Page 21 of Next to You

I sat there blinking. Blinking and thinking. Pondering and perplexed.

I needed words, and I needed to respond, but my mind was currently shorting out because he had blown it.

What if I’d been more open?

Flirtier?

More freaking self-confident?

“I take it back.” Realizing this was my time to make up for every lost chance I had to go out with him, I followed my heart and blurted, “It never happened. I never asked you out. Not a hint, not a peep, not a word. Tacos what? Tacos, who?”

Featherlike smile lines crinkled at the corners of his eyes. “God, you’re cute. You know what? I almost asked you to senior prom. I wish I had. Maybe things would be different now—I don’t know. I haven’t had the best luck with relationships.”

I may have just died. My heart had literally seized in my chest.

The ghost of Lucy was now in charge of her body, and she was confused as hell.

I mean, what the heck?

I could have been living in an alternate reality right now. One where I could have avoided years of bad dates with dumbass losers.

And Spencer? He thought thatIcould have made a difference in his dating life?

What the in the everloving dreamstate fresh hell was going on right now?

Was this cabin the portal to hot guy Narnia? Was I stuck in the sexiest hallucination ever? Was I about to have a dream come true?

“Why didn’t you?” I squeaked out, trying to wrap my head around the beautiful, amazing, mind-boggling words that were coming out of his mouth.

“My dad told me not to. Your mom wouldn’t let you date. Isn’t that right?”

“Ugh, yes.” I threw myself back in my chair, flinching when it hit the wall behind me. I felt myself shrink, like the girl who was always stuck at home. My mother was always too afraid I would get hurt or be peer pressured into doing something bad, like get pregnant or do drugs. Because of this fear, I could never do anything with my friends. Damn it. "No, my mom wouldn't let me date until I turned eighteen, and I'm so thrilled you know about that," I muttered.

“I’m sorry, Lucy—I never told anyone, I swear. He didn’t want me to get you into trouble or cause a fight with her.”

My freaking mother. Damn it. She only had herself to blame for her lack of grandchildren, forcing me to date idiots when, for all these years, I could have had Spencer. She was going to hear about this when I got home. For the love of?—

Enough.

Getting lost in what could have been was stupid when what was happeningright nowwas way more important.

Focus.

“I saw you there,” I told him, for lack of a better segue into another topic. “At prom, I mean.”

“I went with my friends. I couldn’t bring myself to ask anyone else.” His voice broke with huskiness. Did he have any idea how sexy he sounded? “I didn’t want to. I was too disappointed that I couldn’t go with you.”

Holy crap. Holy freaking crap, crap, crap.

Forget my Man Ban. I was now on the Get Spencer Cassidy Plan with a side quest to find a rhyming name to call it.

This was happening.

“So did I,” I stammered as tingles of awareness shot through my body. “I went with my friends too, I mean.”

“I should have asked you to dance.” His expression stilled and grew serious as our eyes locked on each other.

“I would have said yes,” I murmured. Touched beyond words that he was sharing this with me. “I would have loved to have danced with you.”

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