He laughs and rolls his eyes. “Stupid question, sorry.”
The kettle boils and I turn to fix our teas. “Sugar?”
“No, thanks.”
I set his mug in front of him. “Fancy it?”
“Yes.” He tilts his head to the side. “Can I help you decorate it? You can say no, obviously,” he adds quickly. “I’ll still come with you.”
My smile is huge as he offers me what I want without me even having to ask. “Yeah, you can help.”
His eyes meet mine, and what I find there feels like a promise of something more than giving me a hand to decorate my house. Something new and exciting, and I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to go pick out a tree more than I do now.
I’m still grinning like an idiot by the time we leave. Sadie’ll take one look at me andknow.
And I don’t even care.
CHARLIE
“You should’ve wokenme up last night.” Still can’t believe I fell asleep.
Pete glances away from the road long enough to give me a pointed look. “I knocked.Twice. Tried textingandcalling.” His attention returns to driving as he adds quietly, “Then I caught sight of you asleep on your sofa and remembered you’d been up late working.”
“Oh.” Not sure how I feel about him seeing me like that.
“Sorry,” he says quickly. “I didn’t mean to look in, but I wanted to make sure you weren’t passed out hurt or anything.” He sounds so sincere and apologetic that any discomfort quickly fades.
“It’s fine.” I huff out a laugh and scrub a hand over my face. “Please tell me I wasn’t drooling?”
He laughs. “You weren’t.” He spares me another glance, this one packing a little more heat. “You looked warm and comfy... and I wanted to curl up with you.” He bites his lip after speaking, like he’s not sure whether he should’ve said that last part or not.
I’m fucking delighted, and my huge smile telegraphs it enough that Pete’s grinning too when he turns back to the road again.
“You should’ve used your key,” I say, realising that he must have another spare to my annexe as well as the one he gave me.
His head snaps round so fast I wince. “Absolutely fucking not.”
“Why?”
“That would be a gross invasion of your privacy.”
Honestly, I would’ve been happy to be woken up by him, but when I think it over, I realise that he’s right. And the fact he refused to even go there only reinforces the gut feeling I have that Pete’s a good guy.
An incredibly attractive mountain of agoodguy.
Who I don’t want to waste any more time keeping my distance from. Honestly? What the fuck was I thinking? And yes, now probably isn’t the best time for this conversation, not when we’re about to be in public, but I’m well aware that time is running out. I’m only here for five more nights and I want to make the most of them.
If Pete wants to go there, too, that is.
Time to find out.
I shift in my seat to face him better.
He spares me another quick glance. “All right?”
“Yeah.” I hesitate, wondering how best to phrase this. “I actually wanted to talk to you about something last night.”
He snorts. “That sentence never bodes well.”
