Page 26 of Never the Same

I smiled. God help me, I did, and I even meant to do it.

“Our temporary solution for privacy from your older brother, who doesn’t have the best manners toward guests.” I sat across from her, deciding it’d be best to keep some distance between us. I leaned back, holding the arm of the couch, hoping my pulse might drop out of tachycardia range soon so I could survive our talk.

She wrung her hands together on her lap, her nerves as unexpected as my opening up to Alex. “Gideon’s a bit much, isn’t he?” She faked a smile—or maybe it was partially genuine. I wasn’t sure of anything at this point.

“That’s putting it mildly.” I angled my head, staring at her long lashes as she slowly lifted her eyes to my face. “Your meet-and-greet not go well? Rather short.”

“It was stiff and awkward, like they didn’t know how to handle me being like this. I gave them an out by saying I was tired. My sister seems nice, though. She’s throwing snacks together.”

“Good. You should eat.”

She patted her thighs twice. “So.”

Yeah, I don’t even know how to handle this version of you being this nervous, awkward, and . . . well, sweet.

“I’m, um, glad we’re alone.”

My damn heart rate was never going to slow down. “You are?”

“Mm-hmm.” She stood, then sidestepped the barrier of the coffee table between us and offered her hand.

I was probably scowling as I bit out, “What are you doing?”

“Asking for a favor. Will you do it for me?”

“Depends.”

“I was hoping you’d touch me.” Red crawled up her throat into her face.

Never have I ever—a game we used to play in high school, and I had no idea why I was thinking about that now, but never had I ever witnessed Hollis blush or get tongue-tied.

She’s not herself, genius. I forced myself to stand so she wouldn’t feel alone in whatever she was going through. I even held out my hand—no idea what she planned to do with it, but if she wanted it, she could have it.

She gently rested her hand on top of mine. The second contact was made, it took all my energy not to pull away at the electric current passing from her fingers into my skin.

“See?” she whispered.

“What am I supposed to see?” I was using the sense of touch, not eyesight right now.

“Sorry, I meant . . . do you feel that?”

I eyed our clasped palms, then let my gaze wander up to the length of her still-pink neck to the most beautiful face in the world.

“Do I feel your hand? Yes.” I played dumb because I didn’t want to lie to her. Because yes, I felt a little too damn much, and that was a problem.

“You mean something to me, I just know you do,” she said as if in a daze while locking our fingers together so we were now holding hands. “Are we secretly sleeping together?”

Sleeping together? “Hollis,” I choked out. I hated to destroy whatever peace she was feeling, and even giving to me, but I had no choice but to be honest. “We’re not sleeping together,” I said as firmly as possible. “In fact . . .” I exhaled. “This is the first time we’ve ever even held hands.”

Her eyes flashed open, narrowed and sharp in disbelief. “No, that doesn’t make sense.”

Shit. “I don’t know why you feel this way, but we don’t even”—I hated myself for this—“like each other.”

She pulled her hand away, and it was a punch to the gut I deserved. “What are you saying?”

I dragged both hands through my hair, trying to find a way through this with minimal damage while also shutting down this ridiculous idea that we were together. “We have an unconventional friendship.”

“Unconventional,” she echoed, her mouth drawing tight around the word.