“Yes.Do you prefer Tuesday or Thursday?”
“Let’s make it next Thursday.”
“Perfect.By the way, I did tell the kids at school today, and what do you know?They actually knew the Sterling name.”
He chuckled.“Of course they did.It’d be hard to find anyone in San Diego, and probably the whole of California, who doesn’t.Although I wouldn’t want to go as far as to say the entire country.”But his tone implied that he was sure of that too.
“Oh, very humble.”
“Me?”He scoffed.“Never.That’s almost an insult for me.I’ve never been humble.Remember college?”
“Vividly.You were very full of yourself.”
“And I wasn’t even as successful as I am today.”
I laughed.“Make sure to give this sort of confidence to my students.Confidence, Knox, not cockiness.”
“They go hand in hand, Amy.”
“They probably do.And all things equal, I’d rather they have too much self-confidence than too little.”
“What are you doing right now?”he asked.
A current of awareness ran through me.
“I’m going to order in and probably read something light.”
“Want to meet and discuss the details about my visit to the school?I’ve got a bit of time before I need to meet my brothers.”
I swallowed hard.“Is that necessary?”
“You can just say no, Amy.”His tone was teasing.
“I just...I don’t want to make things awkward between us.”
“I figured that a visit in person might solve that.”
Somehow, I didn’t think he was right.My intuition told me that if he showed up at my doorstep, he might kiss me again.
When I didn’t say anything, he asked, “Amy, what’s going through your mind?I need to know.”
“Why?”
“Because we’ve been friends for a long time, and I don’t want to fuck it up.”
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.His honesty was so real.
“There is zero chance of us fucking up our friendship, Knox.It would take way more than a kiss.I’m not even sure how it happened.It’s like...”
Right, cue the awkwardness again.Why had I even brought this up?It didn’t matter why it happened.And it absolutely shouldn’t happen again.
“I’ve got a million reasons and explanations, but I’ll just let it go,” Knox said.
“You can’t say that.I want to know everything, Knox.”
“No, you fucking don’t, Amy.Believe me.”
And I did.In fact, I didn’t want to tease or prod him anymore.I had this strange feeling that we were toeing a thin line.And if we crossed it, there truly wouldn’t be any comeback.You’d think that him groping my ass while kissing me senseless would have done it, but it didn’t.But this—being on the edge of a dirty confession—was the true hard line.
