Page 185 of While You Were Trending

Oh my stars.

He’s right.

I’m scared.

Again.

I suck in a shaky breath, tilting my head so I can listen to the steady thump of his heart, letting the easy rhythm lull me back to safety. “How do you do that?”

“Sound like your therapist?”

I make myself say the scary thing. “Understand me.”

He squeezes me tighter, still rubbing my back, and doesn’t answer.

Because he’s afraid?

Or because he doesn’t want to scare me more?

Because my heart—my heart knows how he knows.

He knows because he cares.

He cares the same way Mabel cares. The same way Cricket and Olivia and Samantha and Dori and Pip and Heath care.

The way people care when they love you and accept you for who you are, not for who they want you to be.

I squeeze him back as hard as I can. “You’re not just pretending you’re this kind so that I’ll keep having sex with you, are you?”

“Totally am. It makes my life easy and completely uncomplicated.”

“This isnotuncomplicated,” I say through a dark laugh.

“Not my fault you don’t understand sarcasm.”

If he wasn’t holding on to me like he wants to carry the weight of my world, if he wasn’t pressing soft kisses to my hair, if I hadn’t seen him so much with his teammates and friends over the years, I’d still wonder if this is an act.

But it’s not.

This is Declan.

It’s who he is.

Thoughtful. Attentive.

Perfect.

“I still want to go tonight,” I whisper.

“Me too.” He kisses my hair one more time, then eases his grip on me. “Give me five minutes to get the cat cleaned and grab a bag for our shoes, and then whenever you’re ready, we can go drop Fluffy off and head to the show.”

“You don’t have to clean up after?—”

“Of the two of us, I’m not the sympathetic puker.” He pauses. “That’s all this is, right? You’re not actually sick?”

I shake my head. “I’m not actually sick.”

He grins down at me. “Good. Look at the pretty scenery.”