My lungs have ceased to exist, much less work.
My mouth has gone so dry that my teeth may have turned to dust.
And my heart—that useless little organ that beats for two people and two people only in this world, ever—shudders out a protest that the rock guarding it from the world seems to have cracked.
I don’t remember how to blink.
Or how to close my mouth.
Not when the cheeky burger bus lady with the twin dimples has unveiled her goddess side.
She makes eye contact with me, and her eyes flare wider, her pupils darkening before she blinks.
The slight smile curving her luscious lips dips away, taking her dimples with it, and she looks behind her.
“Nowhe quits smiling?” she mutters.
“It’s because you’re pretty and he doesn’t know how to cope with that,” Daphne replies, much louder.
And that does it.
That almost snaps me out of my trance, as I’m certain Daphne had something to do with this master plan to use me.
But only almost.
Perhaps this was a terrible idea.
Perhaps this was the worst of terrible ideas.
I’d planned to stay on my guard and be ready for whatever twists and turns she throws at me tonight, but instead?—
Instead, I’m rather enamored, and not nearly as unhappy about it as I should be.
Both of Bea’s brothers cross their arms and shift so that they’re a wall between me and their sister.
“Best. Behavior,” Ryker growls.
“If you don’t think she’s pretty when she’s sweating in her burger bus, you don’t get to think she’s pretty when she slaps on a dress and some lipstick and mascara,” Hudson says.
“Better. Than. Best. Behavior,” Ryker says.
“Oh, stop, both of you.” Bea pushes between them. “This is just an apology date. Can we please get on with it?”
Daphne claps her hands, clearly thrilled with how this evening is going thus far. “Tonight is going to go down in the history books.”
It certainly is.
Have I ever had a date that made my pulse uneven and sweat gather at my neckline? One which rendered my lungs still unable to function properly?
I don’t believe I have.
Isn’t that the cherry on top of the injustice pie?
“You better not be thinking that you bought that dress so you get to take it off her because wewillget our other brother and no one will ever find your body,” Hudson says.
I shake my head. “Providing a dress is the least that I could do for a woman who deserves the night of her life.” The words leave my mouth, and my cheeks get nearly as hot as my neck.
Were I unaware of her secondary reasons for wanting me to take her on this date, I do believe I’d mean every word I just said.
