Page 60 of The Pinkie Pact

There was a pause as we smiled at each other, making me feel a bit dizzy. "Um, so what about the pots and pans?" I asked, gulping down more wine.

"Would you believe we managed to wash all the pots and pans?"

"You did?"

"Yep, it was a busy week, moving all my stuff and kicking Daniel's ass into cleaning."

"Wow, that's great. So you moved all your stuff? How'd that go?" But what I really wanted to know was if he saw Christina or had any regrets about their breakup.

He hesitated a moment. "You want to know if I ran into Christina, don't you?"

Damn, was I that transparent? Or maybe Kieran was just the smartest guy I'd ever dated. "Um, uh..."

I reached for my wine again as he stopped me with his hand. "Listen, Sky, I want to tell you something."

Holy smokes, the seriousness of his tone kind of freaked me out. With his hand still on me, I lifted my free hand up from under the table and grabbed the wine because, good Lord, I needed it something fierce. "Yeah? What's that?"

"I know I just broke up with someone I'd been with for a long time, and I know it's kind of weird to go out on a date so soon after that. But I want you to know that there are no lingering feelings there. Whatever Christina and I had was over long ago."

I had no freaking idea what to say to that. "Um, okay. That's good I guess."

He looked down and smiled, pulling his hand away. "And now, I've made you uncomfortable. Great. Clearly, I'm out of practice with my, um, dating skills."

Maybe it was the wine starting to hit me, or maybe it was that ever-present tension in Kieran, but I wanted to shake him and tell him to relax. "Hey, Kieran?" I said.

"Yes?" He met my eyes again, his face curious.

"Stop thinking so much."

Grinning, he took a deep breath. "Guilty, your honor."

I shoved his glass closer to him. "Drink."

And with that, he took a big sip, his eyes watching me over the rim of his glass. The wine was buzzing through my veins, and I scooted my chair closer to him, feeling much more relaxed myself.

The food came, and it was absolutely delicious. As the wine flowed, we devoured our dinners and at last eased into an easy conversation talking about our families, classes, and school.

But I could tell something was still on his mind, and I wondered if it was the same thing I was thinking about... something I'd been obsessing about all week.

Would I finally get a taste of Kieran's lips on mine and discover what it felt like to kiss this boy?

Kiss Me

Kieran

I could hardly wait till dinner was done. Sky was turning out to be more amazing than I even imagined, her refreshing honesty and easy humor helping me to calm down.

This entire week, I had been a wreck worrying about how tonight would go. And when we first sat down, I felt so damn awkward, even spilling my water like a total dumb-ass.

I hadn't tried to "date" anyone in forever, not even Christina. She'd pursued me freshman year when we'd lived down the hall from each other, and we'd just kind of ended up together eventually. Before that, well, I think I asked one girl out in high school.

So to take out a girl as beautiful and cool as Sky was freaking the crap out of me, and I was obviously way out of my league. How I managed to actually eat, I had no clue. Thank God for the wine that Sky had so cutely asked about.

Could it be possible she was nervous too? I didn't see how she could be. As gorgeous as she was, she'd probably gone out on millions of dates.

The bill came, and I left a bunch of cash so we could leave right away... not that I hadn't had a blast. But I was dying to get this girl alone and see if we could pick up where we left off last Sunday.

All week, I had thought about our almost-kiss. We'd been so incredibly close, and that moment had haunted me ever since. The anticipation was killing me.

---