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As if she’d need to.
After what felt like three years, he chose some letters, then placed each one on the board with a methodical precision that made Allison twitch.
R
E
G
R
E
T
S
Sixteen points. Plus fifty more for using all his tiles. She wanted to comment on his need to show off, but her heart was racing too hard.
Allison concentrated on her own breathing (in and out, in and out) as she positioned her letters horizontally from hisT.
O
U
G
H
It was the best combination given how he’d started the board, and a double-word space brought her to eighteen points. But now it looked like some kind of response to a question he might or might not have been asking. She watched him study his tiles, her body ticking like a clock.
He was so focused on creating a word that it was impossible to read anything else in his face. Their breaths (and the dogs’ snores) were the only sounds in the room. Allison had to shove her hands under her legs to hide their shaking as Colin picked up a few tiles, only to rearrange them on the holder.
She let her eyes sink closed and tried to recalibrate. They were playing a game, not passing clandestine messages like members of the Knights Templar. Still, she couldn’t help but feel that whatever he placed down on that board next would change everything.
Anticipation rocketed through her, buzzing in her veins as he reached forward with his letters.
L
E
A
R
Allison’s stomach dropped, and her eyes burned from staring at the ivory-colored tiles. Of course he wasn’t using Scrabble to confess his feelings. Nothing that had happened tonight proved anything except that Colin Benjamin had become a better person over the last few years.
Reaching deep into herself, Allison recaptured her competitive spirit and shook her head at him. “L-E-A-R is not a word.”
“Sure, it is. It’s a look you give someone.” He cocked an eyebrow and hitched up one corner of his mouth. “Like this.”
She rolled her eyes, giving the gesture an extra dose of derision. “That’s L-E-E-R.”
“Oh. Right.” Colin crossed his arms. His teeth fussed with his bottom lip, and it took everything in Allison not to remember how his mouth had felt on hers earlier. “Obviously, I meant Lear, as in King Lear.”
“Nope. Even if you weren’t lying, there are no proper nouns in Scrabble.”
“Not even for the Bard himself?”
