“Only if you planned on using them all today.”
He laughed. I grinned back. I was not going to mess this up by pushing too hard, by projecting too much.
There was no question of me staying the night. Not with his mother expected back at any moment. Not with his little sister sleeping down the hall.
I looked around for my phone and underwear. “What time is it? I should go.”
He didn’t argue. “I’ll walk you home.”
I fished my panties from the floor. “You don’t have to.” I did not want to face my mother’s questions if I appeared with Joe by my side. I looked in the mirror over the dresser and suppressed a shriek. Especially not with whisker burn on my chest and throat.
I pulled the crushed flower crown from my hair. Fumbled into my clothes while he buckled his jeans.
“So, I’ll see you,” he said when I was dressed.
Not a commitment. A declaration.
“Hard to avoid it,” I joked. “Since I live down the street.”
He stood a moment, watching me, a faint crease between his brows. And then he took his hands out of his pockets and kissed me, hard and unexpected.
“Bye.” He let me go, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “Neighbor.”
I walked home, a foolish grin still stretching my face. Not thinking about anything at all, except when I could see him again.
—
“You and JoeMiller, together at last!” Daanis exclaimed.
I lifted Rose down from the climbing gym, grateful for an excuse to hide my hot face. “We’re nottogether, together, exactly.”
Daanis gave a disappointed pout. “So, it was just a onetime thing?”
“Um. Not exactly.”
In the eight days since Joe and I had sex for the first time, we’d managed to be alone together twice. Once in his workshop late at night, where he’d laid me on a table and rocked my world. And one afternoon while my mother was at work, when I’d smuggled him into my bedroom and then paused the action to rotate my stuffies to face the wall. I turned to find Joe watching me with an unreadable expression. I’d flushed, hot with embarrassment. “Sorry. I was just…” “Saving me from performance anxiety,” he’d said, and I’d melted, warmed and reassured.
Sex with Joe? Amazing.
But feeling accepted? Sharing an in-joke? That was something else. Something more.
Rose sprinted for the slide. I took off after her to spot her up the ladder. Daanis followed more slowly, pregnancy transforming her usual grace to an ungainly waddle.
“Basically, we’re sneaking around like teenagers,” I told Daanis as I took my position at the bottom of the slide.
“I’m so happy for you. Also jealous.”
“Hey, you’re the one having hormone-fueled pregnancy sex on a queen-sized mattress.”
“Not anymore. That bed isn’t big enough for me, Zack, and my pregnancy pillow. Besides, all I want to do is sleep.”
I glanced at her, taking in the purple shadows under her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Just tired. Zack hasn’t put up the closet shelves in the nursery yet. And I still need to pack my hospital bag.”
I caught Rose at the bottom of the slide and set her on her feet again. “You’ll be fine. You’ve got four more weeks.”
“Three,” Daanis said tightly. “I’m going to be induced.”
