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“All right.” I move my hands over top of her feet and down to her painted-red toes. “Are you going to pretend you aren’t following me around again, or do I get to know this time?”
She settles a little deeper into my couch. “That’s up to you. Whatever makes you more comfortable. We are working on first impressions.”
“Okay,” I say, rubbing at the pad of her foot. “Either way, I know you’re watching.”
“You can always pretend I’m not.” Her auburn hair bobbles in the loose bun on top of her head, and her sprinkle of freckles dance as she scrunches up her nose.
I’m watching Annie so intently, so studiously, that I’ve forgotten what we were talking about.
“O!” she shouts, thrusting her feet from my grasp and jolting upright. “Look at this!” She springs over to my side of the couch so fast, so hard, that the right side of her overlaps my left. She is halfway on top of me—I’m not complaining. She holds up the paper she printed half an hour ago and turns her head to look at me. But we are so close. So close that Annie’s button nose runs into mine. She laughs, but whatever she’s found is so urgent that she doesn’t pull back. “Look.” Annie taps the right side of the paper.
I read aloud. “Allergic to cats.” My brows raise, and my eyes return to her face. I can only see half of it—and it’s awfully close to mine. I am living off of orange blossoms at this point. “Wow. Now, that’s a love connection.”
She turns, looking at me again but not moving away. We are close enough that it would be tragic not to kiss her. My eyes drop to her mouth, and there isn’t a possibility she doesn’tnotice. My breaths go haggard with the thought, and she must feel them; they are right on her cheek.
“Well, it’s something,” she says, her coffee-brown eyes watching mine.
And then tragedy strikes.
I don’t kiss Annie. I don’t even try.
18
Owen
Ipound on Levi’s front door.
Levi opens up, his brows cinched and a frown on his face. “Already?” Levi sighs and gives me the once over. “Have you been drinking?” he says, even more disgust in his tone.
“One beer. One beer and an entire carrot cake.”
Levi wrinkles his nose. “Why carrot?”
“Because it reminds me of Annie’s hair.”
My brother rolls his eyes but steps aside to let me in. “What happened?”
I step over the threshold, thankful Levi doesn’t live with our mother anymore. It’s a whole lot easier to grovel, knowing I won’t be worrying her. “I almost kissed her, Levi.”
“No, you didn’t. Go sit down, I’ll get you a drink.”
“I did. I almost did it.” It’s on my last insistent “did” that I realize Levi isn’t alone. I swallow and try to pull together my depressed state—though I know I’m too far gone. “Ah. Hey, Meredith.”
“Hi, Owen.” She grins like I didn’t interrupt whatever they’ve got going tonight, like I’m not a mess.
“I should—” I say the minute Levi returns with a clear glass of water and two Advil.
“Nope. You don’t need to go.”
“But—” I say, my eyes darting to Meredith and back to Levi. I’m interrupting, and not everyone in Coeur d’Alene knows of my pathetic episodes.
Levi crosses his arms over his chest. “Mer and I were just having dinner. You can join,” he says. Then, turning to the girl who completely tamed and stole his heart, he says, “You don’t mind, do you, Mer?”
Meredith shakes her head.
“Owen is stupidly, hopelessly in love with his best friend. So we get to repeat this show every couple of months or so.”
“Levi,” Meredith scolds.
