She flushed. “Sorry. Let me get your change.”
After she brought it, I hurried out to the truck, where I remembered I had no milk. Belatedly I texted my mom back: sorry, something came up.
Rob?
Wow. Where the hell did she find that emoticon? I tilted my head, both revolted and impressed.
We are not having this conversation.
It took some finesse to start the truck in this weather, but I got it running, then I called Rob. “Do you mind if I come by tonight?”
“Please. I miss you.” The simple words took the sting out of the rest of the day, long and confusing as it had been.
We needed to talk about so many things, but right now, Avery seemed the most pressing. I drove carefully from the pancake house out to his place. The trees overhead made it extracreepy, and I heaved a long sigh when I parked outside his house. Before I could get out, the garage opened, and Rob waved me in. Since the space was clean, I didn’t hit anything.
God, he was sweet. He gathered me close as soon as I hopped out. I could’ve stood in his arms forever, but the cold air made me shiver.
“You know you don’t need to call, right? You can come over anytime you want.”
“Yeah?”
Ignoring the rhetorical question, he shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it over the top of my head, then led us toward the front door. “Go inside. I’ll close up out here.”
As ever, the house was warm and inviting. First off, I noticed how gorgeous the dining room looked. He’d painted the walls according to sample cards I’d picked out, a sunny hue that complemented the natural wood. Now he had a table in place, and I recognized his handiwork in the craftsmanship. If I knew him at all, his home would end up like a showroom full of samples that people could admire and covet, just as I had with his bed.
You’re smarter than anyone gives you credit for. Even you.
“Beautiful,” I said as he closed the door behind me.
“I was just thinking that.” Only I could tell he wasn’t talking about the room.
I fought a blush. When I turned, getting my first good look at him, I stumbled in shock. “What happened?”
“Oh, this?” Sheepish, he touched a hand to his split and swollen lip. “Avery came by earlier. I thought she wanted to talk, but she popped me in the mouth and stomped off.”
“Wow. Well, I don’t think you’ll have any problems with her in the future.”
Alarmed amusement flickered in his expression. “You didn’t kill her, did you?”
Quietly I summed up the encounter, and he touched my cheek gently, tilting my face toward the light. “God, I’m sorry she went off. Our breakup wasn’t your fault.”
“I wasn’t sorry about it, and I didn’t exactly wait the usual cooling-off period before I was making out with you in public.”
“You’re exaggerating that kiss,” he chided.
“I’m not. You don’t even know how long I waited for it.”
“Since I just finished The Fallen Throne, I think I do.”
Oh, God. “You kept reading that?”
“Every word. It’s my favorite book now.”
The quip nearly popped out—how many books have you read? Meant as self-deprecation, but that wasn’t how Rob would take it. So I swallowed the urge to take refuge in humor as a defense mechanism. With him, it was worth some discomfort to meet my emotions head-on.
“I am awash in humiliation,” I said honestly. “But...I’m happy, too, because you actually liked my adolescent ramblings.”
“It helps that I’m the star.” He brushed his lips tenderly against my temple.
A shiver ran through me, and I rose up on tiptoes to give the kiss back. I placed it on the sharp curve of his jaw. God, he has a gorgeous profile. Objectively speaking, I wasn’t hot enough for people to understand why he’d want me. I still couldn’t believe he did.
“You missed a spot.” He pointed to the other side of his face, and I nuzzled him.
His lashes drifted down, giving him a sleepy, sexy look. Then he pulled me closer, leaving no doubt as to how he felt. I pressed against him with a little whimper. Impossible to believe this is Rob and me. His hands drifted to my hips.
“You’re making it really hard to take things slow.”
I grinned. “I could say the same.”
Rob cleared his throat and stepped back. “So...” That reminded me of why I was here. Not for sex.
Please, sex? No, I’m being patient. Dammit.
“Right. I really came by to ask...do you mind if I make friends with Avery? Would that be weird for you?” In the name of honesty, I had to add, “Even if it is, I’ll probably do it anyway. But it’ll be over your noted objections.”
“I guess I’m wondering why, more than anything. She can be...difficult.” That was such a Rob way to put it.
“She seems really alone. And I don’t know—I guess it feels like Jillian wins if her making shit up results in Avery hating me forever. I want something good to come out of that badness. Does that make any sense?”
“Yeah. I hope you can get through to her. God knows I never did.” He struggled to find the words, but not in a way that seemed to trouble him. “With us, it seemed like she was always playing a role, performing even when we were alone.”
“I know all about that,” I muttered.
High school had been a nightmare. The first two years, I was sick so much, I nearly got held back. But it wasn’t an illness a doctor could cure, though therapists tried. Only my mom yelling about emotional trauma in her housecoat convinced the principal to let me do summer school instead. After my sophomore year, I decided, no more. No more of this. I hate Lauren Barrett, I hate everything about her. So I changed her clothes, her attitude, her hair, her fear, pulled myself into a different shape and lived in that skin for five long years. I rarely wrote fan fiction, stopped playing on the computer for hours. The worst thing about that? Nobody questioned it. Nobody—not even Nadia—said, Wow, what’s wrong? You’re not yourself. It was more like everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief and thought, Thank God, she’s finally normal.
“You don’t do it, though. Not with me.”
“That’s because you’re my safe place, Rob. You always have been.”
He sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes kindling to an electric-blue that curled my toes. “That’s the best thing anyone’s ever said to me.”