“Has this ever happened to youbefore?”
“You mean the part where I knock on a stranger’s door and suddenly I’m about to kiss him?” The words puffed into the cradle of his callused hand. “No. What aboutyou?”
“Can’t say that it has.” His other hand came to frame my face. “Is thisokay?”
“It’sgood.”
“Will you…will you tell me if I’m doing it wrong?” heasked.
My eyes popped open and everything inside mestilled.
Wait,what?
I must not have heard right. Ormisunderstood.
He couldn’t possiblymean—
Zach sighed. “I shouldn’t have done that, shouldI?”
“Um, what?” Maybe if I acted like I didn’t follow and we didn’t delve too deep, we could pretend he’d never saidanything.
“Told you. At this point. That I haven’t donethis…”
“You didn’t tell meanything.”
“I sort ofdid.” He pulledback.
And now, he was going to force me to acknowledge it. We maybe could have ignored it, before, acted like he was just checking in, making sure I was happy, but bringing it out into the light put it irrevocablythere.
I gave up. “You’ve never done thisbefore.”
“No.”
“So, you mean, um, kissing.” I was breathing hard now, full of nerves. “Or otherthings?”
“All ofit.”
“Are you sure?” The words came out a little high and whiny.Because you’ve really got moves for anewbie.
“I’m sure.” His smile reemerged,hesitant.
“How old areyou?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Oh.”Young.I’d never dated anyone younger than me. Wait, did this count as a date? What was I even doinghere?
He must have gone ononedate in his life? Or kissed some girl behind the dumpster after class? Then again, he’d been home-schooled, so not too many opportunitiesthere.
“You want to do this withme?”
“Only if it’s what youwant.”
Was it? Was I the right person to be this guy’s first kiss? I guessed it was too late now. If anything else were to happen betweenus—
No. One thing at a time. Kissing hadalmosthappened, which was already a huge step forme. I couldn’t imagine what this must be like forhim.
“Why me?” I asked, wondering for all the world what he saw, or, rather, didn’tseeinme.
