Page 94 of Fake As Puck
“I’ll sleep in your bed tonight, but I’m not sleeping with you,” she whispers.
I smile, kissing her cheek. “That’s fine by me.”
Later, after we’ve eaten Thai food and watched half a movie and she’s gone upstairs to shower, I’m cleaning up the kitchen when I see her flip-flops by the front door.
Small. Pink. Completely ordinary.
But they’re in my entryway, next to my shoes.
I stare at them for a long moment, and I feel something in my chest expand and tighten at the same time.
If I can’t convince her to move in with me, I’m doomed.
25
I can’t stop replaying the kiss.
Not just the kiss from last night, though that’s definitely on repeat in my brain, but the one from earlier in the kitchen. The soft, deliberate one that felt like a promise.
Every look since then has felt charged. Every accidental touch has sent electricity through my entire nervous system. Every breath feels significant.
I’m losing my mind.
After my shower, I put on shorts and a tank top and try to convince myself to act normal. We’re taking things slow, remember? We agreed on slow.
Except nothing about this feels slow.
I pull on a tank top and soft shorts, tell myself I’m just going to the living room to hang. Maybe watch a movie. Eat something that isn’t crackers from the guest room snack basket.
That’s it.
Just a totally normal evening.
I pad down the hall, already rehearsing something casual to say… something chill and breezy like,Hey, want to watch a murder doc and not make out?
Then I turn the corner and see him.
Shirtless.
Dripping.
His chest is flushed from whatever workout he just did, his hair damp and a little wild, his breath uneven like maybe he sprinted laps around the driveway. Or bench pressed the SUV. Or fought his feelings with cardio.
I stop. Just… stop.
Because holy hell.
He looks up. Sees me.
And stills.
The moment stretches, heavy and awkward and full of all the things I haven’t said. He’s said everything. I have only said let’s take it slow.
“Hey,” I manage, voice totally not functioning right.
“Hey.” His smile is soft, but his eyes are sharp. Watching me like I’m a lit match and he’s already caught fire.
“You, uh…” I motion vaguely to all of him. “Go for a run or wrestle a bear?”
