpected permission to just focus on Summer the entire night. It’s not like I can focus on any of the other women who are here, and since everyone else is coupled up, it would be rude to ignore her, to be anything but attentive and engaged.
What Idon’tdo is smile. Not because I don’t feel like it or because I’m not having fun.
But because I know Summer’s watching for it. It’s a game between us now, and I have no intention of making it easy on her. Maybe because I don’t want her tostopwatching for it. I don’t want her to stop trying to earn it.
And she does try. All through dinner, she keeps bringing up ridiculous grade school jokes. The one about the hotdogwho won the race and shouted, “I’m the weiner!” The interrupting cow knock-knock joke. Even three different variations of the classic chicken crossing the road joke.
Still, with every joke, she’s never telling them tome.It’s always to Gracie or Eli or Parker, who has a surprising treasure trove of dad jokes and a deadpan delivery that comes very close to making me cave and laugh with everyone else. But I know Summer is making the effort for me. Every joke, her eyes snap back to mine, like she can’t wait to see how close she’s gotten.
