I nod. “I used to be a sound sleeper. Not so much anymore.”
“Can’t fucking blame you, that’s insane.”
I explain how I got away and detail the arrest. “Honestly if they hadn’t found all the PCP on him at the time, he might be back on the streets by now,” I finished, “But the drug charges tacked an extra fifteen years onto his sentence.”
I can see a muscle twitch in Russell’s jaw, and his mouth is set in a hard, angry line. “That’s so fucked,” he mutters, “Not that he got charged,” he adds quickly, “But that it took so fucking long for them to lock his ass up and that they were pissing themselves more over the drugs than over the fact that he harassed you for months.”
It's weird to get the warm fuzzies over his rage, but I can’t help it, I do. There’s a protectiveness to it that makes me feel cared about.
“Yeah, well…” I shrug, “Not much I can do about it. I’m just glad he’s gone.”
“Me, too. And I’m glad Josie talked you into the beta test,” he says, smiling.
The wind blows a lock of hair in front of my face and he brushes it back behind my ear, his hand lingering on my cheek. “Me, too,” I whisper, as he leans in and slowly closes the distance between us.
His beard tickles my jaw as his lips move over mine, tasting of sweet spearmint tinged with salt.
A cascade of butterflies takes flight in my gut, but a pang of guilt slices through the happy flutters. Less than 24 hours ago, I’d been kissing someone else.
The whole point of these separate dates was to help us choose…but instead, I’m falling deeper, and I’m starting to worry that I don’t know how to dig myself back out.