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“Wait. What? He told you that?” She glances my way for a split second, then dodges again, picking at a thread in the blanket. “Ugh! I’m going to murder him!”
“So, you don’t?” I try not to sound deflated, but I’m not sure I’m successful. “Never?”
Ellie groans. “Fine, maybe I had the tiniest crush on you when you and Ryan were in grad school. But that doesn’t count. You were my older brother’s hot friend. That’s textbook crush bait.”
I fight the urge to grin, and lose. “So, you thought I was hot?”
“Must’ve been the drugs,” she mumbles.
“Thatonetime you smoked pot in your entire life.”
“Pot has lasting effects, Jack.”
I drag my thumb across my lower lip, the sweet taste of her still lingering. “So, back to the part about you thinking I’m sexy…”
She still won’t meet my eyes, but behind the shimmering curtain of her hair, a shy smile plays on her lips. “Yes, you’re good-looking. It’s not like that’s a secret. Unlike the location where I’m going to hide Ryan’s body after I murder him in his sleep.”
“Slow down there, Dexter.” I laugh, nudging her knee with mine. “You know he loves you.”
“I know. I love him, too, even when he’s annoying me.” Ellie sighs, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “Which is why I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize his reputation. The same goes for yours.”
I choose to believe she’s talking about her article, and not that explosive kiss we just shared.
“I know what I signed up for,” I say. “And Ryan and I both trust you to handle this appropriately, and to help us figure out where we went wrong so we can make it right.”
“That…means a lot.” She turns to me, her eyes guarded, but that shy smile still tugging at her lips. “I should probably go. I have things to take care of at home.”
“Me, too.” I reluctantly pack up the rest of our picnic gear. “I guess this means Dude 101 is over.”
She flashes me a grin as we head out of the park together. “So that’s it? I passed the course?”
“With flying colors.” I give her shoulder a quick, totally appropriate, just-friends squeeze. “Skip the cheese platter, keep your sock stuffed in tight, and you’ve got this, El.”
And you’ve gotme, wrapped around your dainty, sticking-up-in-the-air-when-you-eat pinky finger.
It’s true. Crushing on Ellie back in the day was one thing—something we apparently shared. Lusting after her was another. But now, after that kiss? After the way she made my heart slam against my ribs as the world spun away?
This can’t happen…
Her words echo in my memory, and somewhere in the recesses of my mind, a door slams shut and bolts itself twice.
I try not to flinch at the finality of it.
She’s right.
It can’t happen. Itwon’thappen.
And by this time next month, this whole mission will be nothing but a distant memory, shoved into a box with the Cheetos incident and dancing in Ellie’s apartment and kissing her on the Great Lawn and the time I almost—almost—let down my walls with a woman who felt oh-so-perfect in my arms.
CHAPTER 8
Ellie
Day 6 Mon 8/6
With my rock solid new dude walk, acceptably masculine dining skills, and budge-proof mustache, come Monday morning, I should be feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof. And if that kiss in Central Park were removed from the equation, maybe I would be.
But the kiss is an unavoidable fact. The kiss happened.
