He wiped at the other cheek and failed, then looked at me imploringly. I leaned closer and smoothed the jam away, then, without thinking, licked my finger. Our eyes caught, and something sparked in Tyler’s. A matching heat lit deep in my stomach, the embers of a blazing desire.
I looked away. Part of me wanted to think it was impossible for me to feel so strongly for someone and not have it be matchedin return. But I’d made the mistake of thinking that before. Tyler liked me, yes, but you could like someone without wanting to date them. And Tyler had explicitly said he didn’t see the point in relationships. You had to believe what people told you. I couldn’t let myself get swept away by delusions of romance.
I swallowed a groan and concentrated on the sword before me.
We spent the afternoon making props for the triplets, an easy camaraderie between us edged by fire every time our arms brushed or eyes caught. As we fit cardboard helmets to the littles’ heads while they squirmed and giggled, I found myself laughing so hard my stomach cramped. Looking around, I found everyone in similarly good moods—Noah and Abby fake dying in a corner, Ethan and Gabe monologuing in tandem, Miriam and Oliver leading a revolution, David helping the triplets. It made my chest so full, it hurt.
Smiling, I looked up at Tyler, only to see a look of naked longing on his face. “Are you okay?”
He started, and an expression of easy comfort fell back into place. “Yeah, why?”
I pulled a face. “Tyler.”
He made a face right back at me. “Fine.” His gaze wandered through the crowded room. “I guess my moms’ wanting a big family rubbed off on me.”
“Ah.” I started coloring a curved piece of white cardboard red—the plume we’d put on Gabe’s helmet to mark him as ageneral. “So if you bring your moms back into the family fold by, say, landing an internship at my uncle’s company and impressing everyone, you might get your big family, too.”
He gave me a startled glance. “Maybe. Yes. I’ve considered it.”
“But you have no idea if a job would change your mom’s relationship with her parents. And it seems to me like if your parents and grandparents are fighting about how you were raised when you turned out pretty well, they have deeper issues.”
“Ugh.” He pulled on his hair. “You’re not wrong.”
I smiled. “I’m never wrong.”
“I wish I had a magic wand to make everything better.”
“Don’t we all. But I think anything with your moms and grandparents has to come from them.”
“Isn’t it like what you’re trying to do with your grandparents, though, with the play? Making them better?”
Our plans for the play would, fingers crossed, make my grandparents remember they’d once liked each other. “I guess I’m trying to create an opening for them to talk to each other; I’m not trying to do something for them to react to. It needs to come from them.”
He blew out a breath. “So you think I shouldn’t email your uncle.”
“You should if you want to. My dad says it’s important to explore all paths you’re interested in, to make sure you’re settling on the right one. But I think if you do, it should be foryou, not for your parents or grandparents.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Maybe. It’d be ironic if I landed an intro to the CEO of Danziger Media and decided I didn’t want it.”
“If you ever want more family, you can borrow some of mine.”
“You joke,” he said, taking in the room full of cousins, “but I like them.” His phone buzzed, and he glanced at it. “Shoot, I told my moms I’d be home to help with dinner.”
“Oh.” Disappointment weighed down my stomach. Would he leave now? I’d had a great time hanging out, but I’d sort of thought... Well, I shouldn’t have bothered thinking anything. “Okay.”
I walked him to the door and watched him lace up his boots. Here he’d given me all the flirting advice in the world, and I couldn’t think how to use it to any avail; all I wanted was to kiss him, to tell him I liked him, and I still found those things hard. “Thanks for coming over.”
“Of course. I had fun.”
We both hesitated, neither of us moving. I smiled up at Tyler, all nervousness and anticipation, like an effervescent bubble, my emotions shifting, swirling colors, and inevitably going to pop. Tyler looked almost nervous. The moment stretched.
Then he was leaning down and his lips brushed against mine. I rose up to meet him, hands sliding up his chest before weaving through his hair. We were in the foyer of Golden Doors, and anyone could walk in or by at any second, and yet I didn’t have any control over myself; I didn’t even care. I pressed up, intensifying the kiss, awash with heat.
Then footsteps in the hall brought me to my senses. We broke apart, breathing hard. “Wow,” Tyler said, his eyes wide. “We should have found a time to do this earlier.”
Delight rushed through me. “It’s a very crowded house.”
He looked around, as though a private space would suddenly spring into being. “Do you want to—I don’t suppose there’s anywhere—”
