Which was silly, because she wasn’t really sure what upset her.
“No,” Travis said. “I don’t want to make a don’t-see-Rach schedule.”
“Then why did you come in here?” she asked. “Tonight, why’d you knock on the door?”
“Honestly?” he asked, turning to her. “I have no idea. I wanted to see you. I saw the light on. I came in.” He ran a hand over his hair. “I want to ignore my parents totally on this. I like you. Like how I’ve been feeling around you.”
She sucked in a breath. Oh. Okay. All righty then, that’s why he didn’t want to be friends. The way he looked at her with the same carnal expression from the lake made the air in the room shift dangerously into Molly-suggested territory.
“How do you feel around me?” Rachel asked.
“Like I’m not flying solo.” He had the deep, rumbly, genuine note back in his words.
His nonsense started to make a little sense. And that made no sense, because the heavy feeling in her belly still weighed her down.
“Do you feel that way often?” she asked, because, boy oh boy, did she feel that loneliness creeping into her marrow all the freaking time. Especially at night when the chaos of life finally took a chill pill and things were quiet.
He nodded. “I don’t think I realized how often until recently.”
She nodded because she could so totally relate.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Rachel asked, hoping she mirrored his sincerity. “Well, it’s Molly’s suggestion. I called her when we got back from the lake after the whole…” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, she was with April and I told them what happened between us.”
“What do you think happened between us?” he asked.
Okay, here was the thing. His knee brushed hers. Like not a big deal kind of brush. It could’ve been an accidental brush. Nevertheless, it was nice. Really, really nice. Connection nice.
Like jumping in a lake nice.
“I think that there was a moment when we almost kissed,” Rachel said, answering his question. “Is…is that what you think?”
A beat of silence descended. Her cheeks heated. What was she thinking? She should be less direct with him. Here she was opening herself up like it was no big deal.
It was a very big deal.
Perhaps communication wasn’t totally necessary in this instance.
“That’s exactly what I think.” He nodded and, honest to goodness, he reached out to toy with the end of a chunk of her hair.
Her hair didn’t have the ability to feel, so it made no sense that she felt all buzzy and heady at the touch.
“Molly had a suggestion?” Travis asked, and he seemed unsure about Molly’s potential suggestion, but he was still toying with Rachel’s hair and he’d moved closer and they were not-really-platonic close anymore.
Rachel nodded, swallowing hard. “She did.”
He chuckled, dropping her hair and leaning against the side of the sofa. “Does Molly’s suggestion involve a pineapple?”
“Ha. No.” She leaned in to him, since he’d touched her, and she figured turnabout was fair play. Except, she wasn’t quite sure what to do once she was in his space. His hair wasn’t long enough to toy with, he was sitting like he was super comfortable, so he didn’t need her to offer a pillow or anything.
Finally, she decided to set her hand on his knee. There, that wasn’t weird.
“Am I supposed to guess?” he asked, giving a long look at her hand.
“Guess what?” she asked, distracted by the knee touching.
“Am I supposed to guess what Molly suggested?” His hand covered hers, and for a split second she worried he’d try to push her hand away.
He didn’t. Instead he rolled her palm over and linked their hands together.
