Page 164 of Puck Me Back to Life

No hesitation.

No embarrassment about being associated with me.

No attempt to put distance between us.

The memory makes me smile all over again. It also makes another thought surface. One that's been bouncing around my head for weeks. I want to ask him out. Properly.

Not because anything would really change.

We're already spending every free moment together.

We're sleeping in the same bed more nights than not.

We're learning each other's coffee orders and favorite books and terrible movie opinions. Still...

I'd like to ask.

I'd like to hear him say yes.

The problem is finding the right time.

Every time I think I'm going to do it, something happens.

A panic attack.

William.

Noah.

A nightmare.

One crisis after another.

It never feels fair to put more on his shoulders. So I wait. Hopefully not forever.

I grab the book from my kitchen counter before heading downstairs. The hardcover rests comfortably beneath my arm. It took me nearly an hour to find. I'd wandered through the bookstore reading the backs of novels like I had any idea what I was looking for.

The poor employee had eventually asked if I needed help.

“My—” I'd almost said boyfriend.

The word had reached the tip of my tongue before I'd caught myself. Instead I'd settled for something safer.

“My friend likes classic literature.”

She'd smiled. “What has he already read?”

Forty minutes later I'd walked out with a copy of Les Misérables.

I only hoped Kai hadn't beaten me to it.

The drive across town passes quicker than I expect. Before long I'm pulling into the parking lot outside his building. The familiar elevator carries me upward.

I knock twice.

For a second nothing happens. Then footsteps. The door swings open and every coherent thought leaves my body.

Kai smiles. “Hi.”