“No. I know all that already. Tell me why you decided to kiss him.”
I pulled my lower lip in between my teeth and thought about it for a minute before answering. “I don’t know exactly,” I told her honestly. “He said something about being over me and it caused my heart to stop.” Absentmindedly, I put my hand to my chest in an effort to slow my pounding heart. “Like, I didn’t want him to be over me when I hadn’t even known he was into me in the first place. And then he mentioned selling his soul to kiss me or something and I swear, I don’t know what came over me, Georgie, but I just needed to feel his lips on mine so badly in that moment. I went for it. God, I hope I didn’t have swamp breath.” I shuddered at the thought and kept going. “And then, when we did kiss…” I trailed off.
When we had kissed, it was...everything I had ever thought a kiss should be. And I felt something I hadn’t felt before. My stomach had flipped when his tongue had slid into my mouth and a shot of desire had gone straight to my core. It was the most delicious kiss of my life, and I had poured myself into it. But then a moment of dawning had ensued, and I realized who I was kissing, and I’d panicked. Pieces were starting to fall in to place, and it had freaked me out.
I needed time and the space without Lawson’s tempting mouth, to figure out what the hell had happened. Like a wimp, I’d pulled away and shut down.
“When you did kiss what?” Georgia nearly shrieked. I glanced back and saw her face filling the screen, her eyes wide, waiting impatiently.
I smiled softly. “When we did kiss, I liked it. A lot,” I said simply, still lost in the memory of how it had felt to be in his lap with his hands on me. “More than a lot.” I blinked, shaking myself back to the present, and focused on my best friend’s face. She was grinning, her smile so wide I thought her cheeks must hurt. And her eyes were shimmering. “Are you crying?” I asked.
She shook her head hard and quickly swiped under her eyes. “No. It’s just allergies.”
As if she were in the room with me, I leaned in close to the laptop screen and lowered my voice. “This feels like something. Something big. Something huge.” I pressed my lips together and then whispered, “And I’m scared.”
A big fat teardrop spilled from her eye and she let out a sob. “Oh my God, it’s finally going to happen.”
“You are crying! Why are you crying?” I asked, worry lacing my voice. She just shook her head hard again. “What’s going to finally happen?” I questioned, but then someone knocked on my door and her eyes widened.
“You better call me when you get home!” she whisper-yelled, disconnecting our call before I had a chance to respond.
I didn’t expect her to FaceTime with me the whole date, but suddenly, with the room silent and Lawson waiting on the other side of my door, I was more nervous than I’d ever been. I could have used the moral support, even if it was across an electronic device.
Before I had a chance to chicken out and shout through the door that I was feeling sick again, I took in a deep breath through my nose and pulled the door open.
The breath I’d sucked in came out in a rush when I took in the man standing before me. It was Lawson, but…different.
His usual attire of T-shirt with a geeky phrase and low-slung jeans were gone, replaced by a pair of khaki pants and white linen shirt, rolled up to the elbow. His hair that was always unruly was cut and styled, with a hard part and brushed away from his forehead. And he wore a pair of stylish thick black frames, which contrasted perfectly to the evenly trimmed five o’clock shadow he was sporting.
In a word, he was sexy.
In two words, he was drool-worthy.
And I had no words to say at all as I stood there staring at him.
The longer I stood there in silence, my mouth hanging open, the wider his smirk grew. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he cleared his throat and handed me the bouquet of wildflowers he’d been holding.
I took them and brought them to my face, inhaling the intoxicating scent of lilacs and jasmine, and grinned at him. “Thanks, Law. You look…” The words died in my throat as I noticed his eyes roaming my body.
Suddenly, I was self-conscious all over again. Would he like my dress? Did I put on enough makeup? Too much? Crap, I was starting to second-guess this whole thing. Really, it was more like twelfth guess it. His gaze landed on my feet and his eyes widened.
“Nice shoes, Pippie,” he rumbled, his voice gravelly.
It was my turn to smirk. I kicked a foot behind me and did a little curtsey. “They are nice, aren’t they?”
Lawson shook his head and then stuck his arm out. “Ready?”
I wasn’t sure if I was.
Not for the date.
And definitely not for whatever this was unfolding between us. But that didn’t stop me from taking the arm he offered and smiling as I replied, “Let’s do this.”
24
Lawson
Fuck me.