He meandered to the corner of her bed and sat down.“Do you remember that time you came over and the three of us were in the basement, lights out, playing with a Ouija board?”
She hadn’t thought about that in years and laughed.“The things you two made it say.I was scared out of my mind for weeks.”
His laughter rumbled.“Sorry about that.”
“I think that was one of the last times I was in your basement with the lights off.”
He tilted his head and gave her a funny look.“You were there the time everyone was playing spin the bottle.You took off like a bat out of hell.”
A furious blush caught fire on her cheeks and flamed down her neck.Grace dangled her legs off the side of her bed and lay back so that she didn’t have to look at him.“Well, yeah.You two were seniors.I was a freshman.”
“Half of the hockey team was there.Definitely more than just seniors.”
“You say that like it would have been a reason to stay.”Their high school was on the smaller side.Everyone knew everyone.Most of her friends knew she worshipped the ground Callum walked on and would have done just about anything to make sure her bottle spin landed on him.“Well, I wasn’t going to have my first kiss be from some random guy in your basement.”
Callum scooted closer, dangled his legs, and lay back.“First kiss, huh?”
“I was shy.”She elbowed him.
He jabbed back, softer than she had.“Ha.You are the farthest thing from shy.”
Grace rolled her eyes.“Either way, Hayden probably didn’t want his kid sister there.”
“Bet he didn’t,” Callum muttered, then his lips quirked.“Guess you missed out.I could have been your first kiss.”
“You would have made a puking, gagging noise if my bottle had landed on you.That’s how that would have gone.”
He laughed but didn’t disagree.“I was young and dumb.”
“I was younger.”That had always been part of the problem in catching his attention.
“But,” he said, voice lifting like a tease.“Do you remember the night you met up with us in New York City with your friends?”
Of course she did.They’d all been in college and met up for a long weekend.It had been fun…until it wasn’t.The typical drama where she thoughtmaybeCallum had noticed her, and then he had absolutely not.“Sure.”
“I thought I was going to kiss you that night.”
Her jaw fell open.“You absolutely did not.What are you talking about?”
“I mean, Hayden would’ve killed me—”
“You’re making stuff up.”
He crossed a hand over his chest.“Swear I’m not.I was a little drunk.You were mostly ignoring me.”
“Ignoring you?”Was he out of his mind?
“Except, I think you chewed my ass out over something, and for a split second, I thought you were going to kiss me.”
She knew the exact moment he was talking about.She also vividly remembered ending up in the bathroom, crying with her girlfriend, because she’d been so obvious, and he’d been the very definition of oblivious.Grace could have literally been holding up a sign that begged him to take her home, and he wouldn’t have noticed.
Her heart hammered in her chest, and she whispered, “You wouldn’t have kissed me.”
He shook his head.“No.Because it felt like it was…” He held her eyes but lifted his shoulders.“A hate-kiss that would have turned into a hate-fuck, and we would have regretted it in the morning.”
She couldn’t breathe.He was the oblivious one.Why was he acting like that wasn’t true?“I’ve never hated you in my life.”
He searched her face, and she would have done anything if he just touched her.Not even a kiss if that wasn’t meant to be.But she was so starved for him that her body ached.
