With all the questions bouncing around in my head, I could only focus on one. He gotitnow?
“I wasn’t thinking anything bad about you, RC.” He continued speaking in that low voice. “I’m not mad at you. Most of what I’ve been thinking about is how I’m going to beat that piece of shit’s ass the first chance I get for what he did to you, and nothing you do or say will talk me outofit.”
I stopped breathingagain.
“And I was thinking you messed up, like most of us do, being with somebody who you ended up regretting,” heexplained.
I guess I’d never thought about it like that. Then again, it was rare I ever let myself think about that. It was one of the lowest points ofmylife.
“Mostly though, Rubes, I want to go back in time and beat every single person’s ass who’s ever made you doubt yourself, because the girl who makes me smile ‘til my face hurts even on a shit day needs to see that in herself. I feel like I owe ittoyou.”
Aaron kissed my temple, and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t get my cellstomove.
My legswereweak.
And if that wasn’t enough, he kept going. He kept going. “I was a goner from the first time you gave me hell.” Aaron smiled. “Maybe evenbeforethen.”
I was going to pass out. Right here on this crappy dance floor, I was just going to faint. And I highly doubted anyone had smellingsalts.
I honestly couldn’t do a single thing but just… stand there, and that was just barely. Because my knees… they had turned intojello.
That hand that had held mine countless times over the last few days came up and Aaron brushed at my cheek with his thumb. I heard him gulp. Heard him breathe. I felt him over the entire length of my body. “You are so goddamn special, Ruby. I’ll tell you every day if Ihaveto.”
I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t. It was taking an act of nature to even keep myself standing. “Okay.” I gulped as my mind reeled, reality and just everything settling down enough for me to put the pieces back together. Then I stopped moving and raised my head so I could meet his eyes as I opened and closed my mouth. “Wait asecond.”
He raised a blond eyebrow, his facial features a mix of hope and nerves.Nerves. Coming from Aaron.What wasgoingon?
“I don’t understand,” I told him slowly, still processing everything, forcing myself to back up asecond.
“What don’t you understand?” he asked easily, a partial smile on hisfeatures.
I squinted. “What doyoumean?”
“What do you mean what doImean?”
I blinked. “Do you…?” I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t say it, but I needed to. Had to. The words came out of me in syllables, a blush rising to my face at the fact that I was even about toaskthis because it seemed so unreal. “Do you like me? Is that what you’re tryingtosay?”
He squeezed my hip, his gazeintent. “Yes.”
My entire world went hazy as I got out, with more hope than I ever could have dreamed, “As more than afriend?”
All of Aaron’s facial features gentled and dropped, even his shoulders seemed to slump a little, those mahogany eyes boring right into mine, capturing them and not letting them go as he said one word and only oneword, “Yes.”
It was a miracle my mouth didn’t just drop open so I’d gapeathim.
“As a lot more than just a friend,” he clarified like his “yes” hadn’t been enough. His voice sounded watery and a little unsure, and it… itwreckedme.
I felt like… everything was a lie. Like I knew nothing. Like everything I thought I knew was BS. Skepticism I didn’t even know I was capable of seemed to drip from my words as I looked up at him in 1000 percent confusion. “But you… you said….”Aaron liked me?I couldn’t even wrap my head around the “Aaron” part of the sentence, let alone the rest of it. “You said I was like your sister,” I pretty muchaccusedhim.
He made a groaning noise deep in his throat, his gaze never straying. “Not even a little, Rube,” he replied. “I was drunk, and I’d been…” He swallowed and shook his head. “I’d been having a real hard time trying to talk myself out of thinking about you like that, but itdidn’twork.”
That time, I’m pretty sure I did fail at keeping my mouthclosed.
I must have because Aaron’s smile grew a fraction and he dipped his head closer until his nose touched my forehead. “At first, you really were just a nice stranger. Then you were my friend, and I really did want you to be happy and do your thing,” he explained softly. “And then it changed. The next thing I knew, you were telling me about some dick kissing you and it pissed me off more than anything ever hadbefore.”
“But… but… but…” I sputtered, my pulse going crazy, my breath getting thick, my mind swimming against the current. “But you… butI…but—”
His laugh waslow. “Ru.”
