He scoffed. "Yeah, right."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
He leaned closer. "Sweetheart—"
"Sweetheart?" I sputtered.
"Fine. Lambchop."
"Oh, please. Like that's even better."
And now he was grinning again. "You've been drinking."
"Maybe alittle," I admitted. "But wait…how did you know?"
His grin turned smug. "You taste like rum."
My hand flew to my mouth. "Is that a complaint?"
"Nope." He looked entirely too pleased with himself. "I love rum."
"But…?"
"But I'm not gonna see you wake up tomorrow and regret it."
It was my turn to scoff. "Ialreadyregret it."
His gaze dipped to my lips as he softly said, "Liar."
Well, that wasn't distracting or anything. "And besides," I added, "as far as the drinks, I only had a couple."
This was a vast oversimplification.I'd had only one tiny bottle before setting out. But this didn't count what I'd had during girl-talk with Maisie.
Early this evening, right after she had gotten home from work, I'd had maybe three of those bottles while whining on her shoulder about…well…Ryder, mostly.
Except I'd given Maisie only a sliver of the story.
During my impromptu therapy session, I'd claimed I didn't know Ryder's last name. I'd acted like he was nothing more than her employee's annoying friend. I'd even gotten all huffy onGriff's behalf, like that stupid raisin prank was the reason I was upset.
So, yeah. I'd left out nearly everything important. But I had my reasons.
And the primary one?
My troubles weren't Maisie's burden to bear.
Already, she had plenty of her own – the bike shop hanging around her neck, a busted budget, and a schedule that barely let her sleep.
So earlier tonight, I'd kept things mostly on the surface – safe lies, half-truths, and the kind of details that made me sound dramatic instead of desperate.
I might've slipped here and there, but I was pretty sure I'd pulled it off, making her believe that I was riled up about bagels as opposed to drowning in my own disaster.
And speaking of disasters, now here I was, standing on a moonlit street, staring at the source of my rant like hewasn'thot trouble.
To think, I'd been stupid enough to kiss him.
This wasn't even the worst of it.Even now,I wanted to kiss him again.
Crazy, I know.But for those few stolen moments, when all of my troubles had faded to nothing, I'd felt lighter than I had in weeks.
