“You can say that again.”
Despite moving her hand, the two of them were still facing each other, only inches separating them. He remained on top of the covers, while she was tucked beneath. He thought that might make her more comfortable, but not even that tiny layer of fabric stopped this moment from feeling incredibly intimate…and dangerous.
The room was quiet except for the hum of the air conditioner and the rustle of sheets whenever one of them moved.
While they’d pay for the lack of sleep in the morning, he refused to close his eyes again. He didn’t want this night to end, didn’t want morning to come. Daylight would bring reality back with it, and reality was complicated.
“Can I ask you something?” There was something Grayson had been wondering about but hadn’t known how to ask.
She nodded, but stilled when he added, “It’s kind of personal.”
He and Lark were two people who worked in the same place and whose paths occasionally crossed. Before today, they hadn’t been close. Friendly enough, sure, but not like this. Not middle-of-the-night, heart-to-heart conversation kind of close, while together in the same bed, no less.
Still, something about the dark room made him feel like the distance between them had disappeared. Or maybe that was just what he wanted to believe.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Why did you and Tommy break up? Haven’t you two been dating for a while?”
She sighed slowly, and he was worried he’d crossed a line. He felt as if every wall between them had fallen in the course of a single embrace, but that obviously wasn’t going to be true for Lark.
“Just over two years,” she finally said. Her words were coming in that halting manner she’d adopted off and on today. It had happened countless times, and it confused the shit out of him. It was as if she was measuring every word before she said it, which was completely out of character. Or at least, he’d always thought so. Lark had a habit of thinking after she spoke, never before.
Today, and even right now, she was cautious. Like she was afraid of saying the wrong thing.
“I’ve actually broken up with him before, but my resolve to walk away never really stuck, so I always went back.”
“So you dumped him?” Grayson wasn’t sure why he was so relieved to hear that, but part of him was glad to know she hadn’t had her heart broken. He didn’t like the idea of anyone hurting her.
“We’re kind of different.”
Grayson couldn’t stop himself from snorting. “No shit.”
Again, she took his comment in stride, giggling. “He’s a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, isn’t he?”
Grayson lifted one shoulder. “Your words, not mine. But yeah, and that’s probably saying something, coming from me.”
She laughed, even as she shook her head. “You’re not a stick-in-the-mud. Grumpy, maybe, but you’re also very funny.”
Her compliment warmed him, and he thought back on the day, about how they’d gotten downright punchy as the afternoon wore on and exhaustion set in. They’d cracked each other up, creating backstories for the tipsy festivalgoers as they walked by.
Then Grayson realized he hadn’t really gotten an answer to his question. After all, Lark had dated Tommy for two years. She had to know from the start how different they were, so what had changed that made her break things off? “I asked Jace about his friendship with Tommy once, because the guy’s super serious, and I couldn’t figure out why Jace hung out with him so much.”
“What did Jace say?” she asked, clearly curious.
“He said that what Tommy lacks in humor, he makes up for in loyalty. He said he’s dependable as hell and rock solid.”
She considered that, then nodded. “Yeah. That’s true. He is. I guess that’s why it’s been so hard for L—me to break things off.”
“Why did you this time?” Grayson had never really considered Lark’s relationship with Tommy in the past, because why the hell would he? He hadn’t been close to either of them. But as he thought about it now, he could see they were a big-ass mismatch.
“I finally got tired.”
“Of,” he prompted.
“Of him trying to change…me. Trying to make me be quiet or talk less or not laugh so loud. Tommy gets embarrassed when I draw attention to myself. He prefers calm, order, predictability.”
“And you’re basically human chaos.”
