“Does it?”
Clover put her free hand over his. “All my life I’ve been treated as if I was invisible or told to act as if I was. I revert to that when I feel uncomfortable.”
Dustin reached out and ran his fingers down her cheek. “I can’t seem to look away.”
“I don’t want you to,” she rasped, her voice abandoning her in a pool of desire.
Dustin lightly traced her lips with his thumb, turning on every one of her nerves and stirring desire in her lower belly. She barely stopped a whimper from escaping her throat. His eyes dropped to her lips as he leaned forward.
Clover had been kissed before, but never had she wanted a kiss as badly as she wanted Dustin’s. His warm, brownie-tinted breath brushed her face, and her eyes fell shut, heavy with the need for him.
His lips met hers, warm, sweet, and then he smiled, breaking contact. Cupping the back of her neck gently, he didn’t let her move away. Not that she wanted to. Her breaths came deeper but also faster, her chest lifting and falling. Heaven help her, her chest was heaving while Dustin’s cheek brushed hers once, twice. A whimper came from deep inside her throat.
Dustin’s smile melted against her lips and he kissed her again, more insistent this time. She wrapped her fingers in his shirt and held on for the ride, because she was flying, soaring through this moment.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Clover covered her yawn.
“How come you’re so tired?” asked Maddie. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a bowl of cereal in front of her on the coffee table. They really needed to get some real furniture in this place, maybe a few wall decorations. The sparseness had never bothered Clover before, but she felt this urge to nest, to put down some roots, to make leaving St. George difficult—if she ever decided to go.
A secretive grin tugged at the corners of Clover’s mouth. “Because I’m running on four hours of sleep.”
“What?” Maddie squinted at the clock over the microwave. The crazy bun on the top of her head flopped to the side. “It’s 8 a.m.”
“I know. I need to call Jane and tell her I’m not coming in today.”
Maddie’s spoon dropped into her bowl. “Okay, what planet are you from and where have they taken my best friend?”
Clover crossed her fingers over her heart and said in a robotic voice, “I swear I’m the human you are looking for.”
She rolled her eyes. “Says the alien right before theyeatyou.”
Clover poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat opposite Maddie at the coffee table. She had the night off at the hotel. Dustin’s evenings were free all week, and he’d said he wanted to spend every minute possible with her. She was A-okay with that plan. Arranging her work schedule was going to take an effort, but he only had one All-Star break, and then he’d play ball until October, alternating weekends home and weekends away. Three months never seemed so long.
Maddie bounced. “Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”
Clover laughed, enjoying this part of dating in a whole different way than she’d enjoyed the actual date. When she was a teenager, she’d snuck into a chick flick at the movie theater. There was a slumber party in the movie where the girls all talked about the boys they were interested in—she’d been mesmerized, watching them share their secrets and giggling. The scene was total fiction, and yet here she was, living it with her best friend. Her reality didn’t feel real yet, but she was going with it because it was the most fun she’d ever had. “We went to the party, then we hung out at the stadium for a while, and then we went back to his house and played catch. He made me French toast at three in the morning and brought me home by four.” She shoved a spoonful of sugared corn puffs into her mouth.
Maddie twirled her hair. “And I supposed your lips are swollen because you got hit with a ball?”
Clover’s fingers flew to her mouth to feel for anything out of shape. “We only kissed a couple times; I shouldn’t—”
Maddie snickered. “Ha! I knew you kissed him. You’re way too happy on way too little sleep.”
Clover glared for a second before she gave in and smiled. “There may have been a little lip action happening.”
“A little?”
“Yes, a little.” She wasn’t about to divulge those amazing kisses to Maddie. They were shared moments between her and Dustin, and she wanted to keep them that way. She loaded her spoon. “He’s got some things to do today, and then we’re going to an early dinner and mini golf.”
“Mini golf? That’s kind of high school, isn’t it?”
“Well, since I didn’t go to high school …”
Maddie’s hand flew across the table to stop Clover from putting the spoon in her mouth. “Wait, did you tell him you didn’t go to school?”
Clover set her spoon in her bowl. She swallowed before nodding. Over the course of their game of catch, she’d told Dustin her life story. Not all her stories, but enough. More than she had told anyone besides Pastor Paul and Jane. Maddie didn’t even know parts of her past that Dustin was now aware of.
