“You were so into yourself, you couldn’t see the obvious.”
The joke broke his serious expression, his face cracking with a grin. “I take back everything I said,” he replied in an overly dramatic tone, pulling back from the bed.
I hooked my legs around his waist, keeping him in place. He could have easily broken through my resistance, but he remained close.
“You can’t stay away,” I taunted. “You’re totally obsessed with me.”
Nathan let his body weight partially rest on me before brushing his lips over mine. “Bren…” He ran his fingers along my cheek, then sighed deeply, turning his face to the side.
“What is it?”
“There’s never enough time,” he said, still avoiding eye contact. “It’s why I’m here now, in the middle of the fucking night, creeping outside your window. I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about…”
I placed my hands on his cheeks and turned his head until our eyes locked. “About what?”
“I’ve been trying to tell you for days… and every time, I find some excuse to put it off. But I was lying in bed, turning the words over in my mind, and if I didn’t come over here to tell you, I wouldn’t be able to sleep and—”
My stomach dropped in the thrilling way it did on a looping roller coaster. Maybe I should’ve been worried about how quickly our relationship was advancing, but it took years to get to this moment.
“I’ll say it back,” I interrupted him.
Nathan placed his hands over mine, bringing them down from his cheeks and resting them in the small space between our bodies. “Yeah?”
“Without a single doubt.”
“Brenna, I love you,” Nathan said on an exhale of breath, as if relieved to get out the words.
“I love you too,” I said, warmth blooming in my chest.
Instead of kissing me, he pulled me tight to his chest, shifting us onto his side. His heart pounded against my ear, a steady, soothing rhythm.
“You are my favorite person,” he whispered into my hair.
I’d never forget this moment for as long as I lived.
Now
My eyes opened as I bolted upright in bed before taking in my surroundings.
Sunshine drifted through the gray blinds, a sliver covering my pillow. The digital clock on the nightstand showed it was seven in the morning, hours before Nathan and I needed to get to the café. I flopped back on the bed, fixing my gaze on the popcorn ceiling. I sighed, hoping my exhaled breath carried away the memory of the dream.
It had felt soreal.I hadn’t dreamed of Nathan since I was a kid.
Last night, he comforted me, offering words I needed and hadn’t gotten from Jack. I wasn’t disappointing him. I was doingmy best. It was enough. And despite our history and less-than-ideal circumstances, he cared that I was upset.
And then after Nathan went to sleep, I ate my favorite meal from Oleander’s—a Greek salad with extra hard-boiled eggs—while watching sitcom reruns. The kind gesture and his consideration of my feelings were so likemyNathan, it must’ve jogged memories loose from deep in my subconscious.
I hopped out of bed and into workout clothes before any more inconvenient memories could push to the surface.
Movement in the backyard caught my eye while I was grabbing a glass of water in the kitchen. “Fucking hell,” I groaned, grateful no one was around to hear my breathless utterance.
Nathan was doing arm exercises with resistance bands, wearing only black baggy basketball shorts low on his waist and a backward baseball cap on his head. I watched as his pitching arm, bent at a ninety-degree angle and tucked tight against his oblique, grasped a green band and pulled it away from his body. His bulging bicep flexing with each movement froze me to the spot, mesmerized. Well, that and the sweat gleaming on his toned back. My eyes ravenously studied the skin on display.
The doorbell rang, saving me from any truly abhorrent behavior that would ruin my dreams tonight.
Who the hell would drop by this early?
Derek waved through the side window as I approached the door.
