Page 71 of Tempt

“You know this one?” he asks, surprised. “It’s old.”

“It’s not old, it’s ‘Wonderwall’. Oasis is timeless.”

I start to sing along and he smiles.

Seeing him happy, even for a second, is a beautiful thing.

My gaze lands on the closed computer in front of him.

“Does this tenure stuff make you happy?”

“You know, I spent so long telling myself to act happy, it’s been a while since I’ve been there. I’m not sure I’d recognize it.” His gaze slides over things on his shelves, the corner of his desk, back to me. “What’s happiness like for you?”

I rest a shoulder against the doorframe. “Happiness is being okay with how things are and not trying to change them.”

He finishes his song and sets the guitar against the wall. “I think I’m getting there.”

We’re ten feet apart but I swear I can feel him.

There’s tension, but it’s not sex, it’s something else. Something deeper and nameless and comforting.

“That’s good,” I murmur.

With a last shared smile, I turn for the hall.

“You shut people down when they get close.”

His voice stops me.

Awareness has the hairs prickling on my neck. “Is that what you’re trying to do?”

He rises from his chair. Not approaching, simply standing.

“You live in my house. I’ve kissed you. We groped like teenagers in the living room.” There’s a self-deprecating note in his voice. “You know everything about my life and I know next to nothing about yours.”

My heart thuds against my ribs.

“What do you want to know?”

Even in a T-shirt and jeans, he fills the room with his presence.

“What’s your damage, Kat? Who hurt you?”

A breath trembles out between my lips.

There’s no need to say it. It’s a buzzkill.

But the way he’s looking at me, I can’t deny him.

“I spent some time in the hospital when I was a teenager. I had a pretty major surgery. Then a couple more. Hell, I was there enough the doctors must’ve thought I had crushes on them.”

I’m brushing my stomach through the robe, the scars I used to pray would fade.

“There were lots of kids worse off than I was. So I tried to help them out. We did crafts. I kept their spirits up. It took my mind off things.”

“What kind of things?” Daniel’s jaw tics.

That my family forgot me.

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