He nods toward the deck through the glass.
"I remember." Heat blooms low in my belly. "It's hard to forget a kiss like that."
"Wanted to do something different this time." His blue eyes track over my face, slow and unhurried. "Get you somewhere more comfortable."
"Comfortable, huh." I arch a brow. "That your move? Soft couch, fancy drink, killer view?"
"It's working, isn't it?"
It is. God help me, it absolutely is.
But underneath the banter, I can feel the way he keeps watching me. Not undressing me, though there's plenty of that simmering between us.
No.
He's watching me the way he did on the beach an hour ago. Like he's reading everything I'm not saying out loud.
"So," he says, quieter now. "You gonna tell me what that was, back there?"
And there it is.
"Back where?"
"On the beach. And in the stands when we scored that first goal." His voice stays gentle, but it doesn't waver. "Tonight was the biggest night this franchise has ever had, and you spent it standing alone in the dark looking like somebody died."
I look down at the lemon wedge floating in my glass.
Somebody did die.And my life hasn't been the same since.
I feel him watching me. That patient, steady way he has.
But here's the thing… if I tell him, he's going to look at me the way everyone eventually looks at me. With that condescending,pityingtilt of the head.
Poor Josie. So much baggage. Such a sad little girl with daddy issues and a chip on her shoulder.
And then whatever this is, this electric, impossible thing between us, it'll curdle into something sympathetic.
And I would rather die than be an object of his pity.
"It's nothing," I say.
"Josie."
"It'sstupid."
"Well lucky for you, I live with Beck Morrison. So I've got a high tolerance for stupid." He shifts to face me, and his knee brushes mine. "Talk to me."
I let out a long sigh, resigning myself to this moment I've created for myself.
"My mom called," I hear myself say. "At the game tonight. Right in the middle of the second period."
Goddammit, Josie.
But once I start, I can't stop.
"Rose answered it by accident. We were taking selfies, and her thumb just hit the button, and then my mom heard the crowd." I shake my head. "And she figured out exactly where I was."
"And that's a bad thing?"
