He jerked his chin toward an antique store near Pug’s. “I live above the Shiny Penny. She didn’t drive me anywhere.”
I pretended not to feel totally relieved. “Okay, what about the last seven years? Surely, there were girls.”
He fidgeted and wouldn’t meet my eye, but his nervous laugh was what really gave him away. “There was this girl I kissed once upon a time. And I guess, I was always looking for that connection. So yeah, there were a few girls over the years.”
He couldn’t mean me. He couldn’t mean he’d been pining over me for seven years. My heart jumped to my throat and started doing jumping jacks. “She must have been some kisser.”
He shot me a bashful smile and I nearly died right there. A man like Levi Cole wasn’t supposed to be bashful. He was supposed to be fully confident and totally sure of himself. God, this whole other side of him was going to end me.
“She was.” Running his hand over his shortly cropped hair he said. “And I got a taste of her again recently. Turns out it was worth the wait.”
“Is this a trick?” the paranoid part of me couldn’t help but ask. I couldn’t seem to catch my breath or see straight through the frantic butterflies beating wild wings in my chest.
He laughed, and it was genuine and rumbly and wonderful all at once. “What reason could I possibly have for tricking you?”
My gaze inadvertently flickered to Max, a thousand reminders why I should cut this off with Levi surfacing. “Shelby Trainer’s pool sophomore year rings a bell.”
“I told you to put your swimming suit on.”
“I was an insecure fifteen-year-old and you wanted me to parade in front of our entire class in a swimming suit.”
“I didn’t want you to parade,” he argued.
My hand landed on my hip. “You convinced the entire class to have a bikini contest. It was stupid. And chauvinistic.”
He shrugged, and all traces of that remorse faded fast. “I was also a fifteen-year-old kid if you remember. And you weren’t cooperating.”
“You threw me in the pool, Levi! In khaki shorts and a white shirt!”
He looked off, as if remembering. “I know. It was better than a bikini.”
I pushed his shoulders with two hands and he caught my wrists, holding me to him before I could step away. “This is why we can’t be friends, Levi.”
“This is why I want to be more than friends, Ruby.”
A shiver rolled through me again and I shuddered at the feel of his warm hands and hot words. God, I was never going to survive this man coming back to town. I should probably text Coco and prepare her to take on Max full time.
His brows drew down and he took in my outfit with fresh eyes. “Are you cold?”
Absently rubbing my arms, I started to say, “No, I’m fine—”
But he was already taking off his jacket and wrapping it around my shoulders. It was so warm and soft. I sucked in a deep breath, surprised by the heat also curling through my insides, and accidentally inhaled the scent of him lingering in the collar. I pressed my cheek against the smell and heat, unable to stop myself from leaning into this man that was both an enigma and the enemy.
“Is that better?” His voice was low, gentle… kind.
I met his green eyes in the fading light and felt something burst to life inside me. It sent tingles buzzing to all my extremities, making me feel slightly lightheaded. There was no word for the feeling, no existing definition that could possibly explain the sharp sensation of internal change that hit me like a bus out of nowhere.
“Th-thanks,” I managed to whisper. “It feels… nice.” Unlike whatever was happening on the inside of me. That wasn’t a nice feeling. It was worlds flipping upside down and landscapes being rearranged by the finger of God. It was fire and ice and light that burned so bright it hurt to look at.
He smiled in the same way he spoke, with a tenderness so deep and genuine I actually winced. What was this?
And what was wrong with me? Was I so unaccustomed to other people’s kindness, I couldn’t resist Levi’s bare minimum gestures of civility?
“Mommy let’s go to the next one!” Max raced ahead of us. Levi and I fell into step side-by-side again.
“Do you like being a mom?” he asked, his voice that same, startlingly sweet tone.
“I love it.”
