Page 68 of Feels Like the First Time

“I haven’t seen you at the inn,” Zoe said as if she hadn’t just strolled uninvited into his parents’ house and startled the hell out of him. Her smile was friendly, but her eyes were sharp. She might be playing nice, but she hadn’t forgotten his betrayal.

That was okay with him, though. He’d take her any way he could get her. Just as long as she gave him a chance to talk. To explain. Hell, given that there was no explanation, he’d settle for groveling.

“I’m grounded,” he told her, only half joking. “My grandma decided I needed to cool off and have some thinking time. I’m pretty sure she just wanted to make sure I didn’t pick any more fights in the lobby.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Your last one was a winner.” She shot him a mischievous grin. “You gave Brad Young a fat lip and a nasty black eye.”

Dex couldn’t stop his gloating smile. But then he looked closer at Zoe and saw the stress on her face, the tense set of her shoulders, and his grin faded.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“You didn’t come to me.”

“You told me not to.”

“Since when do you do as I tell you?”

“Always,” Dex said with a rueful shrug. “I’ve always tried to do whatever you wanted, Zoe. Whether you realized it or not, all I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.”

She smiled. A simple, sweet look that accepted his statement at face value. The deep freeze around Dex’s heart melted a little as hope peeked through. His answering smile was filled with relief.

“I’m sorry I lied to you,” he said quietly.

She arched one brow, her eyes cautious. He could see the hurt lurking in their green depths. He figured he’d start with the first issue, then move on to the bigger one. “Zoe, I promise, I didn’t make up that nickname.”

She frowned, obviously having expected him to go straight to the Gandalf issue. Before she could say anything, he forced his words out. “I was behind it, though.”

Her mouth dropped open.

“I set up the interruption by his parents that ruined your date with Brad. I was jealous, hated the idea of you going out with him. Anyone, but especially him.” Dex shrugged, not sure how to excuse his seventeen-year-old self’s idiocy. “I guess he was humiliated by how it all turned out and lashed out. But it was you that got hurt.”

Zoe still stared, her eyes huge. Finally, she said, “I can’t believe I never noticed you had a thing for me way back in school.”

Dex laughed. “I’ve had a thing for you forever.”

She smiled. A tiny, cautious curve of her lips. Hope unfurled in Dex’s belly.

“I wasn’t using you,” she told him quietly.

Dex’s smile fell away. Uncomfortable and not sure how to proceed, he shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

“I know you weren’t,” he said with a sigh. “You didn’t hide anything, you didn’t play me in any way.”

She arched a teasing brow, breaking the tension and making Dex grin. “Okay, you didn’t play me in any way I didn’t want you to. I’m…” He blew out a frustrated breath and admitted, “…paranoid, I guess. I overanalyze, overstrategize. It’s an occupational hazard, I suppose.”

“Speaking of…?” She didn’t have to say anything else.

“I didn’t really lie,” he said. Her brows shot up and she shook her head. Then she turned on her heel as if to leave. “Wait. I didn’t. I was Gandalf. I developed him, I created his games. But I sold the rights, and with them I signed a gag order.”

She stopped, glanced over her shoulder to gauge the truth of his words. Dex wanted to protest the doubt, but knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on.

Thankfully, he watched her turn back around. The move made her knee-length coat fly open a little at the hem. He got an intriguing glimpse of what he’d swear were fishnet stockings.

Dex’s mouth started to water.

“So you’re not designing games anymore?” she clarified, pulling his attention away from her knees and the sudden burning need to know what she was wearing under that heavy wool jacket.

“Not as Gandalf,” he confirmed. “Leeton owns the rights to those games, the name and persona. But I’ve started my own company. Still in video-gaming, but I’m expanding. I’ve got ideas, a lot of connections and want to go out on my own. Avigraph is mine. You saw the prototype. Well, sort of. The system avatars I’ve designed are usually dressed.”

Her green eyes warmed and she tucked a curl behind her ear. Wandering around the kitchen now, she fiddled with the teapot on the stove, then rubbed a flower petal between her fingers. Dex waited, staring and wishing he had X-ray vision.

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