Finally, his eyes shoot open, and his hand grips mine back. He looks over at me and then around the room to orient himself.
“Oh shit, sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” His voice is raspy and oh, so sexy.
“That’s all right,” I say, noticing that my hand is still gripped in his. I don’t want to pull away, and he doesn’t seem to notice, so I don’t make a fuss about it.
“How was your date?”
I lean my head against the back of the couch and let out a breath. “It was… fine.”
“Ouch,” Derek replies, chuckling softly. His eyes take in my expression, and he relaxes, laying his head back like mine. “Not good, huh?”
“I mean, I had a feeling,” I say, and he lifts a brow to get me to explain. “He’s a coworker. He’s asked me out for ages, and I just didn’t want to go there with him.”
He gives me a questioning look. “Why now?”
I shrug, embarrassed to say the reason I was going out with someone. That I wasn’t looking for love but justwanting to have some physical connection with someone. “I guess I just wanted to have some… adult time.”
Derek’s eyes widen, and he nods. “Aha.”
“Sorry, too much information.” I giggle, tucking my feet beneath me.
“It’s all right.” He looks away for a moment, and my eyes shut. I feel his hand move in mine and realize he’s finally noticed we’ve been holding hands. But instead of letting go, he turns our hands, palms facing each other, and lightly skims his fingers over my palm.
The move makes me break out in goose bumps and I fight the urge to move closer to him.
Derek is the type of person that I feel an immediate connection to. The very moment we met at Quinn’s wedding, I thought he was something special, something different.
Then at game night, I wanted to pursue something more, but he shut me down so fast that I’d almost think he was in a committed relationship with someone else.
The things he was doing to my hand tell a different story altogether.
For several long moments, we stay like that. Him absentmindedly playing with my hand, me pretending that I’m not about to come out of my skin from how that feels.
I want him so badly to make a move, to do something more.
Just when I think he’s going to, he pulls his hand away and says, “I should get going.”
All that hope that just built up over the last few moments gets sucked right out of the room. “Oh. Sure. Okay.”
“I loved hanging out with Rora.” He stands, and I smile softly at his use of her nickname.
“Good. I’m sure she had fun. Was she good for you?” I stand, following him to the door.
He turns to me and looks me over for a second. “An angel. She’s a good kid.”
“She’s the best,” I say, then roll my eyes and fold my hands together in front of me. “I may be biased.”
“You’re fully allowed,” he says and then doesn’t move toward the door. He just stands there staring at me. I wonder if there’s something on my face when I realize he must be waiting to be paid.
“Oh! I am so sorry.” I rush to my purse, pulling out my wallet. Of course, he was waiting on me to get my ass up and pay him. He wasn’t waiting to see if he should make a move. I want to smack myself in the face.
I feel tears burning the back of my eyes and will them to stay put. Man. This is embarrassing.
Turning back, I see a confused-looking Derek waiting there for me. “What’s wrong?”
“I completely forgot to pay you.” I pull out a few twenties, knowing that was the going rate for babysitting. Plus, he brought dinner, so I grab an extra one for that. “Here.”
I hold the money out, and Derek looks at it, then back to me. He seems to be debating something right now, and I wait, confused. That’s what he was waiting for, right?
