Page 99 of Empty Net

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m so tired.”

“It was all the food.”

“Mmm,” she agrees, swaying on her feet a bit as she pushes the door open. She moves inside her apartment, leaving the door ajar like she expects me to follow.

I tell myself I do it just to make sure she’s okay, but the truth is, I don’twantto go home to my apartment. I don’t want tobe alone tonight. I want to be with her. I trail behind her as she makes her way to her bedroom, kicking her shoes off along the way. Next comes her shirt, and then her skirt hits the floor.

She looks back over her shoulder at me, a tired smile playing on her lips. “You coming?”

I should say no. I should leave. I should do a lot of things, but I don’t. Instead, I keep going, pulling my clothes off right along with her. When we finally make it to her bedroom and slip beneath her sheets, I pull her as close as she can possibly get.

“Have you been buying turtles?”

“Hmm?” she asks, already half asleep.

“Have you been buying turtles?”

“Oh. That.” She shrugs. “I might have found a few. They’re for you.”

“For me?”

“Of course. What do I need turtles for?”

I want to point out that I don’t need turtles either given the robust collection I already have, but I don’t.

Lilah bought me turtles.

I grin.

“Stop,” she grumbles. “I canfeelyou smiling.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can.” She pinches me, then kisses the same spot. “Stop being weird about it.”

“I’m not being weird. I think it’s sweet.”

“They’re just turtles.”

“Just turtles,” I agree, but they feel like so much more than that. I know it, and Lilah knows it too.

She snuggles even closer to me, her breaths beginning to even out.

“Good night, Lilah Jane Maddison.”

“Good night, Arthur Francis Fox.”

She’s asleep moments later, but I lie awake for hoursthinking about how Lilah, the girl who doesn’t believe in relationships or love, thought about me while I was gone.

And how I thought about her too.

CHAPTER 18

LILAH

“Nothing gets me hotter than watching hockey in person.”

I laugh at Rory, who hasn’t taken her eyes off the ice since we sat down. She’s barely even touched the nachos in her hand, and the urge to reach out and eat one has been bugging me all game, even though they’re likely soggy as hell by now.

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