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That went amazingly welldespite being a spectacular failure on so many accounts.
Archer stared at the dark-haired beauty sitting kitty-corner from him at the picnic table. He’d thought his half-assed attempts at making the meal seem more formal might come across as charming, might play well enough to get her to consider a second date.
He didn’t know when—if, even—he’d ever have her in his bed.
She clearly had no reservations about not waiting.
When he’d found Brielle’s number and email written on that piece of paper his mother had dropped, he’d considered it a sign.
He’d had no idea it was a neon-blazing, flickering, you-better-not-pass-this-up kind of sign.
He wasnotgoing to pass this up. The only problem was, he didn’t just like this girl. Hereallyliked this girl. If he didn’t get to know her first or, god forbid, he really disappointed her behind closed doors—as was likely, considering he’d never hit a ball before in that analogy, let alone made it to even first base—he’d utterly and totally blow it.
But she washere. She was interested, despite how badly he’d messed up their first meeting, despite how crazy his mother was. And she was going to leave him soon anyway…
“Yes,” he blurted out. “Um, yes, please, let’s go to my place. But I…” He looked around the park and let his shoulders slink as he lowered his voice, even though the nearest other people were well over two hundred yards away. Still, there were kids around. And grannies. “I don’t have anything to…” He gestured wildly. “I don’t have a…”
“Condom?” Brielle looked amused and spoke at a normal volume. “I do.”
“Oh. Oh…” Archer didn’twant tofeel jealous at the idea of Brielle sleeping with guys so casually she had a condom in her purse, but he sort of did.
“And I’m on birth control,” she added. “So… we’re good.” She cocked her head. “You catch on quick, don’t you?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if I just meant to go back to your place and talk some more?”
He felt his stomach drop. “Did—Did you? I’m sorry. That would be… No, that would be great, I’m sorry I…” He couldn’t string two words together.
Covering her pretty red lips with a long-fingered delicate hand, she still couldn’t hide the way her eyes lit up. “I’msorry,” she said. “You’re just too easy to tease.” Her nose crinkled. “I would have thought you’d have been more comfortable with flirting, being so…” She gestured toward him, as if that explained it all.
A burst of wind caused their plates to fly up, and Archer’s still had part of a sandwich on it. Laughing, Brielle chased after them, picking up both plates and the sandwich and bringing them to a nearby trash can. Holding the sandwich over the can in midair, she asked, “I take it you’re not eating this, right?”
“No.”I’ve kind of lost my appetite.It was apparently possible to get this nervous about somethinggood. He just couldn’t help but focus on everything that could go wrong.
“There were soooo many women flirting with you yesterday,” said Brielle, swinging her legs in those too-tight jeans around the bench to sit back beside him. “And maybe even some men, too.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“I am not.” She pulled her phone out of her purse on the bench beside her, scrolling through her messages. “My gay friend even knew who you were because, and I quote, you’re ‘super hot.’”
She’s been talking about me to her friends? Pembroke had mentioned that too.That was somehow more impressive to him than the idea that some stranger found him “super hot.”
Something must have passed over his face because Brielle filled the silence as she tucked her phone away again. “You don’t even know you’re hot, do you? Or you don’t even care?”
He shrugged.
“Okay, then, that’s really hot, too.” She bit her lip. “Not being so full of yourself you’re in love with yourself.”
“Is there anything I can do that doesn’t make me hot to you?” he said boldly.
Her laughter was like a soprano’s solo carried across the warm breeze. “But you’re just the right amount of confident, too. So the answer, I guess, is no. Everything you do makes you hot.”
If there was such a thing as dying from embarrassment, Archer might be the very first person to die from an assault of compliments. He didn’t consider himself confident at all, but that self-defense mechanism he’d fostered growing up “different” from everyone else, that instinct to make it seem like he was cool and calm and on top of the world, often snuck its way through. Especially when he was nervous. And this woman definitely made him nervous.
“Okay, maybe we should cool it down a bit.” Brielle wrapped both hands around her cup, and Archer scrambled to grab her more tea from the tote. She smiled and put a hand over her mostly-empty cup. “I’m good, thank you.” Some of her hair whipped across her face and somehow the subtle movement of her tucking it back behind her ears made Archer want to reach over and cradle her face. “I really liked your books,” she said, not meeting his eyes.
Which ones?he wanted to ask. But she’d mentionedWheelsin the car, and he was afraid to press further. “Thanks.”
