“As long as I can keep you.”
“Birds?”I chuckle, rolling from my side to my back on her bed in the guestroom, holding my stomach, which hurts from all the laughing I did in the last half hour while we were talking. “Whose favorite animal are birds?”
“Mine.” She glowers at me when I turn my head to look at her again.
She’s laying on her back too, our heads turned toward each other. We decided it was better to return to her room to chill since she could always pretend she was on the phone if someone heard her talking. It would have been much more difficult toexplain why she was in my room, even though I would have loved to have her in my bed. Plus, she’s wearing one of my hoodies, my favorite green one from my closet.
She shivered, and I took the chance to tell her to grab it and wear it while sleeping. It brings out the green in her hazel eyes, and I’m mesmerized as our gazes remain fixed on each other.
“Why would birds be your favorite animals? There are so many good ones,” I ask, grinning, trying to steer back on topic and not get lost in my thoughts.
“Because they are free.” She shrugs, looking up at the ceiling. “They can fly everywhere. They don’t need a home.”
Her tone betrays her, though. “You don’t want a home?” I ask, furrowing my brows.
She shrugs again. “I don’t have one.” I ponder what to say to that. I mean, I could tell her I can be her home, but that still doesn’t make a house. “What’s your awesome favorite animal then?” she asks before I can come up with a better answer.
“Dogs.” I grin at her, making her bark out a laugh, and quickly cover her mouth with her hand. “Shh,” I scold her, but I can’t help but laugh too.
“You’re berating me over my animal choices, and you come up with the most basic one ever? I thought you’d say something like the lanternfish or something special.”
“You know what a lanternfish is?” I gawk at her.
Fucking dream girl.
She giggles the cutest giggle. “You’re such a dork.”
Can a ghost feel butterflies? Because I sure as fuck do right now.
“I know.” I grin, sitting up and propping my back against the headboard, prompting her to get up and sit next to me, close, but there is still space between us. She’s sitting to my right, bringing her birthmark on her cheek into my vision when I look at her.
The place where I would kiss her every day.
“We have the same birthmark,” I murmur, my eyes still on her cheek.
She laughs softly. “I noticed.”
My eyes come back up to hers, filled with amusement. “You know, if I were alive, I would press them together all the damn time. It’s just like it’s supposed to be.”
She giggles and tells me, “Then do it.”
My heart flips, and I look at her with wide eyes. “Really?”
“I mean, I’ve only touched one ghost before when I was a little girl, but it’s not like it hurts. I don’t feel anything. So it’s fine. You’re allowed to touch me if you want to.”
Has she noticed how I always reach out for her but stop at the last second?
My grin becomes mischievous as I scoot closer and lean in to touch my cheek to hers. But the second they touch, tingles spread across my face with a vengeance, making me pull back and spring up from the bed, panting.
“What the fuck was that?” I ask, holding my cheek, still feeling the afterglow from the tingles on my face.
“I-I don’t know,” she stutters, looking at me with wide eyes.
“But you did feel it too?” I ask, completely out of my mind.
It was strange to get a hard-on and feel butterflies around her after not feeling anything bodily for years, but this, this is next level and something I hadn’t experienced even when I was alive.
“I did, but…” she has to clear her throat, “… it tingled, my cheek tingled, but it didn’t hurt. Did I hurt you?”
