I stared at his features, committing his reaction to memory.
But when the need for air became unavoidable, I forced myself to take a few deep breaths as I sat up, breaking his momentary trance.
His eyes widened, tracking the rise and fall of my breaths, and a blush burned my cheeks. I’d practically held up a sign pointing right to my chest. But no bone in my body cared enough to feel embarrassed. Not whenhelooked at me like that.
He swiped his tongue across his lower lip.
I nearly fainted.
“Hi, Blake.” I hedged gently. “What’s up?”
Blinking rapidly, he shook his head to clear it. He darted his gaze to my face, and I smiled at him, strangely aware of the makeup on my lashes. As if his presence amplified every sensation in the room—every sound and every emotion inside my chest.
He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
Curiosity, or maybe cruel hope, over his reaction suspended me there on the bed. It was like living out a scene in one of my favorite romance novels. I tried to remember how the heroines acted when their crushes stood in front of them.
Staring raptly, with heat in their gaze.
As if seeing them for the first time.
I had to be reliving what those books talked about—I just had to be.
But I didn’t know what to do.
When I rose from the bed, I brushed a hand down my gown, trying to curb the smile pulling at the corners of my mouth. It wanted to spread from ear to ear, to give away how the hopeless romantic inside me danced like no one was watching.
Except the last thing I wanted to do was announce to Blake how decidedly immature I was, right when he might notice how I’d changed.
Not when he might finally see me.
Family—always. The girl he’d grown up with, too. But also, something more.
Something clear enough for him to name, cherished enough to remain protected, and grown enough to be claimed as more than his best friend’s annoying twin sister.
With shaking hands, I reached for my clutch and snapped it closed before stepping toward him.
Blake lips slightly parted again, and he tracked my progress as I came to stand in front of him. He kept his eyes on my face, save for one brief flick down when I stopped.
My head tilted. “Is it time to go?”
He nodded.
Brushing my hand over the shoulder of his gown, I cleared off a speck of lint before I took the zipper in my shaking fingers. I dragged it slowly to his neck.
When his gaze darted down again, I trapped my lower lip between my teeth, biting back the urge to beg him to zip mine like I’d just done for him. I waited for him to dosomething—anything—to prove his reaction wasn’t in my head.
He cleared his throat. “You don’t have a necklace.”
“What?”
“Your dress. You should…add a necklace or something. It’d be pretty.”
“Oh.” My anticipation deflated like a bursting balloon, and my shoulders dropped as I touched the space beneath my collarbone. “I’ll see if Mom has one, I guess.”
His spine straightened. “Oh, yeah. She says it’s time to go. You’re holding up the car and Adam’s getting restless.”
I gritted my teeth. “God forbid.”
