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My eyebrows shot up as she sent me a dreamy smile. “All right. It’s time for you to go to bed.”
“Are you coming with me?” She giggled, clutching the water.
I rounded the island and gripped her upper arms to direct her to her room. She was clearly drunker than she was letting on, but that was what happened when you drank three glasses of wine before you ate dinner.
“Jay’s taking me to bed.” She giggled more, but this time, it was all interspersed with hiccups. “Oh, dear.”
Oh, dear, was about right. That was exactly how I felt right about now.
“Here we are.” I pushed open her bedroom door. It was so much tidier than mine was. I had clothes strewn across the floor where I’d tossed them into my laundry basket and missed, but there wasn’t as much as a trailing cable on hers. Her desk didn’t even have an empty glass on it, and there was already a coaster on the nightstand. Even her damn trash can was empty.
It was amazing how two such different people were such good friends.
“Can you get yourself changed?”
Shelby turned, eyes widening, and looked at me. “You want to undress me?”
Yes.
“No,” I replied. “But I don’t want you hurting yourself again if I leave you alone.”
“Ummm.” She looked around the room. “I think I’ll be okay.” She gave me a small smile.
“You sure?”
“Sure.” Shelby turned her body toward me and touched her hand to my upper arm. “Thank you for putting up with my antics with your family.”
My lips pulled to one side. “Yeah, you’re making it hard for me to ever bring a girl home to them because I don’t think anyone will compare to you.”
She dipped her head, mouth curving slightly, and looked up at me through thick, dark eyelashes. “They have to get through me first anyway.”
“Now that’s the scary part.”
She laughed, lightly swatting at my arm and swaying. She gripped my arm to keep herself upright. “Wow. Okay, maybe there was more wine than I thought.”
It was my turn to chuckle. “You think, smartass? You sure you’re good in here?”
She nodded resolutely, her bun bouncing on top of her head. “I’m good. Wait.” She paused. “Yep, I’m good. Thank you.”
“All right.” I half-smiled. “See you in the morning.”
“Night, Jay.” She leaned over, and at that exact moment, I turned to go.
And her lips touched mine.
They were so soft, just like I’d imagined them to be. It was barely even a kiss, but my arm twitched because all I wanted to do was reach out, wrap my hand around the back of her neck, and pull her in close to me. I wanted to curve an arm around her waist and hold her body flush against mine so I could kiss her properly and thoroughly, make her feel the way I felt right now.
Like my veins were on fire.
Like nothing had ever felt this good.
But I couldn’t. She’d been drinking, and she’d gone for my cheek—at least, I assumed she had.
So I went against every single instinct in my body and stepped away from her, letting her hand fall from my arm.
She instantly covered her mouth with her hand and blinked at me. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
I swallowed, ignoring the harsh thumping of my heart. “It’s fine. You went for my cheek, I moved… It was an accident.” I checked my Fitbit on my wrist for the time. “I have to go to bed. Work.”
“Right, right.” She pressed her hands against her stomach and took a couple of steps back. “Night, Jay.”
“Night, Shelbs.” I turned and hightailed it out of her room, making the sharp turn to my door that was only feet away from hers. I shut it behind me a lot more calmly than I felt and leaned against it.
Fuck.
She’d kissed me. By accident, but she’d still fucking kissed me. No matter how short and sweet and mistaken it was, there was no way I’d forget how it felt.
It was the longest three seconds of my life.
I rubbed my hand down my face and pushed off the door, then tore my shirt off over my head, tossing it in the direction of the laundry basket. It landed on the edge, mostly in, and I sat on the edge of the bed.
Going on a date with Tess last night had been the first step in my plan of getting rid of how I felt about Shelby, yet it’d ended up making everything worse. If I hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have seen my parents, and I wouldn’t have ended up at dinner with Shelby tonight.
She wouldn’t have drunk wine with my mom and grandmother. She wouldn’t have gotten drunk, and she wouldn’t have accidentally kissed me.
Leaning forward, I buried my face in my hands and groaned.
This was a problem.
