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“Let me,” he says softly, with such kindness, that I can’t do anything else but just let him.
“That one.” I point to the silver key on the ring.
Once he opens the door, we walk in, and I find I can breathe a little easier.
“Thanks for bringing me home, Logan. Good night.” I say it in a hurry, a mess of words, hoping to get him out of here quickly. I don’t know what’s going on tonight, but this can’t be a thing.
“Hold on,” he laughs quietly. “Let me just make sure you find your way to bed and don’t end up face down on the floor somewhere.”
I turn around to argue and quickly lose my balance, everything spinning.
“Whoa.” He reaches out to grab my upper arms.
I can’t help but laugh, catching his eyes which are also full of humor. Full of something else I can’t quite place. “This is how we met,” I say.
He smiles back, his hands squeezing my arms just slightly. But the smile falters as he swallows and simply agrees, “Yeah.” An acknowledgement, an understanding. That’s all any of this is.
“The uptight, boring lawyer whose personality matches her job and the fun-loving dance instructor,” I keep going, laughing to make a joke out of it, but all I probably did was reveal how I’ve kept our conversations in my head.
He furrows his brow in response. “You downed a shot called the Panty Dropper while dancing all night in a crowd of sweaty people. I’d hardly call you uptight or boring.”
I chuckle, opening my mouth to tell him I was just kidding, but he keeps going.
“So, you’ve got some hang ups with your job, but I remember that conversation, too. And I saw you take my words the wrong way. It makes sense that you’re a lawyer not because you’reuptightorboring. It’s because you command attention. You don’t even see it. You walk into a room with your head held high and your shoulders back.” He pauses to look at me. “You command my attention.”
I stare into his eyes, lost in this wonder of a person, and see the fire in them. God, what would it be like to have all his attention? What must that feel like? I want to know. I really want to know.
“Thought you didn’t date partners,” I blurt out and he goes still. I shut my eyes, wincing at the nonsense I’m spewing. “Shit. Sorry. I thought I was doing myself a favor by finally going out and enjoying myself, but right now, I’m really regretting drinking so much.”
His body loosens up as he chuckles, soft around the edges, wholesome. Something I wish I could feel against my skin. His lips are parted slightly, and I feel possessed in how I’m staring at them, willing them to come closer. I watch his tongue dart out and lick his bottom lip. I could melt right here. This man is clearly so damn passionate and professional and warm and welcoming, it’s doing nothing to quell my rapidly growing emotions.
His hands quickly squeeze my upper arms again, like he’s talking to me in this way, too. But I don’t know what any of it means. All I did was show my hand and right now my head is swimming with too much alcohol to even make sense of it.
“I don’t know what the rules are anymore, Julie.”
Am I drunk or does that sound like some sort of confession?
“I don’t know, either,” is the only response I can manage, and I say it out loud.
He lets go of my arms and drops his hands to his sides. Am I drunk or does he seem defeated?
“I should go to bed,” I whisper.
“I should go, too,” he whispers back.
“Thanks Logan.” Everything is catching up to me. I’m exhausted; I’m a mess.
“Always,” he responds, that small grin tucked into the corner of his mouth. I want to press it with my thumb.
“Okay, goodnight.” I shuffle my way to my bedroom, and once I spot my bed, I feel my body sag with relief. I kick my shoes off into a corner, throw my blazer onto my upholstered bench. I pull my clothes off and throw them across the room in record time as I fall face first into bed. Finally.
***
The alarm blaring inmy ear right now is frankly offensive.
When I move to turn it off, everything else moves too. My head is pounding, a constant dull ache that feels like somebody is squeezing it like a stress ball. My limbs are Jello.
I am hungover as hell.
