“I don’t know. It’s like I can tell she’s not ready.”
“Not ready for what?”
“For me. For us.”
“Has she said as much?”
“No.” I sigh. “I know she’s inexperienced.” At least that’s what Buck confirmed to me on the phone the day she got here. He warned me about hurting her, threatening to drive to Texas and kill me if I did. I laughed on the phone, but I got the impression he was dead serious.
“So?”
“Do I want to be that guy for her?” Thefirstguy?
“Am I mistaken? I thought you were serious about this girl.”
“I was. I am.” Running my hand through the top of my freshly cut hair, I growl, “I’m fucking this up.”
“Sounds like it.”
“I want to kiss her so bad, but she’s….–”
“She’s what?”
That’s a good question. I’m not sure I can put it into words. Leaning back, I come up with one that fits. “Precious.”
“Jesus.” Jim snickers. “Admit it, you’re in love with her.”
I am. I’m head over heels in love with Matilda Conklin, and I don’t know what to do about that. So, I do nothing. Worse than nothing. I turned into an asshole.
“Go home.” He looks at his watch. “It’s after midnight. She’ll be asleep. Start fresh in the morning. Apologize first thing.”
* * *
As quietly as possible,I enter my place. Right away, I see her asleep on the sofa with a movie playing on her laptop. I take a moment to just look. She’s so fucking pretty she takes my goddamn breath away.
It reminds me of the day we met at that godforsaken dance class. I noticed her right away with that hair of hers. Then, when she turned her face and looked up at me with that cute little nose and those freckles, my heart made a huge thump in my chest. I was pretty sure you could see it happen. That scared me. And since I was already pissed off at my brother, I let that flow right onto her.
Except, you know what she did? She smiled and made that cute little snorting sound that endeared me to her even more. Her positive attitude never wavered either, not for the entire week of the wedding bullshit. She took time out of her life to help me without expecting a thing in return.
Who does that?
She smiled at me and said encouraging words that, from anyone else, would have annoyed the fuck out of me, but because they came from her, I ate them right up.
I shut the door quietly and approach the sofa. Bending, I slide both hands beneath her and lift.
“Alec?” she asks groggily.
“Shh. Go back to sleep.”
“Mm-kay.” She rests her head on my shoulder and falls back to sleep. I’m close enough to smell her hair, and it’s making it hard to breathe. Not because it’s bad. On the contrary. It’s because it makes me weak in the knees. I wish that scent was all over me, my clothes, my sheets. Especially my sheets.
As gently as I can, I lay her on her bed. She’s on top of the covers, so I run to my room and grab the comforter from my bed and place it over her.
I’m awoken the next morning by the scent of bacon wafting in the air. Throwing the sheet off me, I look down to make sure I’ve still got on my sleep pants and head out into the kitchen. “Something smells good.”
“It’s just bacon and eggs. You want some?”
“Yes, please.” I watch her use tongs to pull the bacon from the pan. “Where did you get the bacon?”
