Page 39 of I Choose You
Reid’s eyes darkened under the dim lighting, his brow rising. “I didn’t come all the way here so you could sit at a table, tapping your pretty little heels along to the music.”
“Really. I’m good just sitting here,” I told him.
Reid expelled a breath, pushed his chair back, and rose. He reached his hand out for me to take, an expectant smirk on his face.
I had to bite my lip to keep the weird, giddy feeling in my chest locked up. I put my smaller hand in his large palm, and Reid pulled me to my feet, leading me to the dance floor. His head was bopping, shoulders shimmying, feet shuffling a solid two-step to the beat. My head tipped back laughing as he circled around me, dancing his terrible dance moves.
The beat changed mid-song. A rendition of Alicia Keys’s “If I Ain’t Got You” started to play. I stopped dancing, and so did Reid. I turned to go back to the table when Reid’s fingerswrapped softly around my wrist. He brought my hand to his shoulder, stepping in close to me.
“We can sit, if you want,” I said. My heartbeat pulsed behind my ribs erratically.
“We came out here to dance. Let’s dance.”
I wrapped my other arm around his neck. He stepped in even closer. His fingers grazed my bare back, barely touching me, but the contact was enough to light sparks across my skin. We swayed to the music together. It was so easy. When did it get to be so easy, so familiar, to be in Reid’s arms? I should pull myself away, create a little space between us, but I didn’t want to. I had never felt so comfortable yet aware of every place we touched. Reid’s hand came to my face, his thumb softly tracing a line from my jaw to my ear. He leaned his head on mine. A soft kiss brushed across my temple just as the song ended. I pulled away slowly, dropping my arms from his shoulders and immediately missing the heat of his body against mine.
“Drink,” Reid said, blinking quickly. “Um, I’m going to grab a drink. Do you want something?”
“Yeah. I could use a water.” And something a whole lot stronger. Reid trailed behind me off the dance floor, but all my thoughts were on how it felt to sway to the music in his arms, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart, the feel of his fingers on my skin.
13
Reid
Winter was officially here. It was cold as ice as my crew and I were offloading the stained glass sections for the windows. The panes were heavy as fuck and extremely valuable. It was going to take all hands on deck all day to get this truck fully offloaded without breaking anything. I was already down a man since Dale had to work another job for me today fixing Kelly Woodson’s roof. Luckily, Wyatt had some free time available and agreed to help us out for the morning before he had to leave for an appointment. We had a pretty good system down, working in teams to get everything moved.
I had already been out to Kelly’s place twice this month for repairs that didn’t seem to need a carpenter, so when she called about her roof, I gave her the names of a few roofers that I knew. She refused to call them, getting so worked up over the idea that she was in tears. I agreed to look at her roof, but what I didn’t tell her was that someone from my crew would be out there, not me.
“Things are really coming along here, man. It’s looking good. How’s things been with Claire?” Wyatt asked.
“Fine. She’s not here today. Had some all-day meeting with her boss.” That was all I knew. We hadn’t talked much since the wedding a few weeks ago. She had tried to keep things friendly when we got back to town, but the last thing I needed was my crew, or my family, to find out I took off to another state for three days to help Claire out of a jam, donning a suit and tie and parading around some social elitists that I wouldn’t have been caught dead around any other time. I would never hear the end of it.
Especially if they knew how she had taken over my every thought. How I could still feel the way her soft lips felt on mine. Hear her breath hitch just before I captured her mouth.
Shit. This was exactly why I had been avoiding her. With just one kiss, she had me all tangled up.
So I kept my distance instead. It was better that way.
“You should bring her to dinner at Dad’s one week. She got along with everyone during the tree lighting. I know Maeve and her still keep in touch.” I stilled, causing Wyatt to jam me with the pane we were carrying. “Jesus, you alright? Why’d you stop?”
“Yeah, sorry. Thought I stepped on something.” Had Claire told Maeve about me showing up at her parents’ house unannounced? Did Wyatt know now? He hadn’t said anything about it, so maybe not. Or maybe he was just waiting for me to say something about it. Fuck that. It wasn’t any of his business. He could just keep on waiting.
We set our load along the wall where we were storing all the panels. I turned to head back for the next one, but Wyatt grabbed my shoulder to stop me. “What’s going on with you? You seem edgy. Talk to me.”
Wyatt had always been the person I could talk to aboutanything. He was the oldest of us Wilders and the most laid-back. Except when he and Maeve lost Jane for a bit. That had pretty much gutted him, to the point that he lost Maeve too. But typically, he was pretty chill. Luke was the person I went to when I needed advice, but Wyatt was the person for talking things out, for when I needed a shoulder to lean on. He was the first person I’d gone to when Kayleigh and I broke up. When Luke would tell me what to do and how to act, Wyatt just let me fall apart, knowing that he would be there to help pick up the pieces.
I glanced around the doorframe, peeking into the vestibule to make sure Richie and Shawn were still outside getting their next load from the truck.
“I don’t know, man. I feel like ever since the tree lighting, since that night, things kind of shifted between us.”
Wyatt nodded, his lips twitching as he tried to hold back a smirk. “I mean, you did race down there like a bat outta hell the moment she called.”
“She didn’t have anyone else to call. She needed me,” I said.
“So, you like her. What’s wrong with that?”
“I didn’t say I liked her.” I sighed. “I just don’t like being away from her.”
Wyatt blinked a silent reply. “Okay. Sure. We’ll pretend those are two different things.” I shot him a glare. When he was in denial about his feelings for Maeve, he was happy to say that those two feelings were entirely unrelated, but now that he was all in love with her, he couldn’t see it. Not that I was in denial about my feelings for Claire. I wanted her around at all times—just so I could watch out for her and make sure she was okay—while actively trying to avoid getting closer to her.
