Page 24 of No Place Like Home
“I know you do, but it’s my favorite, and I don’t want to hate you if you drop it.”
“What, like this?” I pretended to trip and almost dropped the cake for real.
“Shit, Summer!” He grabbed my elbow and held me up.
There was that zing of recognition again. Damn. I pulled away and walked faster. “I’m fine. Thank you for being concerned.” I turned toward him. “Or was it the cake you were concerned about, not me?”
“You know, I’m not quite sure.” He winked and walked ahead of me, beating me to the house. He didn’t even wait before he walked in and closed the door in my face. What a dick.
When I got inside, I placed the cake on the counter and got out a Diet Coke as Rowan threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave.
“Go turn on a movie. I’ll be there in a minute,” he said.
“Sure. What do you want to drink?”
“I’ll take a beer. I think there’s a bottle of Summertime Lager in there. I brought some home from Kora and Kai’s.”
There was, and it ed good. I put my open can of Diet Coke in the fridge and grabbed two beers, then got comfortable on the couch.
Rowan joined me and placed the popcorn between us. “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” I said. “I love this one.” I got comfortable and settled in to watch my favorite movie.
“Haven’t you watched this movie a million times?” Rowan asked.
“Hell no,” I said. “More like a billion.”
Rowan turned toward me with laughter in his eyes. “I remember when we were kids, and you said you hoped your children would get their Hogwarts letter one day. Still wish that?”
“Nope,” I said. The fun of the movie evaporated. “Not interested in kids.”
“Well, maybe you should be. You know your internal clock is ticking.”
My internal clock is ticking? Who the hell does he think he is? I grabbed a handful of popcorn and tossed it at him. “You’re a jackass! And, remember, you’re older than me. If my internal clock’s ticking, then yours is screaming ‘last call!’”
He laughed and I swallowed against a rock that had lodged in my throat.
“You know Summertime, we may joke around, but we aren’t getting any younger. We are over thirty.”
I glanced at him and the laughter was gone from his eyes, replaced with something serious I hadn’t seen on his face but a couple times.The first time was when we were freshman in high school and his grandfather had passed away. The second was junior year, when Melinda Johnson broke up with him for one of his teammates.
That one broke my heart also. I couldn’t understand why someone would break up with Rowan. Now, of course, Melinda and that boyfriend were married and had two children and one on the way, so I guess it had been a good thing. But what do I know about healthy relationships? I’ve never had one—well except for Kora, Darlene, and Rowan’s friendship. And that was why I needed to ignore whatever was going on between us. I couldn’t risk losing what we already had.
“Hey,” Rowan said, cutting into my thoughts. “You’re a million miles away. What’s up?”
I shook my head, my eyes glued to the movie. “Nothing. You looked at me all serious and . . . Well, it creeped me out.” I took a sip of my beer. “Not used to you being like that.”
“It’s an important discussion.”
I turned toward him. “How? How is our age and our biological clocks an important discussion? You’re my friend, not my lover.”
He swallowed hard and his gaze suddenly intensified in a way I’d never noticed. That pull toward him I’d felt at the river returned, and the awareness I had at Tonya’s stood up and screamed at me.
My breath caught as his gaze moved over me— skimming my hair, brushing over my eyes, and pausing at my lips. Without thinking, I touched my tongue to my bottom lip and tugged it between my teeth.
His eyes snapped to mine again as the pull between us became stronger. Hot. Impossible to ignore. He edged closer. His handreaching out, his fingers threading through a strand of hair that had come loose from my messy bun.
I should’ve pulled away. Said something. Stopped whatever this was. But then, his fingers tangled deeper, gathered more of my hair, and with a gentle tug, he drew me closer.
Suddenly his lips were on mine—and my traitor mouth, acting on its own, opened to his. When our tongues touched, it was like I’d been struck by lightning, and every one of my senses stood on high alert. He tasted salty from the popcorn, cold from the beer, and just plain delicious. It didn’t take long before the fluttering in my stomach melted into desire. I placed my hand on the side of his face. He moaned and took the kiss deeper.
