Which was beside the point. The point was that the length of time since my last breakup was probably contributing to how badly I wanted to climb Simon like a tree.
This self-knowledge didn’t change the fact that I did.
Worse, it didn’t make it any more likely that I was going to. Fake boyfriends did not come with real sex.
Simon grabbed our trash once we were both done, taking it to the trash can beside the food truck before I could do it. Of course.
I got up and followed him, since his car was in that general direction. Not that I was eager to get back to the house, but I knew I’d hear about it if we stayed away too long.
Simon smiled at me as I approached. The same smile he always gave me—on anyone else, it was the kind of smile reserved for someone they’d just seen again for the first time in years. On Simon, I thought of it asmysmile. He smiled at everyone, all the time, but the way he smiled at me was different.
It was one little piece of him that was all mine, that I kept squirreled away in a pocket next to my heart.
He reached out as I got within an arm’s length of him, tucking an imaginary strand of hair behind my ear, his thumb lingering on the shell. My breath caught in my lungs, pulse speeding up as I met his eyes. What?—?
“Don’t look,” he murmured. “Audrey’s behind you.”
Oh. Right.
I locked eyes with him to stop myself turning. His thumb caught the edge of my jaw, then tucked under my ear as his fingers curled around the back of my neck, brushing the hairs there. A shiver rolled down my spine, skin tingling all the way from where Simon was touching it to the small of my back.
“Think I’m selling it?” he asked, inching closer.
“Maybe—”
“Simon, Theo!” Audrey called behind us, stopping me from finishing that sentence withyou should kiss me.
Simon looked over my shoulder, breaking into one of the smiles he offered to everyone else.
Audrey was dressed in mauve leggings and a sheer white tank that showed her matching mauve sports bra through it, hair tied back in a sensible ponytail and skin glistening with sweat.
“Out for a run?” Simon asked, warm and friendly as ever.
I wanted to be indignant about that, but I couldn’t. Simon’s distaste for Corey aside, he generally gave people the benefit of the doubt to an extent other people might have thought was naive.
It wasn’t. He was smart, he knew not everyone’s intentions were as good as his were. It was just that he didn’tassumethat of anyone. Not until he had irrefutable proof. Sometimes not even then.
All the same, as I turned to face Audrey, Simon’s hand curled around my hip. Another warm shiver ran through me, skin prickling all over at the subtle possessiveness.
Audrey’s gaze darted to the same hip. She hadn’t missed it.
She turned a brilliant smile on Simon. Without the bright red lipstick of yesterday, it was a little less sharklike.
“I am!” she enthused. “Do you run?”
Simon laughed. “Not unless I’m being chased. Not even then, honestly. In the event of an apocalypse, it’s safe to say the zombies will get me first.”
Audrey laughed. It wasn’t the kind of laugh that was for show—it was genuine, punctuated by a snort she covered up with her hand, color rising on her cheeks.
She was pretty. All Delilah’s friends were.
“We were just getting breakfast,” he added. “Away from, y’know…” He trailed off with a gesture in the direction of the house.
“The chaos?” Audrey finished for him, smiling wryly. “Yeah, I hear you. I love Dee with all my heart but she isnotcoping well with pre-wedding jitters and she’s taking it out on everyone in sight.”
I grimaced involuntarily.
“Sorry,” Audrey said. “She’s your sister, I shouldn’t talk about her like that.”
