Page 57 of The One Night Match
I drag my bottom lip between my teeth because she’s not wrong. And if I’m honest with myself, the more time I spend with him, the less I want any of the things Lexi and I have planned to succeed.
“You have no idea,” I murmur, shaking my head at Cruz’s admission in the shower last night.
I don’t know how he’s so sure of us, how he can possibly know that he won’t ever be with another woman, because I don’t have that kind of certainty about anything in my life.
I’m not even sure I truly like being a librarian or if I just love how much it irritates my parents.
But Cruz is all in. No hesitation. No doubts. And I have to admit, I’m a little jealous. I wish I could have that same certainty.
“He got my name tattooed on him,” I tell her, pulling a powder blue dress from the rack and then immediately sliding it back into place. It’s the kind of dress I always reach for, but it’s not the kind I’m expected to wear to an event like this.
“He what?” Lexi screeches, making everyone in the store turn to look at us.
“Keep your voice down,” I snap, but I can’t help but giggle at how free she is. She’s not worried about what anyone thinks about her, about fitting in or being the perfect Mafia princess. Even when I was adamant that I didn’t care about any of that, there was still a part of me that was desperate to fit the mold the way my sisters did. But Lexi is unabashedly her.
Her fingers wrap around my bicep before she tugs me toward the changing rooms and shoves me inside one, following me in. “You just told me my brother—the one I’m helping you try to turn off you—tattooed your name on his body. Forgive me for being a little surprised.”
I half laugh, placing my glass down on the small table in the corner. “He got it right after the wedding, but I only saw it for the first time last night.”
“Where is it?”
My cheeks heat. “You don’t want to know.”
Her mouth drops open a moment before her laugh fills the otherwise quiet boutique. “That crazy motherfucker.”
“Yep.”
“So you’re telling me, we swapped out all his furniture for the most hideous, brightly colored pieces we could find, turned his office into a cat jungle gym for an animal that despises him, and brought an ugly dog into the house, and he’s only falling for you harder?”
I sigh. “So it would seem.”
Her body shakes with the force of her giggles. “Babe, I hate to break this to you, but I don’t think you’re getting rid of him. I think it’s probably time you start accepting that this could be your life moving forward.”
I swallow, my chest tightening at the thought, but not out of panic. Not the way it did a month ago when I was told I had a match and would be marrying him without ever meeting him first. Not the way it did when I found out my new husband killed his own father. Not the way it did when I walked down the aisle and found my one-night stand at the altar waiting for me.
No, it tightens with hope, and with an emotion I truly never thought I would feel after Jeremy. One I’m not willing to entertain to myself or anyone else right now.
“I know,” I whisper.
“Does this mean we can call off Operation Hideously Expensive Art?”
I bark out a laugh at the name and nod. “Yeah. It might be for the best.”
Lexi’s fist shoots up, and she lets out another loud holler. “You know what this means?”
“What?”
“I get to keep my sister!”
And I can’t lie. The idea of keeping her in my life as a sister-in-law fills me with almost as much joy as keeping Cruz as my husband does.
Ben takes our dresses, leading us toward the town car Cruz insisted we take today rather than the Uber Lexi suggested.
“Anymore stops for you, ladies?” the older man asks. It took over a week, but I finally caught sight of him a few days ago, his dark hair peppered with white, and his kind eyes rimmed with the evidence of a life well spent.
“I think we’re done, Ben. Thank you again for driving us around.” I smile, pulling the back door open before he can reach for it.
“You two are much more enjoyable to have in the car than Mr. De Luca. He just barks orders into his phone and grumbles the whole time.”
