Page 64 of Romeo

Jasper: It might be.

I stared at those three words.

Not a promise.

Not a demand.

A dare.

He’d left the space between us open and let me decide whether I wanted to cross it. That should’ve made the whole thing less dangerous.

But it didn’t.

Because I knew what I wanted. I wanted to kiss him. Not some vague, someday kiss that was easy to imagine because miles of interstate stood between us. I wanted to know what would happen if he were standing right in front of me and I didn’t give him time to be careful.

I wanted to see whether all that control he kept hiding behind would hold.

Maybe that was the part I hadn’t been ready to admit.

The flowers hadn’t changed anything. Neither had his answers. They’d only made it harder to keep pretending I didn’t already know where this was going.

I set the phone on the mattress beside me and stared at the ceiling.

Maybe I wasn’t standing at the edge anymore.

Maybe I’d been falling for a while and had only just looked down.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Romeo

The clubhouse carried the usual Tuesday evening noise. Brothers drifted through the common room after dinner, the television played something nobody seemed to be watching, and the smell of beer and cigarette smoke had settled into the walls years ago.

I was in my room staring at my phone.

Again.

I could’ve called her. My thumb had hovered over the button enough times that I was starting to piss myself off, but texting was easier. That way, I could think before I answered. Delete something when my mouth got ahead of the little bit of common sense I had left.

A phone call was different. One laugh from Fiona and there was no telling what might come out of my mouth.

So I behaved.

My phone buzzed.

Ma Belle: Still awake?

I smiled. Apparently, she wasn’t helping.

Me: Always for you, Cher.

Ma Belle: That’s a dangerous promise

Me: I don’t make promises I can’t keep.

The dots appeared, disappeared, then came back. I could picture her staring at the screen, deciding whether I was serious.

I was more than fucking serious.