I lift an eyebrow, fighting back a smile.
“You looked it up in the handbook?”
A blush moves over her cheeks, but her stern look doesn’t falter.
“Hell yeah, I did. Strangely enough, I like this job. I also can’t deny that I’m into you.” I step closer to her, but she keeps going. “You’re funny, if in a dry way. And you’re smart. And you’re insanely hot. You’re also nice when you want to be, though you rarely do want to be. I like talking to you because you always make me think of things in a new way. I like the way you look at me when you don’t think I’m watching. I like the way you entertain my idiosyncrasies rather than simply enduring them.I like the way you looked for four-leaf clovers with me, and the way you make wishes at 11:11 because I ask you to, and the way you protected me through a concert that you didn’t even want to go to. I like the way you pretended to be my boyfriend because my bully was hitting on you, and the way you let me show you around my town simply because you know it’s my favorite place on earth. But most of all, Graham, I like you. And I think you like me, too.”
Silence hangs in the air between us, and my pulse races, but hers does, too, something I can see in her neck, where I desperately want to press my lips. Her breathing is heavy as she holds my gaze, reaching into her pocket for something.
“So, I think we should stop playing this stupid game and let luck decide what we do next.” She opens her hand, holding it out to me, and a tiny copper circle sits in the palm of her hand.
“Is that—?” I start.
“The penny you gave me? Yeah. I keep it on me just in case I need to make an important decision.” My pulse quickens.
“Important decision? What kind of important decision?” I ask, stepping a bit closer until there’s barely a foot between us. She grins up at me.
“Heads you sleep on the floor. Tails, you admit that you want me, and then we see where that takes us.”
My cock stiffens with the mere suggestion.
“June—”
“Come on, Graham. Let’s let luck decide if this is meant to happen,” she murmurs, eyes locked on mine as she takes the penny between pointer and thumb, holding it out for me.
I don’t know why I do it.
But I put my hand out, and she drops the coin into the palm of my hand. It’s warm from her touch, and I stare at the copper, trying to convince myself of all of the reasons this is a terrible fucking idea.
I can’t think of one.
So I flip the coin and catch it in my hand, fingers curling around the warm metal and hiding it from view.
“If we do this, nothing changes,” I say.
“Nothing at all,” she says, her voice breezy and soft, though I hear the small shake in it, something so close to disappointment twining in the words. I pull her into me, the hand not holding the coin wrapping around her waist and tugging her in tight.
“But if we dothis, everything changes.” I drop the penny to the ground.
Her breathing hitches, her eyes going huge.
“Everything changes, because I’m not going back, June.” I stare at her, and I let those words hang between us, heavy and weighted. “I’m not going back to pretending like I’m not absolutely gone for you.”
She licks her lips and nods.
“Everything changes, Graham,” she murmurs, her voice shaky.
I don’t stop to look at the penny before closing the gap between us. I don’t want fate or luck or the universe to decide this. I don’t want there to ever be any kind of doubt in her mind somewhere down the road. I want June to know I’m all in and always have been.
I slide my fingers to the back of her hair and pull her face to mine.
TWENTY-FIVE
For just a moment, I have the presence of mind to think I’d better get my penny back before we leave this hotel room, since I have become emotionally attached to that tiny piece of metal, but then Graham’s lips are on mine, and I can’t think about a single other thing.
Because Graham Hawthorne is kissing me.
Deep.
