Me:Hey Lill. How’s everything?
Three dots appear right away. I drum my fingernails against the back of the phone, antsy for her reply.
Lilly:Long story. New development, I think we’re just friends now. ?
Lilly:I’m surprisingly okay. It doesn’t feel much different than it’s been for a while.
Me:Wow. OK. That’s a lot. Landing now. Talk later? ?
Lilly:For sure. Love you.
Me:Love you too.
“How’s Lilly?” Julian doesn’t look up from his laptop when he asks. And I wonder for a moment how he knew. Not like I was hiding it, but I didn’t say. Does he just know me that well? The thought has me smiling to myself and feeling a twinge of guilt over my friend and her situationship.
“Weirdly okay. Lilly is a G. Just a badass. Ya know?” I roll my head on the seat to look at him.
“Like someone else I know.” He taps his index finger on my nose and leans over to place a soft peck on my lips.
I feel the pressure build behind my eyes, and I blink a couple times to clear it.How’d I get so lucky?I blurt out the thought in my head. “How’d I get so lucky?”
“Mmm, you’ve got that backwards, sweet girl. I’m the lucky one.”
“Can we just agree it’s a tie?” I roll my eyes.
“Kiss me, sassy girl, and I’ll agree to whatever you want.”
“Ooh, this just got interesting.”
“We’re landing. We don’t have time for this.”
“And you call Via a cockblocker.”
“That sass is gonna get my bookish girl a plot twist.”
A giggle bubbles in my throat. “Ooh, I see what you did there. Promise?” I lower my gaze and look up at him under my lashes. I’m so turned on by the shift in our conversation, I clench my knees together. Julian lowers his gaze to my legs, tracking the slight movement. His eyes are deep indigo, pupils wide when he brings them back to mine. His visible swallow drops my eyes to his throat. My tongue swipes across my dry lips.
“You’re right, you are lucky. Lucky this plane just landed. But I predict that luck runs out when we hit Blue Lake.”
“I guess that depends on your definition of luck.” One eyebrow quirks up in challenge.
“You’re not wrong.” His deep baritone chuckle follows me down the aisle as I try to walk like I’m unaffected by our banter.
Chapter 20
Julian
The drive from Oak Valley Airport to Blue Lake takes forty-five minutes. Everly’s hands fidget in her seat as soon as we’re settled in the Jeep, and I can’t keep the smile from my face knowing what’s got her so keyed up. Looking over my right shoulder to back out of the parking spot, I track her eyes. They’re hungry. She reaches up and lightly pokes her finger in the dimple near my mouth, which makes me cheese even harder.
“I like your dimple.” She says it so sweetly.
“Yeah, pretty girl? What else do you like?” My eyes are now looking forward, navigating the airport lot. But I know her eyes are a dark, storm-cloud gray, and her cheeks are flushed. That I know her body so well has my pulse jumping in my wrists and the front of my joggers tightening.
“Everything,” she says earnestly. “Everything I know so far.”
“So far?” I quirk my brow and snag a quick look at her before casting my eyes back to the road. “What don’t you know that you want to know?” I see her body turn toward me in my periphery.
She curls one leg up on her seat. “I don’t know. Everything?” A short chuckle escapes her throat like she’s nervous to admit she wants to ask.
