Page 82 of All I Feel

But that wasn’t who Ace was. No, he was a man who listened and cared. He was compassionate and protective. And he made every attempt to prove how much he adored me, doing it all while never making me feel like he only wanted one thing.

“I’m such an idiot,” I murmured.

The girls smiled at me before Savanna insisted, “You’re not an idiot.”

“Nope. You’re just a girl who wants her guy to show her how much he likes her,” Harper added.

Shaking my head, feeling so foolish, I asked, “What do I do now?”

“You could talk to him about it,” Harper suggested.

“I can’t. I don’t think I could say any of this to him.”

“Well, I think you could,” Savanna chimed in. “Let’s face it. You wouldn’t even be interested in taking this step with a man who’d ever make you feel bad for saying how you feel. But if you really feel uncomfortable about saying something, you could just put yourself out there.”

Tipping my chin up and out to the side, I asked, “What do you mean?”

She still hadn’t wiped the smile off her face, and as she paused for a moment to give me time to brace myself, I was certain her grin had grown. “His birthday is on Saturday. Why don’t you give him a present?”

“That’s such a good idea, Savanna,” Harper bubbled. “Yes, Tessa. Give him a gift he’ll never forget.”

I considered that option. “Okay. Yeah, I think I could do that. It would be easier than just talking about it, right? I mean, what are the chances he’ll turn me down if I’m nearly naked in front of him?”

Grinning, they unanimously declared, “Zero!”

Relief swept in, my shoulders dropped, and I found the desire to finish my food. “Thanks for doing this for me today. I really needed this.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t talk to Lark.”

I scrunched my nose. “I didn’t want to put her through listening to me talk about her brother’s arousal. She can handle a lot, but I think that might’ve been too much. I’dprobably vomit if someone started talking to me about Archer or Phoenix like that.”

“Ew, gross,” Harper said.

“Point made,” Savanna added. “On the bright side, can you believe how quickly this is all happening?”

“What, specifically, are you talking about?” I asked, lifting the last bite of my sandwich to my mouth.

“It seems to be happening one at a time, but our group is slowly finding love.” I swore I could see the hearts in her eyes. “I know you and Ace have only been at this for a week, but you two will make it, which means that four of the eleven of our original group are down for the count.”

My sister was just as excited. “I wonder who’s going to be next.”

“And I wonder if any of the remaining single ladies, which would be you two, Lark, and Mia, are going to follow in my footsteps and wind up with one of the guys.”

“Better chance of that happening for Savanna.”

“Why would you say that, Harper?”

“Because there are three guys left. Archer, Kingston, and Phoenix. Two of them are my brothers. And quite frankly, Kingston feels like one, too.”

“Right. I see what you mean. Maybe Lark or Mia, then.”

I arched a brow. “Do you already have your sights set on someone?”

Savanna shook her head. “No, but?—”

“Tessa?”

At the sound of the familiar but unwelcome masculine voice, I felt sick. Not again. Notagain.