Page 71 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

“Yo también te amo.”

The words ghosted over my lips, and I wanted to stick out my tongue to catch them as if they were tiny flakes of snow falling from the sky. Assuming they meant what I thought they meant. Pulling back a few centimeters, I gulped in a lungful of air as I rested my forehead against hers.

“Amo is from amar right? The verb, I mean.” I knew what amar was and what it conjugated to, but it was better to know for sure than to assume. And I also wanted to hear her say it again in another language.

Chuckling, Kris nodded, making my head move as well. “Yes, baby.”

A smile started at the corners of my mouth and bloomed until my cheeks had puffed and rose upward.

“Okay,” I whispered. “But just to clarify, you should probably say it again in English...” I trailed off, waiting for her to just pick it up and tell me what I needed to hear.

“What happened to all of that Spanish that you knew?” she teased.

I shook my head. “I know un poco. What you said was advanced. The conjugations are at least three tiers above my skill level, so you should probably translate. For science.”

“Oh, for science huh?” Leaning away from me, she smirked, one of those dark-brown eyebrows lifted in challenge.

I was terrible at playing coy and as impatient as a toddler sitting in front of a bowl of fruit snacks. “Or you could say again for me. So that I can hear it again and can know that I didn’t imagine it.”

Her smirk fell and brows knitted. She went from cupping the back of my neck to cradling my face between both of her hands, stepping closer until our knees knocked and feet tangled on the floor.

“Can you hear me?” she asked, her voice low but firmer than a whisper.

Her eyes were on mine and I was gonegonegone in those deep pools of dark liquid. There was a seriousness there. It was insistent and determined and I think she meant for me to understand her clearly but I was so, so gone, having fallen into her eyes and floating on a cloud of my own unquantifiable emotions. The whispering from my own mind followed me there, telling me that it was too soon, that it was too thin, that it was not enough. I could have sunk under the whispering for an eternity and a day, trying to find the right words to make it go away.

But she was waiting for me to respond, so I nodded.

“I. Love. You.”

I’d watched her lips form each word, so I knew that was what she said, but I still felt a moment of confusion when nothing else came after that. That was it? Three words and the proper amount of punctuation? The whispering rolled around in my mind.

Too soon.

Too thin.

Not enough.

I’d asked her to repeat herself, so why did I suddenly feel so disappointed? Had I been expecting some grand declaration complete with a laundry list of reasons why? Yes! Foolishly, I had. We hadn’t known each other long enough for the hair on my legs to grow back after shaving them for the cast party, yet I found a way to be disappointed that all Kris had said was that she loved me. If it was too soon to think of reasons why, wouldn’t it also be too soon to feel that way at all? Was she only saying this because she was determined to “find love”? Or was it because we were being filmed? Because it gave great TV? Was this calculated? Had I fallen right into her plan? Was any of it real?

I’d gone from feeling euphoric to questioning my own feelings and ruining my mood. Sighing, I let my eyes flutter closed, hoping that Kris would believe that I was simply content instead of on the verge of fighting back tears. I felt like I was once again in that space of wanting someone to choose me and being left in the cold. The sound of wheels rolling on the unfinished floor alerted me that someone had entered the room. Instead of releasing me, Kris touched her lips to mine in the gentlest of kisses that was so tender that I did cry.

It felt so real, so sweet, and so...loving that I was unable to hold back my liquid emotions. A tear slipped from the corner of each eye and rolled slowly down my cheeks. I expected her make a noise in the back of her throat and wipe them away with her thumb or press a tissue to my face, but she once again bowled me over with a double combo of unexpected tenderness and caring that seemed like it couldn’t be fake.

“Baby,” she murmured low in her throat, before literally kissing away my tears, her lips catching the droplets before they dove off of the rounded cliff of my chin. Then she kissed up the trails they’d left behind until she reached my eyes where she left the most delicate, featherlight kiss on each of my eyelids.

I stood as still as I could manage, white-knuckling the table behind me, my bottom lip trembling as I choked back a sob. You didn’t kiss away the tears of someone you didn’t love, right?

“You two are so stinkin’ adorable,” Jae gushed. “I love working with clients who are so obviously in love with one another.”

“Thank you.” Kris bowed her head graciously.

That assessment made me crack my eyelids and my gaze flew from Kris to Jae. What exactly did she see? Kris had scooted back into her chair, but her eyes were on me. She wasn’t smiling, but not frowning either. She was just...staring at me. I met her gaze wondering what she saw when she looked at me, but I could only maintain direct eye contact with her for a few moments before a dull throbbing began to make itself known between my thighs. That’s what her attention did to me. Made me wet at the drop of a hat. I shifted in my seat and gave Jae my attention.

Well, part of my attention.

In my peripheral, I saw Kris’s nostrils flare, her eyes narrow, and then she scooted her chair right up next to mine. She dropped her left hand onto my right thigh, just below the hem of my dress, sliding it into the crevice between both. With her thumb, she began to draw circles over the fabric of my tights. I gave her a sharp glance, but she faced Jae, nodding at the right moments as if she was truly listening intently about bulbs and blooms. As if her hand on me wasn’t purposely stoking a fire inches away from where her fingers rested.

I worked at controlling my breathing and kept my eyes on Jae. She was telling us about arches when I realized something.