Page 53 of Wish Lists and Road Trips

“Come on. You told me you go to the gym. You’re not above a little vanity.”Also, I saw your abs. Those were on purpose.

“I go to the gym because I like to eat.” He glanced down at his body, then shrugged. “My arms?”

“No. It’s definitely your eyes,” I blurted.

His lips tipped into a cocky grin, and I realized what I’d just let slip—that I’d thought about this enough to have an answer on the ready. I guess I was just going full confessional now.I’ve been drooling over your face since we met, Nick. I’ll probably never forget it.

“Yours is your hair,” he said.

I scoffed. “You called it rainbow hair.”

“Why would you think that was an insult?”

“Because you said I looked like a cartoon horse!”

“Pony.” He grinned wider. “And maybe My Little Pony is my favorite childhood toy. You don’t know.”

I smiled back, appreciating that he chose the most adorable way he could think of to apologize for that. “I’ll be saving that tidbit,” I said. I made a little scribble gesture on the air.

He reached over to take the card out of my hand, brushing his fingers over mine. “Watch the movie with me.”

I turned around to put the game away, and when I looked back, he’d opened his arm for me to settle beside him. I hesitated, my heart beating wings in my chest. It was one thing flirting from a safe distance, but I didn’t really know how to touch him after what had almost happened last night. Every brush of our skin felt like touching a live wire, but then, when he laid his head on my shoulder at the park, it felt comfortable and right. It confused me, the way he could make me feel both of those things.

That little sliver of space he’d left me was calling to me though, and I lowered myself against his side, wrapping my arm over his stomach. He made a sleepy, content sound and my eyes turned to little hearts.

Lying next to Nick was pure bliss. The heat he radiated could warm a small home and he smelled like something spicy that I wanted to lick. I peeked up at his face, watching his eyes move along with the action on the screen. His lip was still slightly swollen, but it looked better than it had last night. I wished I could run my fingers over it again.

His phone was face down on his stomach, and it buzzed, startling me out of my creepy inspection of his face. It hadn’t stopped since we left Houston, always vibrating and beeping, and I was beginning to think Nick might be the president of a small nation, or like a really popular celebrity, with all of those notifications. People sure were anxious to get a hold of him, but unlike every day so far, tonight he didn’t seem to care.

“I haven’t seen this since I was a kid,” he said, ignoring the call without looking at the screen.

I turned back to the movie. “I’ve seen it a hundred times.”

He tipped his chin to look at me. “What do you like about it?”

I tried to think of a clever answer, but his eyes were bearing down on me, making me squirm. Truth was the only possibility. “The outfits.”

He laughed, his chest shaking beneath my cheek, and I couldn’t keep in the sigh that rushed from my mouth.

“You’re a very comfortable pillow. I wouldn’t have thought it with all that muscle, but it’s like you just absorb my weight.”

He snickered and reached for more candy. “You weigh about as much as an extra layer of clothing.”

“What do you weigh?”Oh my God.I was so desperate for more, I’d resorted to compiling stats.

This time he gave me a full laugh. “You don’t need those cards to be nosy, I see.” Blood rushed my face, but he tightened his arm around me. “No more questions. Just sit with me.”

“We’re not sitting. We’re cuddling.” I half expected him to jolt at the realization, but he didn’t even flinch.

“Cuddle with me then.”

That was an invitation I couldn’t refuse. I burrowed closer into his side, my legs squeezing together when his fingers tangled in my hair, stroking. I dared to let my palm slide over his ribs, my pinky skimming bare skin where his shirt had ridden up. God, this was pure blissful torture.

After a while the battery light on my phone turned red and I looked up at him from under my lashes. “Do you want to use yours?”

As if it were balking at the idea of being used for entertainment, his screen lit up with three new notifications. He reached across himself, and touched my cheek. “We should go to bed.”

“Okay,” I said, disappointment squeezing my stomach. I peeled myself out from his embrace, and he laughed at me while I did an awkward log roll/crab walk over him to get out of his bunk.

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