Page 147 of Falling Backwards
Her laugh is small.“Oh, don’t say that.I’ll be hugging you constantly.”
“Oh, but what if that’s what I want?”
She snorts into a heartier chuckle, which makes me laugh too.
“Get close to me anytime,” I reiterate, and my blood warms a little at the candid invitation and the possibility of her taking me up on it.
Before she can respond, Paxton says, “Luke, you brought the card game, didn’t you?”
My train of thought shifts.I recall being asked to bringWhat Do You Meme?with me…which I didnotrecall being asked to bringbeforeI left home.
I click my tongue.“Nope, sure the eff didn’t.I’m so tired today—I forgot all about it.”
“Old ass,” he quips at the same time Joy brightly assures me it’s okay that I forgot.The others laugh about the different answers.
From here in my personal space, Maggie agrees, “Yeah, it’s okay.I’m really tired myself.I forgot this dinner was even happening until Joy mentioned it a couple hours ago.”
I tell the group, “I’ll swing by home on the way to Pax’s place and get it.”After they approve of that, I add to Maggie alone, “Sorry you’re tired too.Maybe you should’ve gone to sleep at a decent time instead of talking to your boyfriend on the phone for hours.”
“Or maybe my boyfriend should’ve been so boring that sleeping sounded better than talking to him.”
That makes me smile.
I feel her smiling, too, against my chest.
I dip my mouth closer to her ear and say more quietly still, “I have a confession.”
She lifts her head, but not enough to look at me.“Okay.”
“I don’t even know where the card game is.My mom bought it for me last Christmas and I haven’t had a big enough social group to play with, so there’s no telling where I stashed it.I only know it’s somewherein my apartment.”
This earns me full, Maggie-shaking laughter that spreads to me and has our friends asking what we’re cracking up about.
“Nothing,” I lie.I don’t want to let anyone else into this with us.
Maggie doesn’t tell the truth either.
But she does lift a soft, laugh-laced kiss to my jaw.
Fireworks explode in that spot.
And away from it.
And down through all the rest of me.
Tingling, sparking, more than a little breathtaking.
Maggie is kissing some part of me.
Having agreed that something like this would be okay isnotthe same as experiencing it, and I mean that in the absolute best way.
A couple of our friends have started cooing and saying we’re cute; I’m still grinning, but not about them.I can’t place who’s voicing what because it feels like a bit of distance has suddenly grown between my and Maggie’s coat bubble and the rest of the world.
“I can’t quite reach your cheek standing like this,” she says shyly, as if in apology.
I want to tell her not to be sorry.
Instead, I lower my head and press my lips to her jaw right back, firmly, not shyly at all.
