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The sound of the Vault door closing drew their attention. The Vault doorneverclosed.
“No.” Sophie raced past Mitch to the door and yanked on the handle, but it didn’t budge. She groaned, her shoulders tense and her hands fisted at her sides.
“For fuck’s sake, Levi. This isn’t the time.” Sophie rattled the door once more, then turned and sagged against it.
Mitch shuffled closer, noting how glassy her big blues were. It was going to be the most pointless question to ask, but the words slipped out anyway. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” And with that, her expression shuttered in a way it hadn’t since his first week.
If she left, it would be his fault. Proof he hadn’t done enough or tried hard enough.
Good thing for him, he wasn’t a quitter. He’d roll up his sleeves and try and try again. Fuck Yoda. Trying was the shit. And no one could out-try Mitch Danger Chill Langford.
He spun his cap backward. It was time to get serious about this.
“Don’t do that. If you’re angry, then be angry. Yell if you need to, but don’t fake your feelings with me. I want every side of you, even the parts you think will scare me off. Give me everything, because I’ll never ask for less than all of you.”
ChapterTwelve
SOPHIE
Jesus, not the backward cap.
How the hell was she supposed to stay mad at him when he looked like that? When he looked like a Muppet with that tuft of hair exploding out of the gap?
Sophie closed her eyes, inhaling deep. Levi had picked the absolute worst time to stick his ghostly nose where it didn’t belong, and now Mitch had cornered her, brown eyes blazing, and called her on her shit. And she couldn’t even jump into his arms and smother him with kisses because her body had betrayed her this morning.
“Sophie?”
Oh.
She squeezed her eyes tighter. His voice was impossibly soft. At the sound of it, Sophie’s heart melted, and any argument left in her dissolved. Guilt followed. Because she couldn’t promise to give him what he wanted. And Mitch deserved it. The whole girlfriend experience.
“That was awful. I’m sorry. You don’t deserve that.”
“No, I don’t.”
“I don’t have any experience here, Mitch. Not with dating, not with opening myself up to people. Every time I’ve ever tried, it’s gone badly, and I’ve been left feeling like a fool.”
“So you’re mad because I’mnottreating you badly. You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?”
“Yes,” she groaned. “I do. How are you so nice all the time?”
“You’re nice too. You’ve just been hurt before.”
Sophie scoffed. “I’m pretty sure the rest of the team thinks I’m a bitch.”
“They think you’re badass, actually. I caught them strategizing ways to get you to go out with them. It was kind of adorable.”
She frowned. “You did not.”
“Yes, I did.” Mitch moved closer, and the very presence of him was a balm. “And I know you’re the one who keeps us stocked with the good coffee. You’re not as sneaky as you think you are.”
Sophie couldn’t stand the distance any longer. Once Mitch was within reach, she pulled him in by his belt loops. The moment his hands slid into place around her waist, the last knot of tension in her stomach unwound.
“Every time we moved, I had to start over. Introduce myself again, find my place. By the time I got to college, it was easier to focus on school than it was to worry about finding forever friends. Especially once people knew who my mom was. Because with that recognition came assumptions about who I was.”
The cotton of Mitch’s shirt was soft and warm. She soaked in the comfort of his proximity and closed her eyes, letting herself enjoy a few seconds of his steady breathing.
