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He turned back to the movie.
“Do you like puzzles?”
He frowned. “Fuck no. They take too long and require too much thinking. Give me a game of Monopoly or Pictionary and I’m there.”
I laughed, then suddenly asked. “Do you like oysters?”
He shivered. “God, no. The texture of them creeps me out.”
Oh no. No. No. No. No. Stop playing this game, Clare. Stop.
“Want another beer?” Wes asked, slipping out from the blanket.
“Sure,” I answered as I turned back and rested my feet on the coffee table. I closed my eyes and attempted to calm my beating heart. I was playing with fire. He was still in love with his ex, and no matter how much we had in common, Wes didn’t think of me as anything other than a friend.
When Wes walked back over to me, he handed me the beer then flopped down on the sofa, pulled the cover up, and continued watching the movie. I barely felt like I could move, let alone breathe. If I looked at him now, I’d want to kiss him. No, I’d want to crawl onto his lap and then kiss him.
Running my hand over my forehead, down my face to my neck, I drew in a breath. It was so hot in the apartment. I pulled the blanket off of me.
“Before I got out of your boss’s car, why didn’t you mention you worked for the Boston Red Sox?”
It suddenly felt like someone dropped a lead brick into my stomach. He was only here, being nice like this because he wanted something from me.
“I don’t know. I’ve worked there for so long it doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. I started when I got out of college.”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “You mentioned that part before. That you still worked at same place since you graduated college. That must be pretty damn cool.”
“It is. It’s also stressful sometimes.”
“I bet it is. That’s great that you worked your way up, Clare.”
I waited for him to ask about tickets or how he could meet the players. When he didn’t say anything else, I felt myself relax.
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this whole thing with Mandy. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
My mouth felt like cotton, but I somehow got the words out.
“You’re in love. Sometimes love makes you do crazy things.”
Wes looked at me for a long moment before saying, “I guess so.”
After that we both focused on watching the movie in comfortable silence. Once the movie was over, I looked over to see Wes was sound asleep.
Leaning closer to look at him, I couldn’t help but smile. His long black eyelashes were beautiful. Why was it men had such amazing lashes? His brown hair was a mess from him pushing his hands through it all the time, but it looked good messy. I wasn’t sure if it was a habit or something he did when he was nervous or was anxious. He seemed pretty relaxed all evening.
Then you had those lips of his. I briefly closed my eyes and thought about those lips on mine and how wonderful they had felt.
I sat back on the sofa and internally sighed. This was not fair. Of all the men in the world, why did I have to be attracted to Wes Ward?
My fingers came up to my mouth as I remembered his eyes on my lips early tonight.
Ugh. He doesn’t want you, Clare!
He wants another woman. Mandy. The cheater. With her perfect hair, perfect body, perfect makeup. She had looked atme like I was beneath Wes, and that had bothered me more than I wanted to admit.
Covering my face with my hands I willed myself to stop thinking about it. I stood, went to my bedroom and got a pillow. I put it on the sofa so that when he woke up, he could just lie down. I turned and picked up the beer bottles and ever so quietly put them in the recycle bin. Then I made my way to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I decided to just sleep in the clothes I had on since I’d clearly gotten comfortable as soon as I got home.
One last check on Wes and I slipped into my bedroom and softly shut the door.
