Page 79 of The Moment I Knew

He shrugged. “Seemed like a good reason.”

I rolled my eyes, even as the words made my heart warm. “Well, since you came all this way, do you want to come in and wait out the last fifteen minutes somewhere warmer?”

He smirked. “Just admit you care about my well being,” he said as he stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.

I quickly turned away from him, moving to my closet so I could grab a sweater to pull on over the tank top I was wearing. I grabbed an oversized one that I was pretty sure I’d stolen from Ainsley who had stolen it from Sebastian and zipped it up before spinning around back to him. When I did, I realized he’d made himself at home, sitting on my desk chair and flipping through the papers on my desk.

“Are you here to give me advice on my homework again?” I asked drily.

He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Depends. What did your teacher think of my notes on the last one?”

“Hated them,” I said immediately. Definitely too quickly based on his grin. We both knew my teacher loved his notes. “In fact, I think I failed that project because of you, so thanks for that.”

He chuckled and got back up to his feet, coming to stand toe-to-toe with me. “I’m sorry about that, Princess.”

I tilted my head up so I was able to look at him. “You should be. First you make me fail that, then you force me to skip school.”

“Some might say I’m a bad influence on you.”

“Some might,” I agreed. He stared at me for a beat and I felt myself fidgeting under his gaze. He leaned back in the chair casually, like he sat in my bedroom all the time.

“And what do you say?”

“I say I really like having you around.”

“So it’s worth the failed classes and jail time.”

“I guess so.” I shrugged, pretending like skipping school two days ago wasn’t absolutely worth the repercussions from my teachers over my attendance and missed assignments. I turned them in yesterday so they didn’t have any reason to involve my mom, but still. Totally worth it.

I didn’t admit that out loud to him, but based on the way he was smiling lazily at me, I knew he could read between the lines.

“Well,” I murmured, “you’ve accomplished your mission. Early birthday wishes delivered. You can climb back down before you give my neighbors a heart attack.”

He didn’t move. Instead, he tipped his head to the side. “That’s it? You’re not even going to say thank you?”

“Thank you for nearly killing yourself outside my bedroom window?”

“See,” he said lightly, “that wasn’t so hard.”

I trailed off with a sigh as he brought his hand up to my chin, running his thumb along my bottom lip. My heart kicked up a notch, pounding about a million times a minute. His eyes dropped lower, going down to my shoulder where the sweater had slipped off, showing my bare skin.

“I like your PJs.”

I couldn’t tell whether his tone was mocking or genuine.

“I just got out of the shower,” I admitted. “Be grateful I was wearing this and not a towel.”

He cleared his throat and glanced away, and if I didn’t know better, I might have thought a flush crossed his cheeks. “I should’ve texted.”

“Yes,” I said pointedly. “That is generally how people announce their presence. Not Spider-Maning their way into second-story balconies.”

“Sounds boring.” He glanced at his watch again. “Twelve minutes.”

I looked at the clock on my nightstand, then back at him. The fact that he’d timed this down to the minute made something in my chest soften in a way that was deeply inconvenient. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“I wanted to,” he said simply.

“So,” I said, clearing my throat, “is this where you tell me you’re going to sing ‘Happy Birthday’?”