I crossed my arms skeptically.
“I’ll make sure everything is fine,” he assured me, and in a tone a shade softer, said, “Just trust me. Please?”
I breathed out an exhale. “Okay.”
“Here, let me have your keys,” Jake said, taking them from me and heading toward my car. “I’ll drive you.”
“Then how will you get back to the café?”
“I’ll walk.”
“What? No. You don’t have to—”
“Lucy, it’s fine,” he assured me as he unlocked the doors. “You’ve already proven you’ll be there for everyone, okay? Just let me be here for you right now.”
Chapter Eighteen
It’s anticipation
Pure intoxication
And I-I-I can’t wait to see you again
(Love Drunk!)
—US Lyric Bot [@HourlyUS]
I’d never been drunk before, but it must feel something like this—stuck between falling and standing, too asleep but too awake all at once, with a thousand things you want to say blossoming on your traitorous tongue.
Things that would definitely get you in trouble.
Jake parked in my driveway, then came around to open the passenger side door for me. And when my eyes landed on him in my haze, my only thought was,You’re pretty even when you’re blurry.
An incredibly dumb thought.
He was, though. Stupid, blurred vision did nothing to blot out his good looks.
It really wasn’t fair.
“What’s not fair?” Jake asked.
Right. Okay. So I said that bit out loud then. At least it hadn’t been the first part.
“Hush,” I admonished him. His voice and the way he was looking at me really didn’t help the whole Not Falling in Love trick I’d just begun to master. “I’m trying to focus.”
“What are you doing?”
“A trick.”
His head inclined ever so slightly toward the side as I slowly stood and tried to concentrate. “Is the trick not passing out? If it is, it’s a good trick. You should probably keep doing it.”
Why was he so funny? He shouldn’t be so funny. Hot and talented people should at least have the grace to have the personality of wet cardboard, lest they hoard too many good traits. Having a good sense of humor on top of everything else was just plain greedy.
Whoa, where were these thoughts even coming from? Was my trick not working at all?
“Thank you for the ride,” I said very politely. As elegantly as I could, I reached out for my keys. Double vision made it look like there were two little Ferris wheel key fobs in Jake’s hand, but I aimed for the one on the left and didn’t even miss. Score one for motor skills. “I can take it from here.”
“Why don’t I walk you to your door?”
