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She looked around. “Well, not everyone. Just our friends. The people we just told that we were in a relationship.” She shook her head, and her eyes glanced down at his hand still cupping her face. “You kind of look like you were about to kiss me.”
He tookin her parted lips, her round eyes peering up at him through thick lashes. He realized that was exactly what he wanted to do. So, the only way to right this was to stand as stiff as humanly possible, unmoving, like one of those guards with the tall hats that never even cracked a smile. That was the new plan.
Until Stella looked at his lips…and then shrugged.
Was she about to kiss him? Was she moving closer? Did his breath smell like Goldfish?
He didn’t have time to think about much else, because before he knew it, she was pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth. A kiss so chaste, so innocent, and so…fast.
On a sigh, he felt her melt into him, her shoulders dropping as her head nestled deeper into his chest. Like her world hadn’t been rocked by that peck. Maybe it hadn’t. But for half a chorus, he thought maybe she was enjoying this as much as he was…until he saw Lucy and his brother out of the corner of his eye, flashing him a thumbs-up with matching cheesy grins. He’d forgotten why they’d kissed in the first place. Stella moving closer and pressing her lips to his was all part of an act. Of course it was.
But as they slowly turned on the dance floor, he ignored the logical side of his brain, and for the rest of the song, he let himself imagine that it wasn’t.
Chapter
Seven
“It’s such a lovely day out here,” Stella chirped with a healthy dose of gusto. As her feet crunched on the fallen leaves, she thought about warming up her pipes and belting out a little rendition of “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” to really sell it. Or would that have been too much? Nothing was too much if it distracted her from what she was about to do.
“It really is perfect today, isn’t it?” Nate said as he turned to her.
A perfect day to die, maybe. Of course, she was being dramatic. Or not. This day sure felt like it haddoomwritten all over it. It was just her luck that Lucy had picked the aerial course as their first activity of the trip—something she was secretly hoping might get rained out. But as she peered up at the bright blue sky with not a cloud in it, she realized what a waste of time all that hoping had been.
“You coming, slowpokes?” Eric yelled from atop the wooden stand that was at least a zillion feet from the ground. So, maybe the rest of the partyhadnoticed her dragging her feet as theymade their way to the start. Heck, Johnny, Angie, Max, and Hannah were already out of sight.
“On our way!” Stella yelled, flashing a grin so wide all her teeth probably showed. Super creepy, but not as creepy as dangling from ropes that were the only thing saving a person from becoming a pile of smoosh on the ground.
He stepped and turned back to face her. His tight-fitting athleisure top did little to subdue the swirling in her stomach. Tilting his head, he looked at her, and she couldn’t help but notice the casualness of his stance. Arms hanging at his sides, fists unballed. His sleeves looked painted on, like he was a really jacked Spiderman, ready to swoop through this course with the greatest of ease. Of course he wasn’t nervous.
“What’s going on?” His strong eye contact made her uncomfortable because it was like he could see right through her. Like he could read every thought in that head of hers. Hopefully not, since she’d just been admiring every detail of his physique.
“Well…” She craned her neck to look up at the ropes. Why did they seem to get higher and higher every time she looked at them? Was that even possible? “From the looks of things, what’s going on is we’re about to go up on those strings up there and shimmy across a few more.” She stopped because now that he’d crossed his arms over his chest, comparing him to Spiderman had been a mistake. His muscles definitely pushed him into the Thor category. If only he had that hammer to knock this course down so they could go back to the lodge.
“Something’s bothering you.” He pushed a rock with his foot and dug his toe into the dirt. “Is it us?”
“Us? No, not at all.”
“You sure?” He looked up from the ground, his eyes round and soft. And combined with his hands now tucked into thepockets of his sweatpants, she wanted to scoop him into her arms like a sad puppy and smooch his face.
Whoa!Where did that even come from? Dang that kiss last night. Such a bad idea. She’d no idea how comfortable she’d feel in his arms when she’d asked him to join her on the dance floor. No clue that being pressed against him would reduce her muscles and bones to a goo that was more than happy to melt into the very hard planes of his body. So, naturally, the next step was to smash her lips to his face, right? At least, that was what she’d thought last night. And what a lame kiss. She kissed Grandma Millie with more emotion than that. A much different emotion, but still.
So, what did it mean that it was one of the better kisses she’d ever had, despite the fact that Nate hadn’t even moved during the entire encounter? Probably that she’d never really been properly kissed. Not like what she’d read about in the books Lucy was always lending her.
Great. Now, here she was, this familiar Jell-O feeling returning—and not because she was about to dangle from a thread that hung from the trees above, which was likely why she blurted out something even Lucy didn’t know.
“I’m afraid of heights. Terrified, actually.” Apparently, her mouth was getting her into all kinds of uncomfortable situations these days.
“Okay.” He shrugged like it was no big deal. “Then we won’t go.”
“Oh, just like that?”
“Just like that.”
She crossed her arms and looked at him. “Aren’t you supposed to give me some pep talk about me getting out of my comfort zone and trying new things?”
He raised a brow as he spoke. “Do youwantme to give you a pep talk about getting out of your comfort zone and trying new things?”
She didn’t, really. But she wasn’t used to a guy—even a fake boyfriend—letting her off the hook so easily, especially since he’d yammered on for a solid five minutes over his Spanish omelet this morning about how much he was looking forward to doing this course. The whole conversation made her wonder if the bran muffin she ate was going to pop back up and say hello.
