Page 133 of Almost Ours

Ruby blinks at me. “You looked up the route to my house?”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“This morning.”

“Before or after you abandoned me?”

“During the abandonment.”

“You were sat in my bedroom Googling how long it would take to drive to my house?”

I shrug. “I had time to kill.”

“You are so unbelievably full of shit.”

I grin. “Maybe I wanted to know.”

She frowns. “Why?”

I really wonder how she can possibly still need me to spell this stuff out when what I feel for her, how much I want her, is so fucking clear. “Because two weeks without you sounds thoroughly, thoroughly shit.”

“Oh.”

“Rubes,” I lean forward and kiss her cheek. “Do you think there will ever be a point where I don’t need to constantly tell you how I feel? That I can just show you?”

She looks at me, expression softening. “No. Probably not.”

I groan. “Brilliant.”

“I’m being honest.” Her fingers toy with the hair at the back of my neck again. “You’re very confusing. Your version of showing me how you feel is buying me fourteen presents, memorising my timetable, turning up everywhere I am, getting weird about other boys and then insisting we’re friends.”

“When you list it like that, I sound unwell.”

She grins. “You’re perfect.”

“Cheers.”

“But I’m learning.” Her eyes snare mine. “I think.”

“Do you really not know how I feel about you?”

Ruby’s mouth twists like she knows there’s no good answer to that. “I know you care about me.”

“Rubes,” I warn.

“I know you want me.”

“Getting warmer.”

She gives me a look. “I know you like me.”

I shake my head. “For someone so smart, you can be a little dumb.”

“Don’t call me dumb.”

“Baby,” I murmur, sliding my hand up the side of her neck and cupping her jaw, my thumb brushing the bone there, “you’re a little dumb when it comes to me.” She gives me a wounded look, but pushes her head into my palm, and I can’t help smiling as I lean down and press a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I’m basically worryingly obsessed with you.”