I squeezed, digging my fingers into his forearm.“Daire, you have no idea, I haven’t been in so long.Paul hated—”
“Paul was a prick.”
“True, true, this is true,” I murmured, relaxing my grip but not releasing his arm as I looked out the window.“Daire, I love this place.Truly love it.”Another thought occurred to me.My grip tightened.“Wait, is this weekend, no, it can’t be, yes, it is!”I squealed.“Oh my god, this is the Fan Fave Festival weekend!”
I turned in my seat and beamed at him.“It’s going to be an absolute zoo!”
He laughed out loud and covered my hand with his.“I’m glad you’re happy.You deserve to be this happy all the time.”
Suddenly aware of how deeply I leaned into him, and my hand still clamped onto his arm, I edged back in my seat and slipped my hand back onto my lap.“You speak to me like you’ve known me forever.”
“Haven’t I?”he asked.“I’ve known you since you were, what, seventeen?”
“Well, you were around for a few years then missed more than a decade,” I said drily.
“Harley, it doesn’t happen that often, but when I know something is for me, I don’t hesitate.If I’m coming on too strong, I’ll back off.But I won’t back off too much, and I won’t give up.”
“But how do you know?”
“Let me ask you this: what do you know when you look at me that makes you so scared to go out with me?”
Speechless.
When he put it that way, I could not help but understand.That same intuition that whispered of disaster should I give him my heart and he not live up to his promise, the intuition that sent me running gave him direction.
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“Terrified.”
“You are?”I asked in surprise.
“Of course,” he murmured, stealing a glance at me.“Anytime you lay your heart on the line you take a risk.”
“And is that what you’re doing?Laying your heart on the line?”
How could he be?It was so soon.We hadn’t even been on a proper date.
He nodded definitively.“That’s what I’m doing.”
“It’s too fast.It’s hard to believe you.”
“I get that.I do.You’ll catch up.”
I barked out a laugh.“You’re very sure of yourself.”
Turning into the lot, he pulled the car into a clear space and threw it into park before facing me.“No, Harley.I’m sure of you.”
I stared at him, slack jawed.
A half-smile on his handsome face, he tucked his fingers along the side of my neck and pushed my jaw closed with his thumb.
My eyes fluttered shut.
“Little spitfire,” he whispered.“Little spitfire with everybody else but not with me.”
I sat unmoving, his firm hold on my neck ultimately freeing.Bargaining with myself for just a few more seconds, I inhaled deeply, my body unwinding, and relaxed further into his hand.
No matter the internal alarms that reminded me of the danger of dependence for an already fractured heart.
