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He didn’t want to be a jerk, but he wanted to know the answer. “So why do you call me that?”
“Because I like you.”
Wait, what? She called him that because she liked him? How did that even make sense. “I don’t get it.”
Before he knew what she was doing, she’d stood and climbed onto his lap, curling up against him. “It started out as a joke. You know, something to bug you with. But now that I know you better, it’s more of a term of endearment.”
She snuggled into him, and he suddenly had trouble thinking of why he ever disliked the term. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, especially if it meant she liked him.
“I never meant to hurt you,” she said. “I’ll stop calling you that if you’d like.”
“No.” His heart rate picked up. “No, it’s okay. You don’t have to stop.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” He kissed the top of her head without thinking, and then froze. Did she feel that? Would she say something about it? But she didn’t seem to react, so he just pressed his cheek to her head and breathed in the scent of her.
“Now I feel bad,” she said, her voice so quiet he could barely hear her.
“Don’t feel bad.”
“But, I do. Here I was, joking around with you, thinking you thought it was as funny as I did.” She looked up at him, her eyes large. “But you thought I was being mean.”
He brushed over her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “You know what I like about you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“I like how you see the world differently.”
A small smile flitted over her lips. “Do you know what I like about you?”
He was enjoying everything about this game. “No. What?”
“I like how forgiving you are.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yep. Super forgiving. Like, totally.” She pulled near.
He liked the feel of her so close to him. It made his pulse quicken. “Well, do you know what I like about you?”
His owl hooted in the distance. It sounded like it had flown to another tree. Nara’s smile widened. “You’d better tell me before I imagine up all sorts of things.”
He could say all sorts of things. But he wouldn’t. He would behave. “I like your smile.”
Nara’s eyes sparkled in the moonlight. “I like yours, too.” She reached out and gingerly touched his lips, like she had yesterday on the plane.
“Oh, you two are so adorable!”
The sound of Brielle’s voice behind him startled him and he jumped up. Unfortunately, that meant that he deposited Nara on the deck with a thud. “Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry!”
He rushed to pick up Nara, who was now tangled in the duvet, while Brielle laughed behind him. “Oh, that’s classic there, bro. Classic. You’re such a nerd.”
“What are you doing up?” he asked as he finally got Nara upright. Man, he sounded like a parent. He hated when parental things came out of his mouth, but that’s what he’d been to Brielle for the past how many years. It was hard to stop.
Brielle just laughed again and walked out onto the deck. “You guys are hilarious. Don’t let me interrupt you, by all means. I just came out to see what was going on. You didn’t forget I was here, did you?”
“No,” he said, his ears heating up like a toaster. “I didn’t.”
