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“Let me call you back on my cell,” I squeaked and hung up the phone abruptly. “I’m just going to call him back and go to bed.”
“You can go take care of him if you need to, honey—”
“Nope, he’s okay. Doing a little better, actually.”Dammit. There was no winning.
I spun and padded down the hallway, tripping over my own feet when I heard Mom sigh, “Young love.”
Absolutely definitely not.
I shut my door and pulled my phone off the charger, tapping on Decker’s missed call.
“You shouldn’t have called the house,” I said as soon as he answered.
“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t check on you?”
Fair.I was punishing him for keeping up the facade I’d begged him to maintain.
“The fake kind,” I retorted, sinking onto the edge of the bed and falling backward.
It shouldn’t feel this good to hear his voice. Shouldn’t feel like I enjoyed the fact that we were in this together.
“How’s Arlene?”
I relaxed a little. “Fine. Good. Angling to do more than she should.”
“Like mother, like daughter.”
I let out a small laugh. “I guess.”
Silence poked a hole in the conversation, but it felt like something else was being said between the heat of our breaths.
“I meant what I said, Reese.”
“That you’d break up with me?”
“That I don’t regret the kiss.”
I swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“Do you?”
My heart thudded, heat starting to ooze through my body. “It doesn’t matter—”
“You don’t have to keep up a show for me,” he interrupted with that deep, commanding tone that made me shiver. “Be honest. In a few weeks, you’ll be back in New York, and you can go back to not opening up to anyone—”
“I do open up to people,” I protested weakly.Falsely.
“Prove it.”
My breath pushed through my lips in a steady stream. I wanted to fight. To keep up my barriers and stay protected. But I also wanted to give in…just for a little. And he was right. In a few weeks, none of this would matter.
“No, I don’t regret it,” I confessed breathlessly.
He liked my answer, judging by the low noise he made.
“And did you do what I told you?”
I bit into my lip hard, staring up at the ceiling and wishing. “I tried.”
