Page 43 of Once Upon a Boyband
“And I still have so many questions.”
“Like what?”
She tucks the photo back into the pocket of my shirt. “Like…how long has it been since you’ve seen Freddie? Are you still friends? Does Freddie being here mean there really will be a reunion concert, and if it does, will you get me tickets?”
This one makes me chuckle, and she gives me a playful grin, then keeps going with her list. “I also want to know if you being Deke had anything to do with younotkissing me the other night.”
I rub my thumb over the back of her hand, tracing small circles over her knuckles.
“Those are good questions.”
“Thank you. I just came up with them myself.”
I smile. All things considered, she seems to have recovered from the initial shock pretty well. The fact that we’re holding hands, that she’s asking about kissing me—those have to be good signs.
“I haven’t seen Freddie since the funeral,” I say, answering her first question. “Or any of the guys. I’d like to think they still consider me a friend, but I have not been good at staying in touch, so it won’t surprise me if they aren’t interested in anything but what the concert requires. I have some personal reasons for not wanting to sing with the band again, but I reallydoowe Freddie. If this will help him…I don’t know. Maybe with the right boundaries in place? But it would take a lot to convince me.” I lift her hand and flip it over so our palms are flush, our fingers entwined. “As for the kiss…that's exactly why I didn’t kiss you. I wanted to tell you first. I didn’t want to start with secrets between us.”
Her eyes fall closed, and she tugs her hand out of mine, lifting her palms to her face where she presses them against her cheeks.
“You okay?” I ask.
She gives her head a little shake. “No? Yes? Adam, I had your poster on my wall. Ikissedyour poster before I went to bed every night.” She winces and slides a hand up to cover her eyes. “I swore I wasn’t going to tell you that, but it feels like just the thing to demonstrate how surreal this is for me. You’re…you.And I’m the girl who went to your concert with a mouth full of metal and bad hair and thought her life was changed forever when you crouched down during the show and squeezed my hand.”
“I really did that?”
“You did,” she says, finally letting her hands fall from her face. “We made eye contact and everything.”
“Hard to believe I made eye contact with those eyes and didn’t follow you home.”
She grins and shakes her head, letting out a little laugh. “I would have died,” she says. “I was so awkward and uncomfortable in high school. But you—Midnight Rush in general—you guys made life bearable for me. So to be here with you, joking about kissing?—”
“Wait. Stop right there,” I say.
She cocks her head. “Why?”
I hold her gaze, then lean toward her and lift a hand to her cheek, brushing my thumb over the curve of her jaw. “Because I’m not joking about wanting to kiss you.”
Her eyes flutter closed as I brush my nose against hers, then press a kiss to the corner of her mouth.
She sucks in a stuttering breath. “Ohhh, this does not feel like kissing your poster.”
I let out a low chuckle. “I should hope not.”
When our lips finally touch, it takes Laney a moment to respond, but then she wakes up, kissing me back, her mouth soft and yielding against mine. I lift a hand to the back of her neck, sliding my fingers into her hair while her hands move to my chest.
I sensed that things would change once I kissed her, that it would feel bigger, more monumental than anything I’ve experienced before, but even with that expectation, I’m still unprepared for how this feels. How consuming it is to have her this close.
Laney breaks the kiss, hovering in front of me long enough to take one, two, three shallow breaths. Then she smiles as she leans forward and drops her head against my chest.
“This isn’t happening,” she whispers into my shirt. I can’t tell if she means for me to hear her, so I ignore it, but I can’t stop myself from pressing one more lingering kiss to her forehead.
“I’m coming back from the barn,” Sarah says loudly from somewhere behind us. “I’ll be coming up onto the porch any minute. I sure hope I don’t interrupt anything.”
Laney starts to chuckle. “I like Sarah.”
“I’d like her a lot more if she’d stayed in the barn a few more minutes.”
“Nah. It’s time for me to go. You need to go talk to Freddie anyway.”
