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I saw the shadow of that grin—and heard the echo of his words—long after his headlamps had disappeared from my view.
***
I was early.
Only half an hour early, but early all the same. I hadn’t even checked my clock when I’d left. I just wanted to get here. Beat Dex to it. Put my head in the right place.
The whiskey had won yesterday morning. I might have been sober by the time I went to sleep, but I’d forgotten to drink water, and I deserved every second of the headache that had plagued me for the entire day.
It’d also done some addling to my thoughts in that I hadn’t been able to think about what he’d said. Honestly, I didn’t want to. I could take the flippant, off-the-cuff remarks about looking at me, but straight up saying he wanted to kiss me?
Well, hello, inner teenage self. I missed you.
I leaned forward and rested my head on the steering wheel.
I wish he’d just damn well done it. If I was going to overthink this, I may as well have had something tangible to overthink.
Because, yet again, I wished he’d done it. Wished he’d taken the moment and kissed me.
Three times he’d tucked my hair behind my ear.
Twice he’d almost kissed me.
Once, just once, I wanted him to do it.
To get it over with so I’d stop wondering. To get it out of his system if he had to. To kill the elephant that I now knew would be sitting in the corner of the garage until it happened—if it happened.
To kill the tension that would undoubtedly be there, no matter what we did or said.
Knock. Knock.
I screamed, sitting back upright and hitting the back of my head on the headrest.
Outside my car, Dex roared with laughter.
I set my jaw and got out. “What the hell? That wasn’t funny!”
He leaned back against his truck, clutching his stomach. “Maybe not for you. Were you sleeping?”
“No. I was thinking I’m early and there’s no coffee. Now I’m thinking I already want to kill you!” I smacked his arm.
He grabbed my wrist, his lips curving into a half-grin. His shining eyes met mine. “Good morning to you, too.”
I snatched my wrist from him. “God, I hate you.”
“I know. I get a thrill every time you tell me.” He pulled the keys out of his pocket with another laugh. “Come on. If you haven’t had coffee, I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”
I pulled my purse out of my car and locked it. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I know the answer to that, and it’s silence. I’ve already had that conversation with my still-hungover sister today.”
“Oh no.” I followed him into the staff area. “That bad, huh?”
“Well, I’d just gotten home when my mom called and said I needed to rescue Roxy. Greta was plying her with shots, and she was so drunk she thought the vodka was water.”
I put down my purse. “How do you even mix that up?”
“I think you get so drunk you pass out, but not so drunk you choke on your own vomit.” He shrugged and turned on the coffee machine. “It’s a miracle she didn’t vomit at all, actually.”
I winced when he set a cup going and turned around. “That sounds…fun?”
“No. I should have ignored the call and pretended to be asleep.”
“There he is. There’s the asshole who went missing the entire evening on Saturday.”
He grinned, eyes dancing with silent laughter. “I told you, I was behaving. Now, all bets are off.”
That sounded like he wasn’t just talking about being an asshole.
Ahem.
“Well, at least you stuck to the ground rules,” I said. “Just.”
He folded his arms, gaze locked onto mine. “Are they still in place?”
“Always. Not that you care.”
Another grin. “That sounded like permission to break them.”
My lips parted. “It was nothing like that!”
He poured cream into the cup and stirred. “Calm down, shrilly pants. I’m fucking with you.”
“I will pour that coffee over your head, Dexter Ryne.”
“It’s kinda hot when you full-name me like that.”
I took a deep breath in. One. Two. Three…
“Here.” He held out the coffee. “I made you a bitch pill.”
I glared at him without taking the mug.
His shoulders trembled as he held in a laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry, my tongue slipped. I meant a coffee.”
“One. Two. Three. Four. Five…”
He laughed as I counted under my breath.
“Take it. Come on. It’s the last of it and I have to go and get more before I do something stupid.” He pushed it closer to me.
I took it. “Thank you. And you assume you haven’t already done something stupid.”
His gaze dropped to my lips and lingered there for a moment before he raised his eyes back up to meet mine. “Not the kind of stupid I’m talking about.”
Once again, he left me speechless and staring after him as he left.
