“Your eyes get squinty and cause a crease in your forehead.” He leans closer and brushes his thumb in between my eyes. “Right here. And your lips part slightly.”
“I’m not overthinking,” I lie. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Alright,” he begins, a cocky grin growing, “when did you realize you had feelings for me?”
He really does just like to make my life difficult. I take a bite of my spaghetti, ignoring the burning sensation on my tongue in the hope of avoiding the question. Because truthfully, I don’t know. I mean, several times, I questioned what I was feeling, and suddenly everything happened, and I couldn’t fight it anymore.
“Next question,” I say, my mouth full of spaghetti. My mom would kill me for speaking with my mouth full, but I can’t take him just staring at me while he waits for my response.
“It was when you saw me shirtless for the first time, wasn’t it?” he asks.
“The first time I saw you shirtless, you were on top of me in my room.” I scoff. “So, if I didn’t already like you, there’s no chance you would’ve made it that far.”
“That’s the first time you saw mecompletelyshirtless.”
I have no idea what he means. Either you’re wearing a shirt, or you aren’t. That statement makes no sense.
“Let me rephrase that. It was the first time you saw my abs, right? They totally turned you on.”
I roll my eyes, but my flustering cheeks give me away. And I know from his smug face he’s doing this just to see me fluster. But I’m not going to back down.
“Again, I hadn’t seen them until that night. And from what I did see, they were nothing special.”
Okay, maybe I snuck a few peaks when he would lift his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face when we’d meet after practice, and he didn’t have time to shower. Or maybe my eyes were instantly drawn to the sliver of skin that would make an appearance whenever he stretched but—
“You think I never caught you checking me out?” he teases. “Just because I was busy wiping sweat off my forehead doesn’t mean I didn’t feel your eyes on me.”
Okay, seriously, is he in my head?
“I never checked you out!” I gawk.
“Sure, you did. No shame in it.”
“If anyone was checking out anyone, it was you checking me out,” I reply, cutting a meatball in half and shoving it in my mouth.
“I was.”
“What?” I practically choke on the meatball… which is something I never thought I’d ever say.
“Once you started letting me see the real you, it was hard not to be attracted to you.”
“You’re attracted to me?”
I know it’s a stupid question. I know it sounds silly. Of course, someone you’re dating would be attracted to you, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone admit it. I don’t think Tanner ever told me he was attracted to me in the six months we were together. Maybe he thought I’d see right through it.
“I thought it was pretty obvious,” he whispers, and I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s the most attractive thing I’ve ever seen.
I feel like I say a lot when it comes to Declan, but it’s hard not to. I sometimes forget that he’s this cocky hockey player and not the sweet, nervous guy sitting in front of me.
“Even when you have spaghetti sauce all over your chin,” he continues, leaning forward to brush his thumb against my chin to remove the remnants of my dinner.
I laugh as he pops his thumb into his mouth, cleaning the sauce off.
Before Declan, I probably would’ve run right out of here. I would’ve been so embarrassed, but I don’t seem to care anymore becausehedoesn’t make me feel like I need to. And after the whole banquet fiasco, he’s shown me that our problems and arguments, which we rarely have, can be solved with one simple thing—
Communication.
“You know, I haven’t been this happy in a long time,” he says as I sit on my knees to face him better. “I don’t even know if I’ve been this happy ever.”
