Page 17 of Long Story Short

I nod as I allow my shoulders to relax, and I let some air out of my lungs. I’m still embarrassed that she walked into a smoke-filled kitchen instead of a calm one, but I can’t change it now. At least it doesn’t seem to bother her. I’ll take that as a win.

“Would you like a glass of wine?” I ask in an attempt to make her forget all about the chaos she walked into.

She thinks about my words for a moment. “I already had two at home, but another can’t hurt.”

“White or red?”

“What’s your favorite?” she immediately fires back.

My eyebrows lift because her question takes me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting her to ask me my preference. Now I have to decide if I want to be honest with her or not. White or red doesn’t really matter to me as long as it’s what she prefers to drink. “I typically go for red, but I’m good with either. You tell me.”

She must like my answer because her lips spread into a radiant smile. “Let’s do the red.”

“You sure?”

She nods as she bites her lip. “Yes. I’m a red girl, much to the annoyance of my best friend. I pretend to like white for her, but if I get a choice, it’s always going to be red.”

I nod as I grab the bottle of red wine from my counter. I begin to pull open various drawers in my kitchen, trying to figure out where the bottle opener is. I hired a service that stocked the house with essentials, but I’m still figuring out where they put everything.

“Tell me about your friend,” I request, buying myself time as I continue to search for this bottle opener.

Josie crosses her arms over her chest as she stares at me for a few moments. Two tiny lines appear between her eyebrows as she watches me closely. “You want to know about my friend?” There’s shock in her voice, as if she can’t figure out why I’d ask in the first place.

I shrug as I finally find the bottle opener. “Yeah. I want to get to know you better, Josephine Russell.”

Her nose scrunches as the corners of her lips turn up. “It’s Josie. And you could find out almost anything you wanted to know about me by searching my name online.”

I shake my head. The last thing I want to do is learn about her that way. Not when she lives next door and I can have the chance to hear more about her from her own mouth. “I want to know what you’ll tell me.”

There’s a long pause between us as I stare into her eyes. I hadn’t meant for the words to come out as thick and raspy as they did, but I also can’t take them back. There’s a tension in the air I can’t ignore, and I can’t help but wonder if she feels it too. The silence gets the better of me. I swallow as I twist the opener into the cork. “As your neighbor, of course.”

“Well, this is awkward because I already looked you up and found out everything I could know about you from the internet.”

Her words take me by surprise. A laugh rumbles from deep in my chest. “Did you really?”

She bites back a smile as she nods. “Yes. I had to make sure my cute neighbor wasn’t some sort of weird stalker or had some sketchy past I needed to know about.”

“Cute neighbor,” I prod, unable to resist. After this morning, I realized I might’ve been too forward with my advances with her. To be honest, not many women ever capture my attention. The fact that she did had me flirting with her without even realizing I was doing it. I just couldn’t help it. But once she left and I reflected on the situation, I realized that maybe I came on too strong and that was scaring her away.

Josie closes her eyes for a moment. Even in the dim lighting of the kitchen, I can see the blush that blooms over her cheeks. A warmth fills my chest at the sight. I like having the ability to make her blush the way she is right now. “I was hoping you didn’t catch that part,” she admits, her voice lowered.

I pour her a glass of wine and hand it over to her. “Oh, of course I caught that.”

Our fingers brush as she takes the glass from me, and a small jolt moves up my arm, starting at the spot where my skin touched hers.

I clear my throat, wondering why it still feels like I can feel her skin against mine, even though we’re no longer touching. “I guess I passed your search, then, since you’re here in my kitchen.”

Josie smiles before lifting the wineglass to her lips and taking a sip. “You passed. Although there wasn’t a lot about you online outside of information about your work.”

I can’t help but smirk as I pour my own glass of wine. “Good. I like it that way. Guess we’ll have to get to know each other the old-fashioned way.”

ELEVEN

JOSIE

I’m still trying to figure out if coming to Tyson’s for dinner was a good idea. I’ve only been here a few minutes, and I keep changing my mind every other second on whether or not I should be here.

There’s something about Tyson that’s magnetic. When he looks at me, it’s like he’s really looking at me. He actually seems interested in getting to know me, and there’s something about him that I can’t resist. Instead of being weirded out or annoyed that he wants to know more about me, I actually feel flattered and even more attracted to him because of it.