Or lack thereof.
She wore a tiny gray tank top and even smaller boxer shorts. Jesus, her legs were longer than I’d imagined, and her chest was downright distracting. “Fritz, hi.”
Thunder boomed, shaking the entire building.
Nora sucked in a breath. Her pulse hammered visibly at the base of her slender neck.
“I brought you this flashlight. Just in case.”
“Oh, thank you.” She took it from me, and the whole thing trembled in her hands. Now that I had a better view of her face, she looked pale. Really pale. “My phone died, so I didn’t have light.”
“Did you hurt your hip?”
“I ran into something, yeah. This will help. Th-Thanks.” She forced a tight smile, the false bravado doing something to the knot in my chest, and I sighed.
“Want to stay in my place until the power comes back on?”
She gulped. “It’s okay, I’m fine.”
“You’re trembling.”
Fuck it. I reached over and put a hand on her bare shoulder. “You brought me soup. I can sit with you until the power returns. It’s no big deal, really. I can’t sleep anyway.”
Her entire body relaxed under my touch, and she nodded, already moving past me with the flashlight pointed at my door. My anxiety spiked at the papers all over my table.My finances.“Uh, let me pick up real quick.”
“No, don’t even worry. It makes me happier knowing you’re messy.” She grinned at me as she climbed onto the couch. “You seem too stiff most of the time.”
“I’m not stiff,” I fired back, sounding mature as a teenager. “Maybe a bit.”
She scrunched her nose and met my gaze, and I swore her attention dropped to my chest. Her teeth grazed her bottom lip, and heat entered her eyes as she stared at me, hard. That was going to be a legit problem if that heat was desire. A serious problem. One-sided attraction was one thing, but if she felt it too…no.
I shook my head and pointed to the blanket. “You cold?”
“No, it feels nice in here.”
Well, there went my plan to cover up all her smooth skin. Her shoulders, collarbone, neck. All of it was silky, and each flash of lightning drew my attention to it. We sat in silence, the air thick with humidity andspark.
Was she thinking about me?
Did I want her to be?
God, this was why I didn’t date. This shit was exhausting.
She let out a little sigh as she pulled her knees up to her chest. Thunder shook the place again, and she hugged herself tighter. “I’ve hated storms since I was a kid.”
“Yeah, they freak my sister out too. When we were younger Gi—Gerry.” I stumbled, almost saying Gilly and ruining it all. I cleared my throat. “Gerry and I would build these forts, and I’d pretend to be a weatherman to calm her down.”
“What do you mean?”
“Forts. You’ve made a fort before, right?”
“I’m not an alien,” she said, narrowing her eyes and holding up a finger. “No, I set that one up way too easy for you. I’m not! I’ve made a fort. I don’t understand the weatherman part.”
“I haven’t thought about this in so long. I’d, uh…” I paused, remembering a time in Kansas where there was a tornado that did a shit ton of damage. That night, I did a bit about a weatherman who forgot what clouds were. Gilly laughed so hard she cried. “I’d do a bit. Like a skit.”
“I want to see.”
“Nora, no.” I scoffed. “I’m not twelve.”
