“Admire.”
“Tolerate.”
“Adore.”
“Endure.”
“Love.”
He sighed. “Why are you walking toward me?”
“Because I’m about to hug the fuck out of you,” I said. “That’s how we roll when we talk about feelings. We hug it out. For minutes. Fair warning: it’s about to get awkward up in here.”
“Sam, if you touch me in any way shape or form, I will hex you so that you have bloody, leaking pustules on your nether regions.”
“I’ve changed my mind about that hug,” I told him.
“Good decision. Now. Are you going to let this beat you?”
“What?” Because there were so many things. Darks. Ryan. Magic.
“All of it.”
Of course he was all encompassing. “I want to say no.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because I don’t know.”
He rolled his eyes. “What do you know?”
“Honestly? Not as much as I think I do.”
“I could have told you that. Let’s start with something easy.”
And then he began to smile at me and I knew I was in deep shit.
I HONESTLY never thought I’d get to say that I was on my back because of Randall. The thought alone was enough to make me cringe.
But here I was.
On my back.
Because of Randall.
“That looked like it hurt,” Gary called out unnecessarily. “Especially that part when you got knocked back like ten feet. And then landed on the ground.”
“Ow,” I moaned. “Ow. Seriously. Ow. My body is not ready. It is not ready.”
“Huh,” Randall said. “Really didn’t redirect the lightning that time, did you?”
“You’re a big bag of assholes, Randall,” I gritted out. “You flipping toe remover. I’ll corrugate your metatarsals.”
“Uh-oh, everyone,” Gary said. “Sam is hurling nonsensical insults. That means he’s pissed off. Watch out. Wouldn’t want your feelings to be semihurt and confused.”
“If Randall gets to shoot lightning at him,” Kevin said, “then people should forgive me for knocking him into the side of a shed. I feel that’s only fair. His mom and dad yelled at me for ten minutes. I felt sort of bad.”
“Don’t hurt Sam!” Tiggy growled, taking a menacing step toward Randall. “I smash you hard.”