“I think I’m just gonna…” She awkwardly gestured in the general vicinity of the road.
Only her heel caught on an exposed root that grew from the soft soil, and the momentum tipped her back.
Her arms pinwheeled as she struggled to catch her balance, but she knew from experience there was no hope in that.
She braced for impact.
Only strong arms were suddenly around her, and a grinning face was in her line of sight, the boy dragging her up and against him.
He was hot and hard, and she sucked in a shocked breath.
Dizziness swept through her brain as she looked up at him.
The softness in his gaze and the short, light stubble that only seemed to grow on his chin.
Her stomach fisted and her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest.
“Whoa,” Cash murmured, only tightening his hold when she tried to pull away.
He slowly splayed his big hands over her back. They nearly covered the entire expanse.
Slowly, he dragged them up and around until he was holding her by the outside of the arms.
Staring down at her with something she couldn’t decipher etched into the contour of his handsome face.
“Don’t worry, my favorite Little Wallflower. I will never let you fall.”
She quietly rapped her knuckles against the windowsill, peering into his room through the open window. The pane pushed up high and waiting for her arrival.
The same as it’d been every night for the entire summer.
A slight breeze rustled the trees, brushing across her heated skin where she knelt on the sturdy branch.
Anticipation lined her bones and sent her pulse into overdrive.
Cash turned his head from where he sat in front of his computer, which was on the far-right side of his room. “Hey, you. It’s about time. Thought you’d gone and gotten shy on me, and I was gonna have to come drag you here.”
His voice was hushed. Quiet so his parents wouldn’t hear since he wasn’t allowed to have girls in his room, which she still couldn’t understand whyshewas the girl he kept inviting up.
He stood from his computer chair, wearing jeans and a gray tee that stretched across his chest. A cap on his head with the longer pieces of his hair curling out the sides.
Feet bare.
But it was the smile that pulled to his face that stole her breath.
That.
That was the whole reason she sucked it up and climbed that tree every night.
To see that smile.
It didn’t matter how many times she did it, redness still rushed up to flush her neck and cheeks.
“I told you I’d be here,” she whispered as she carefully stretched out her leg so she could set her foot on the bottom part of the wooden frame, though she was hugging tight to another branch that ran vertical to the house.
You know, extra precautionary measures to make sure she didn’t plummet to her death.
Cash stretched out his hand, and she tentatively reached for it so he could help her the rest of the way inside.
