Page 136 of Rule 2: Never Join a Christmas Dating Show
I elbow him, and he kisses me. He pulls away. “Seriously, that’s horrible. Super horrible.”
“It’s okay. I don’t think they’re who I thought they were. I’m fairly confident Ella knew you didn’t apply.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” Luke says, stroking my cheeks. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I would do it all differently if I could.”
“I know.” I pull his arms around me.
“Just kiss me,” I say.
“Bossy baby.”
“Uh-huh.”
His eyes dance. “I have something else I want to tell you.”
I groan. “No more talking.”
“I think you’ll like this,” he says. “Tell me if you don’t.”
“Okay. What is it?” I cross my arms.
“I love you,” he says, and now my heart is super swelling.
Did I hear that correctly? “Wait.... You mean...?”
“Sorry,” he says, kissing the corner of my lips. “We have to go back to kissing. I promised you.”
I squirm from his soft, super succulent lips and very gifted and not soft at all tongue. “Wait...Did you...?”
He pauses kissing me. Heat spreads over my cheeks. Maybe I misheard. I probably misheard. Because Luke couldn’t love me. Not really. No. Because no one knows me better than Luke. No one knows all the parts of me as well as he does.
“Never mind,” I mumble and lean back toward him.
I want his lips on mine again and I want to forget whatever crazy thing I imagined. Because that couldn’t be real. He couldn’t actually...
“I love you,” Luke says again, and my swirling emotions calm.
I stare at him.
He stares at me.
“Like...”
“Like completely and utterly. Like people love each other in movies and songs.”
“Oh.” I smile.
“But I’m—”
“You’re perfect,” he says.
“I love you too,” I say, the words tumbling out.
“How convenient,” he says, and I laugh because I’m happy, but also because that’s the only convenient thing about us.
Then he kisses me some more and does a whole lot of other interesting things to me on the couch as my heart skips contentedly, and I try to forget about all the reasons I should not be in his arms.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
