“I could be your plus-one,” I blurted out before I realized it.
Her head shot up as she studied me.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Why not? I loved your little niece. I mean, your sister was a little…” I trailed off.
“Abrasive, overbearing, annoying. Yes, and she’s still all those things. Why would you want to subject yourself to that?”
To get more time with you.
“And,” she went on before I could answer, “I don’t want to bring someone just to bring someone. My family acts like I’m the only one who’s ever been divorced, and bringing a friend as a date would only make it worse.”
She shut her eyes and let out a long exhale.
“I wanted to show them I’m fine on my own, but they look at it as more pathetic than empowering.” She dragged her hand through her hair. “If it were anyone but Toni, I’d be planning a stomach virus right now.”
“What if we had fun with it?” I leaned forward and cracked a wide grin. “Pretend we’re together.”
Sabrina’s eyes shot open.
“How much did you have to drink tonight?”
“I’m serious. Look how well we just did.” I jutted my chin to where Dale was still at the bar. “Gets them off your back for a night, pisses your sister off, and we always had a good time together, right?”
“We did,” she said with a slow nod before a chuckle fell from her lips. “You really want to do this? Make up a story about being together and then keep up with it all night?”
“Why not? How hard would it be? We met again at our high school reunion, sparks flew, and now, we’re together.” I shrugged. “We don’t need a lot of details.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said, laughing as her pretty gaze met mine. “You’re still crazy.”
“Don’t pretend like you didn’t miss me.”
“I did,” she said, faster than I expected her to. “Whatever happens with the wedding or what Jesse and Emily end up doing, let’s not lose touch again, okay?”
“Okay,” I said. It was an easy promise to make since I had the feeling staying away from her would be the bigger challenge.
The bar was mostly empty by the time we agreed to call it a night.
“This was nice,” Sabrina said as she pulled up in front of my condo. “We should do this again soon. Not the reunion part, but?—”
“I knew what you meant. And we’ll have to if you take me up on my offer. Get used to hanging out again so it looks natural.”
“I don’t think we’d need to rehearse anything.” She shook her head. “It was always pretty natural between us.”
“It was,” I said, my voice dipping to a husky rasp. Her hazel eyes roamed my face and landed on my mouth. She chewed on her lip, her gaze lingering on mine as a long, heavy minute passed between us.
If I kissed her now, would she let me? I’d never had to worry about reading the signs the right way because, as Sabrina noted, we were natural together. Grabbing the back of her head and crushing my mouth against hers felt not only natural, but primal. A visceral need that took over any kind of logic in my head.
But it was hard to decipher what was driving it. Yes, once upon a time, I’d loved Sabrina—or was pretty sure I’d thought I had. We still had the same easy chemistry and spark between us, but we were also nursing bruised egos and broken hearts.
So, as much as I wanted her mouth, I leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek instead, allowing myself to linger an extra minute. I spied a trail of goose bumps down her neck, thrill and relief rushing through me that whatever this was or why, she’d felt it too.
“Text me when you get home.” I craned my neck to her before I got out. “Now that we have each other’s numbers again. Thanks for the ride and the night out.”
“I will. And back at you, Willams.”
I laughed when she nudged my shoulder.
