Page 66 of Any Second Now
My eyes jerk up to meet his and he slowly smirks. He definitely caught me gazing at his mouth. But who would blame me? Probably half the women in Fort Collins have drooled over Atticus Knox’s mouth at one point or another.
“Maybe not.” Thank god he doesn’t know what I was thinking.
“I’m not one to judge how much someone’s drunk, but there’s no need to drive if you don’t have to.”
“Right.” I scrunch my face and glance down at my empty wine glass. “Well, guess I’m not going anywhere for a while.”
“I’m not ready to drive yet either. But do you want to go for a walk?” His green eyes envelop me like a deep, dark forest.
“What about—” My voice is low and I nod toward where Lachlan and Barrett disappeared.
“Let’s ditch ‘em.” Atticus huffs. “I can’t hear another word about Lachlan’s girlfriend and I’m not sure how long I can hold myself back from punching Barrett in the face.”
I laugh and Atticus pushes his leg against mine.
“Aren’t you worried that Barrett will replace you as Lachlan’s best friend?”
“No, no I’m not.” Atticus turns his body so that now our knees are knocking fully against each other. He leans his forearm across the back of my chair. The man is watching me like I’m the only person in the room.
“I’m ready when you are.” I curl my toes. Yup. Atticus and I are ditching the others so we can be by ourselves. That—whatever it is—is definitely happening.
“Let’s not fight through the bar. We can leave this way.” Atticus nods to the street.
“Should we tell them we’re going?”
“Nope. I’ll text Lach.”
I nod and follow Atticus when he stands and squeezes through a few tables. He looks over his shoulder at me to make sure I’m there, then holds out his hand behind him. I stare at it for a second and then reach my hand into his. His is cool, and he lightly captures my fingers against his palm.
I breathe deeply even as my heartbeat accelerates. What’s going on here? Atticus looks over his shoulder again as he pulls me through the tables.
When we get past the tables and onto the sidewalk, another thought crashes into my consciousness.
Atticus likes me.
Like really likes me.
I know he had a thing for me during college. But that was light flirting and banter and making fun of each other. We both knew nothing would ever happen between us for at least two reasons: my boyfriend and the fact that he was Lucy’s brother.
Now I wonder—did that crush on me ever go away?
He’s not just being friendly.
There’s something more here.
He’s been kind and helpful since the day I got here. He’s brought me gifts and planned things for us to do. He goes out of his way to see me, invite me places, spend time with me.
But didn’t I just think about how relationships aren’t for me? That I need to figure myself out, crush or not?
There’s people lingering in groups on the sidewalk and Atticus continues to hold onto my hand as we make our way through the crowds. We get to the corner and I stand next to him as we wait for the light to change. He firmly grips my hand, weaving his fingers with mine.
Who is talking about relationships though? I’ve spent a decade trapped in a version of myself that I’m not sure is true anymore. Living in small town Connecticut, married (to two different men), working a well-paying, reliable job, planning a suburban mom future.
That’s all over now, and I think I might be lucky to have escaped.
Lucky that Jacob fucked up so royally.
Because if he hadn’t, I would probably have ended up pregnant and tethered to Jacob and that town forever. There would be no driving the Pink Palace across the country—because if I’m honest, Jacob was never going to plan that trip—or quitting my job to do cross-stitch.
