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“Also, Mel and I aren’t dating. Never have. Never will.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly, backing away from him. “She’s pretty and nice and—”
“Has the hots for Asher.”
She stopped. “What?”
“Who apparently doesn’t return her feelings.”
Her shoulders rose and fell on a breath, but she didn’t speak.
“Since I know something of that,” he said, doing the speaking for them both. “We got to talking. This, of course, being after she put my ass in its place.” He shoved her coffee in her hands. “After someone else did, helping me think through and making me realize that Iwasan ass.”
A glimmer of warmth in her eyes. “I knew I liked her.”
He stepped closer, cupped her cheek. “I know I like you,” he whispered. “No one else. Just you.”
Twenty-Four
Teresa
“Iknow I like you. No one else. Just you.”
And hell, if the numbness didn’t fade away, didn’t immediately have her eyes burning.
“Jer,” she whispered.
His fingers on her cheeks flexed. “What is it?” he asked, the question as gentle as those fingers held her face. “What’s happened?”
“I—”
The tinkle of the bell.
Mel’s soft voice. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
He glanced over as though annoyed. At least until he saw the to-go cup and bag in her hand.
“Why don’t you two take these and walk?” Mel asked gently as she passed over the items, nodded to the right. “There’s a park around the corner.” A beat. “Where you can talk.” More command and less gentle.
Without waiting for an answer, she turned on her heel and walked the other direction, and amusement bubbled up in Teresa’s chest.
“Matchmaking,” she whispered lightly.
A sigh. A shake of his head. “Yeah.”
And now she felt like a bit of an idiot.
“Clearly, I misjudged that situation.”
He touched her cheek again. “Yeah.”
“I—” She bit her lip, a small part of her wanting to run, to lock things down, to cling to numb. But…she hadn’t slept, and Jeremy was touching her, and—
She felt.
So instead, she asked, “D-do youwantto walk?”
His arm came around her shoulders, and she didn’t resist him tugging her near.
