Page 44 of Lost in You (Flirting with Forever 1)

Lying together, tangled in the sheets, I let my thoughts drift. How’d we go from friends to fakers to lovers in the blink of an eye? How is it possible that I’ve fallen like this? So hard, so fast, so completely. I’d say it was the freaking stellar sex because she’s amazing, but I’ve had good sex before. It was nothing like this. I’m no idiot. I’m pretty sure it’s like this because I’ve gone and gotten my damn heart involved.

“Shawn?”

I shift my head, my voice low next to her ear. “Yeah, baby?”

“Would you play something on your guitar for me?”

My brow creases, not knowing where the sudden request came from. Her eyes plead with me, and I can’t deny her, so I unwrap myself to fetch the guitar, bringing it back to the bed. I plant myself on the edge next to her. My fingers do their own thing, picking out chords and notes, sometimes strumming other times plucking at the strings, until I settle into the music and let it take me away. The melody I’d been playing around with yesterday comes to me, and I play that for her. I’m humming along as bits and pieces of lyrics skate around in my mind, but even more than that, it’s a feeling for the song that is coming to me out of nowhere, winding right around my heart.

Madison sits up in the bed and scoots behind me, a leg on either side of mine. She sets her hands at my waist and lays her cheek against my back. She hums along as she picks up on the tune.

After a while, I stop and set the guitar aside. She whispers at my back, “And to think this will eventually be a song I’ll be able to sing with you. Shawn, you’re so incredibly talented. You know that, right?”

I shrug, trying to brush off the compliment. Music has always come naturally to me.

“No, really. You’re very good. Where do you get ideas for your songs?”

“Mostly from stories people tell me.”

She nods against my back. “Not from the financial advisor gig, huh?”

“Nope.”

“Shawn, I hope I’m not overstepping here, but—” She pauses to adjust her position and sit at my side. “I think you should go for it. Screw the degree. Do what makes you happy. Do what makes your heart sing.”

That same muscle in my chest expands and pumps harder at her words. I rasp, “You think I could?”

“I know you could. Maybe it’s time for you to take a leap. I used to listen to you when you were just a kid and knew then you had all this talent just waiting to be discovered.” Her palm glides over my back, and she presses a kiss to my bicep before resting her cheek there. She sighs, “I had such a crush.” The minute the words leave her lips, she tenses next to me.

I don’t think she meant to tell me that. “Um, excuse me, what did you just say, Butterfly?”

“Oh. Well …”

“You had a crush on me?”

Chapter 23

Madison

I can’t believe I just freaking told him that. I tilt my head up to look directly into those soulful blue eyes. His expression is one of surprise and … delight? “Um. So. Yeah, maybe I did. You were one of those unattainable guys who I put up on a pedestal. Shawn Mitchell. So handsome with that chiseled face, those stunning baby blues, and the way you played your guitar … Oh my God, you were the star of all my teenage fantasies.”

He shakes his head, a bewildered look on his face. “Why didn’t you ever say anything? You never even approached me. Never looked my way, as far as I knew.”

I squirm next to him as he puts an arm around me, tugging me close. “I was just a silly girl who didn’t know how to talk to guys. I wanted to get to know you so badly, but I didn’t know how to talk to you. We didn’t know each other. You never even noticed me.”

Shawn startles me with a deep, rumbling laugh. “Are you kidding? I noticed you. I didn’t think I had a shot because every time we were in the same room you wouldn’t even look at me.”

I raise a careful hand to my temp

le, rubbing my fingers around in a circle. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” He laughs again.

“Well, crap. I’ve never told anyone I felt that way. I just stewed, obsessed with the way you played that guitar with those big hands of yours and wished in my bed at night that you’d play me.”

He purses his lips for a second. “So, you liked me, but then we went off to college without ever mentioning it. And then you were with Chase.”

I groan. “Don’t remind me. I feel so stupid right now. I was just so timid around guys.” I shake my head. “And then along came Chase, and I’d thought he was so great, and he treated me well at first. I thought he was what I wanted. I thought the timing was perfect. Both of us had graduated, and I’d thought things were heading in a particular direction. I’d started to see a future with him. Maybe that’s why he cheated—maybe he sensed what I wanted and he wasn’t ready to settle down.”

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