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Sexy and disheveled snooper, he could at least have the decency not to look so… distracting.
“Fine, okay,” I heard Lina say, just as Lucas reached me. He sat down on the coffee table, right in front of me, and placed a blue and pink box I hadn’t noticed, right beside my phone. I swallowed, noting how his knees were half an inch away from brushing mine. Lina continued, “I’ll tell Abuela to light a candle and ask for a decent guy that can at least give you one or two orgasms because—”
“Thank you, Lina,” I quickly interrupted, jerking forward and grabbing my phone. I deactivated the speaker and brought it to my ear. “I’ll call you later, okay? I really need to go.”
“All right,” my best friend relented. “I’ll let you off the hook, but just because I love you and only if you promise me to remember that you can do anything.”
I could feel Lucas’s eyes burning holes on the side of my face, but I kept my gaze down. “Love you, too, Lina. Give Aaron a hug and enjoy the rest of the honeymoon, okay?”
Heart in my throat, I ended the call, trying my best not to look like I was scrambling to come up with a plan of action while my mind threw questions right and left.Lucas has heard about the orgasms. But what about the rest? God, how long has he been standing there?
“Hey,” I heard him say so softly that the word set off about a hundred alarms in my head. Yesterday, he’d had to hold me while I lost my ever-loving shit, and today this. “You’re not gonna say hi to me, Rosie?”
“Hi,” I answered, keeping my eyes down. Because if I looked up at him and found the barest trace of pity in his face, I’d be so… sad. Devastated, really. “So, that was Lina on the phone.”
“I noticed.”
My lips pursed. “I didn’t get the chance to tell her that we’re both staying here. Together. Until… you know, I can go back to my place.” I swallowed, keeping my eyes trained on the corner of the coffee table that he wasn’t occupying. If I wanted nothing to seemwrong, I had to act like it. “Anyway, how was your day? Did you go to the free exhibit in the New York Public Library I told you about? Did you like it? Was it as cool as it seemed on their website?”
“Yes,” he said, as if that one word answered all four of my questions. Then added, “I brought you something.”
He moved the blue and pink box toward me, and I did a double take when I noticed the logo on the lid. Something in my chest expanded just like a balloon being pumped with air, and it grew bigger the longer I gawked at that pink and blue cardboard container I recognized.
“You remembered,” I mumbled in a wobbly voice. “Cronuts. From Holy Cronut. Just like I mentioned yesterday.”
I hadn’t just mentioned it. I’d screamed it, right after I’d informed him that I was on my period, and right before I’d covered his sweatshirt in snot.
“I did,” he admitted, the balloon taking all the space in my rib cage. “I got my replacement credit card in the mailbox this morning, so I thought we could celebrate.” He pushed the box in my direction. “If you’ll share because, as I said, these are for you.”
“If I’ll share?” I asked. Because was this man real? Was he actually, really, truly real? I slid my gaze from the blue letters that readHoly Cronutto his knees. “Of course, I’ll share.” A pause. “You got the big box.”
“It was the biggest they sold.”
One of his hands came to rest against his left thigh, and I thought about the piece of tan skin I could see through the rips in his jeans. The urge to reach out and see how that felt under my fingers swarmed me.
“What do you say?” Strong-looking fingers tapped against his leg. As if he’d known I was focused on that exact spot and wanted to get my attention. “Should we have them now, or save them for later? Maybe after dinner?”
Something that sounded a lot like a complaining grunt left me.
“Now it is.” Lucas laughed, and that, his laughter, turned out to be reason enough to make me finally look up. At his face.
“My breakdown must have been of epic proportions,” I murmured, studying the way the corners of his eyes wrinkled with a smile. “Or maybe you’re terrified of me now and you’re just appeasing the ugly crying monster.”
“There’s nothing ugly about you.”
My lips parted, his words echoing in my ears.
As if he hadn’t just said something meant to stay with me forever, he threw the lid open, unveiling the six pastries inside. “Plus, I love being cried on every once in a while.” The box was pushed in my direction again. “It’s good for my skin.”
I shook my head lightly and fished out one sugary and cinnamony crispy piece of heaven. “Thank you, Lucas. You really didn’t have to do this.”
He grabbed one, too, and then cheered his Cronut against mine, as if there was something worth celebrating. “Friends don’t do stuff for friends expecting a thank-you, Rosie.”
Friends.
“Right.” I willed my lips upward and ended up giving him what I knew was the smallest smile in the history of smiles. He frowned, so I felt the need to distract him. “I guess we’ll have to find something to say instead ofthank youthen.”
His eyes danced with something I liked knowing I had put there. Even after that reminder of us beingfriends. “Like a code?” he asked. “Just for us?”
