Page 62 of Breakaway Hearts

“What time is it?” I murmur.

“Two in the morning.”

“Oh shit. We should get some sleep. I don’t want Coach Dunaway coming after me for keeping you up too late.”

Reese sighs and nods. He heaves himself out of bed and disappears into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and when he returns a few minutes later, I take my turn.

When I shuffle back into the room, I glance at the single large bed in the center of it, suddenly feeling awkward. I hesitate as I stand beside the bed frame, but before I can ask if maybe one of us should sleep on the floor or something, he reaches out and tugs me down onto the mattress beside him.

He drags the covers up over us, and a giddy little feeling of happiness runs through me as he pulls me close against his side.

“Thank you for tonight,” he says. “I had a great time.”

“Me too.”

My head is resting on his chest, and he strokes my hair, toying with the curls absently. When his movements eventually go still and his grip on me slackens, I wriggle out from his arms to turn off the dim bedside lamp and the TV.

As I settle back in beside him, I can’t stop myself from staring at him for a long moment. His thick biceps tense a little as he adjusts his position, his handsome features softened with sleep. I want to reach out and trace my finger along his sharp jawline and down the veins in his arms to his hands, which are large and strong. Capable of picking me up. Capable of doing so many things to my body.

My pulse picks up, and my chest aches in a different way than when Reese made me come over and over.

This isn’t good, I realize.

I shouldn’t be thinking about my best friend like this. Shouldn’t be watching him sleep, or dwelling on how much I enjoyed it when he pulled me into his arms to cuddle. I shouldn’t be replaying every moment of what happened between us tonight—both the sex and the non sex parts—on an endless loop in my head, tucking away each memory like something precious. I shouldn’t allow any of the feelings stirring inside me right now to take root.

Because if I actually end up falling for this man?

It’ll be game over.

Chapter22

Reese

The light streaming in from the half-closed curtains wakes me, and I open my eyes to see Callie next to me, still sleeping.

Fuck, she looks gorgeous. Her curly red hair all tangled on the pillow, the early morning sunlight illuminating her skin… it blows my mind that Austin ever used to tell her that she needs to lose weight or dress differently.

The memory of Callie on her hands and knees last night flashes in my memory. She looked so damn good like that, crawling toward me, kneeling in front of me, taking me in her mouth. Austin was a fucking fool for letting her go, and every shitty thing he told her about herself was dead wrong. Because there was absolutely nothing boring about what she did last night with me. She was so enthusiastic. So ready and eager to please me, the same way I want to please her.

I can’t wait to help her discover more about what she wants. What she needs. Because her needs have always been there. It’s just the world and people like Austin who have tried to dim her light.

Fuck that.

Callie is the brightest person I know—not just smart, butbrightin every meaning of the word. She lights up every room she walks into, I swear.

That’s part of the reason I started calling her Firefly. I barely thought about it at the time, blurting out the first thing that popped into my head in the bar that night when Callie first posed as my girlfriend. It was only later on that I realized why exactly I’d chosen the nickname, even without consciously realizing it.

Back when we were counselors at Bear Creek Camp together, the summer we first met, the fireflies always seemed to flock to her. They’d float around her head at night like a halo, and she would look up at them and laugh at the blinking little dots of light. They never did it with anyone else, just her, and it was a running joke among the counselors all summer.

I’m convinced that the reason the fireflies all gravitated toward Callie is because she gives off her own light. She shines so brightly and is so damn full of life, it’s no wonder the fireflies mistook her for one of their own.

I reach out and tuck a piece of hair behind her ear, then let my fingertips linger, tracing the soft lines of her cheek and the curve of her jaw.

Callie lets out a small sound and stirs, and I pull my hand back without thinking. Something in me doesn’t want to let her know that I was watching her like this, admiring her in the morning light. So I close my eyes and blink them open at the same time as her, feigning a yawn.

“Good morning,” I murmur.

“Morning.” She rubs her bleary eyes and smiles at me.

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