AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I open and roll my eyes at him—I can’t help it.
“Oh, yeah.” He nods. “Like crazy,crazybeautiful.”
A blush runs up the length of my neck and warms my cheeks. I swallow, and I mean to say something witty—like,youhave to say that, you’re my best friend.But his eyes are so intense. His thumb tracks back and forth over the apple of my cheek.
“I’ve never met another woman as smart or as striking as Annie Archer.” His free hand wraps around my back, and I think for a minute he’s pulling me in for a hug to end this silly conversation. But he pauses with our bodies just centimeters apart. “Your eyes,” he whispers. “Deep as coffee beans dug from the ground. Your nose”—his finger trails between my eyes to the tip of my nose, sending small jolts of electricity through my limbs—“cute as a button. Your lips,” he says, and his eyes drop to my mouth. His thumb traces along the bottom edge of my lip and strange, foreign sparks ignite throughout my body.
Owen.
My fingers, with a mind of their own, trail up to cup around his neck, pulling him another centimeter closer. I reach up—not thinking about what I’m doing or what it might cost me. All I know is I want to be worthy of loving someone as good as Owen. And I want all the beautiful things he’s said to be real. Forthisto be real.
Owen Bailey’s lips are a mere inch from mine. His words and forty-two letters tell me it would be so easy to close that minuscule gap…
All at once, there’s a horn sounding and buzzing from my pocket. I jerk away, putting space between us.
The alarm I set in my phone—if this alarm is ringing, I know we’re already late for our double date.
But it does its job. It informs me of where I’m not. And knocks me back into reality.
I drop my forehead to Owen’s chest and sigh. “Owen.” I moan without bothering to look at him. “I’m sorry. I got wrapped up in what you were saying and these letters from work. And—ugh. I’m sorry.” I muster my bravery and peer up at him. “Forgive me?”
30
Owen
Ican’t stop bouncing my knee. I’m sitting next to DJ—but across from Annie. And I can’t stop looking at Annie. She almost kissed me tonight.SHEalmost kissed me.
No offense to the nice woman next to me, but I’m not interested. I need to revisit what happened forty minutes ago—before Annie apologized and promised me it would never ever happen again.
And I definitely need the character sitting next to her, his arm brushing hers, to back off.
“Your job is so interesting,” DJ says to Annie. “How do you get to all those letters?
Annie clears her throat like she’d rather not talk about this. No one else would notice, but I know Annie. I also know that Annie loves her job, and she has no qualms sharing about it.
“I have some help, and we only print a fraction of them,” she says, a small twitch in her eye.
Levi’s letter.
Meredith’s letter.
Coco’s letter.
And the rest of my family. Annie has read their letters. Sixletters talking aboutme. She’s read them, and they are making her stir in her seat. Are they also what made her think—even for two seconds—about kissing me?
“I love what you do,” says Adam, a friend of Annie’s from the office who was more than happy to help her out.Yep, I don’t like him.“It’s fascinating. And she really studies up on the topics she’s asked about.”
Hey, that’s my line. I’m the one who offers her praise and support and knows the ins and outs of Annie’s brain and work.Me.
“What is the craziest letter you’ve ever gotten?” DJ leans in, her blue eyes bright on my friend.
“Um.” She swallows, and her eyes fall onme.
She’s thinking of a crazy letter—andI’mwhat comes to mind?
“I had this one lady—Matchmaking in May—she asked me how to go about setting her dog up with another dog.”
DJ points at her. “I read that. You printed that one, right?”
