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“Would it be bad form to kiss you at the beginning of the date?” His nose brushes against mine, stealing the air from my lungs as I grip his arms and nod.
“Yes.”
“What if I can’t resist?” he asks, his minty breath hitting my face as my body floods with warmth and my heart hammers against my rib cage.
“Try harder. Besides, it will give you something to look forward to.”
“Are y’all still here?” Alice yells and I jump back as Lucas shakes his head, holding his hand out to me.
“We were just on our way out.” My nerves melt away as he laces our fingers together and I shoot a look over my shoulder at my annoying little sister. She grins back at me.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
Lucas laughs as we step out onto the porch. “Why do I get the feeling there isn’t much she wouldn’t do?”
“She’s full of it since I practically had to force her out of the house on the Fourth.”
“Ah, I see,” he muses. “So she’s just messing with you?”
I shrug. “I think she was trying to make me think about something other than how nervous I am.”
He stops next to his truck and pulls me into his arms again with a scowl. “I’m making you nervous?”
“Not you, really… It’s just that… Well, do you remember when I told you I knew a thing or two about dark and complicated?”
He nods, his expression growing more concerned. “Yeah.”
“The truth is it’s been a really long time since I’ve done this and I’m a different person than I was then.”
“I understand. But, for what it’s worth, I like who you are now.”
I drop my gaze to his chest as his arms tighten around me. “You didn’t know me then.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s not like you can go back and if we’re going to move forward, this is the girl I’d like to move forward with,” he says, brushing his thumb over my cheek and I peek up at him as my heart melts.
“All right, then.”
He grins. “Are you ready to go out on our date now?”
“Yes,” I answer with a nod and he opens the passenger door for me before helping me climb up. I smile as he rounds the front of the truck and as he slips behind the wheel, I realize that my nerves are mostly gone. The excited butterflies remain but the outright panic that I was feeling before he showed up is gone. I don’t know if it was Alice’s distraction or just Lucas himself that makes my fears flee but I’m glad that I can just focus on having a good time with him tonight.
“Hey,” he says, pulling my attention to him as we pull out onto the road and I glance over at him.
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I need to ask you…” He leaves the statement hanging in the air and my belly does a little flip as I nod.
“Okay.”
“When you said you hadn’t done this in a really long time… how long are we talking?”
I suck in a breath. “Two years, give or take, since my last relationship.”
“Did it end badly?”
“No,” I answer, shaking my head. “The breakup was just the start of a lot of bad things in my life.”
“Were y’all together for a long time?”
