He pushes the lake house door open, and I sigh in relief.
“Thank the Lord,” I say, collapsing on the couch and kicking my heels off. “Why did I do this to myself?”
I ask myself this question every single time I wear heels, no exception. One day, I’ll learn.
“What’s that smell?” Haze gags.
I frown.
“Found it.” He points to my bare feet.
“Shut up.” I throw the pillow on the couch at him, and he dodges it, grinning.
“Seriously, you should open a window or something.” He laughs.
I’m about to send a snarky reply his way when my phone vibrates with a new text message. It’s from the guy I met tonight. He seemed nice and he was definitely cute, but I’d be lying if I said that the way Haze glared at us isn’t the only reason I gave him my number.
“Who is it?” Haze pulls an eyebrow.
“The guy from the party.”
I think I see a hint of irritation flash in his eyes for one fleeting second.
“What’s he saying?” He sits next to me.
“None of your business.” I stick my phone two inches away from my face to text back without Haze seeing my reply.
“Give me that.”
In the blink of an eye, he’s stretched his arm out and stolen my phone away from me. I immediately bounce to retrieve it, but he’s too strong, and I quickly find myself howling with laughter while I try to take back what’s mine.
“Wow. You’re actually a lot stronger than I thought.” He laughs while we go back and forth on the couch.
“And you’re a lot weaker.” I tease.
“Am I?”
I can’t repress a small yelp when he stops going easy on me and pulls on the phone with all his strength. I fall backward onto the couch, laughing so hard it takes me a short instant to become aware of the position we’ve gotten ourselves into.
He’s on top of me, our bodies as close as can be.
The air gets stuck in the back of my throat when our eyes lock. Our laughter fades out until the only thing we can hear is the sound of our breathing merging. This is probably the closest we’ve been since the night he said he loved me. I expect him to pull away, the way he always does when we get too close, but he doesn’t.
Not this time.
His gaze descends to my mouth as one of his hand moves up to my waist. He places his available hand on my cheek, his thumb slowly running along my lower lip.
Holy sweet mama of goodness.
My heart starts hammering in my rib cage. He leans in, his face a few inches away from mine. Our lips are about to tou—
“Anyone in here?” Multiple knocks on the front door make us jump.
Haze lets out a short sigh. He doesn’t get up to open the door. Instead, he tightens his hold on my waist, the light fabric of my dress the only thing standing between his fingers and my bare skin. He’s going to wait for the cockblocker to go away.
I find myself both hating and thanking the Universe for what’s happening. I’ve been playing this exact moment in my head on repeat for so long, and now that it’s here, I’m terrified. Until now, it was all speculation. But if we cross this line, there’s no going back. No more lying to myself. No more denying what I’m feeling. If we kiss, I’ll be all in.
I’ll fall.