Something worse.
I cleared my throat and looked away before I did something I’d regret.
“TV,” I said, already reaching for the remote like I wasn’t fighting off kissing her.“We’re watching something until you crash.”
“Wow,” she murmured, “romantic.”
I gripped the remote tight in my hand.“It’s not supposed to be romantic.”
“Then why are you blushing?”
“I’m not.”
She smirked like she’d won something.Whatever.I was not going to rise to that.
I thumbed through the apps on the screen until I found some random action movie.The kind with terrible dialogue and explosions every ten minutes, then tossed the remote on the coffee table.
“Perfect,” she said.“Loud enough to distract me.Bad enough that I won’t have to think.”
“Exactly.”
She slid closer without making a big deal of it, but it was enough that her knee brushed mine.She didn’t pull away.I didn’t either.
The movie started.
She shifted toward me, and I didn’t move.
Somehow, don’t ask me how, her head found my chest.My arm found the back of the couch behind her.Her legs curled up under her, and she brushed against my thigh.
I pretended it didn’t make my pulse pick up.
She pretended she didn’t notice.
A minute passed.Then five.Then—
HRRRRF!
Lost, from the recliner, let out a snore so violent the whole damn chair vibrated.
Shay jerked.I startled.On screen, someone got blown through a window.
We both burst out laughing.
The real kind of laughter.The kind that shoves tension straight out of your ribs.
“Holy crap,” she whispered and covered her mouth.“Is he alive?”
“No,” I said.“Pretty sure he died fifteen minutes ago and the snoring is just muscle memory.”
She giggled into my shirt, and her forehead brushed my shoulder.“That’s so mean.”
“It’s accurate.”
Lost snorted again, somehow louder this time, like he was proving my point.
Shay shook with another laugh, softer now, and the sound relaxed something in me I didn’t even realize was wound that tight.
She got quieter.
