Page 70 of Actually Yours

“Yes, that Mike. So, I’m introducing the two of them…”

“How did that go?” she interrupts again, gesturing with her hands for me to tell the story faster.

“It was awkward and then…”

“What?” she screeches.

“Jake turned up.”

She gapes at me. “He didnot.”

“He did. I said hi, he looked at me and the two men, and he turned and walked away.”

“Hummph.” Her muffin finished, Bella moves to sit next to me in bed, her back against the headboard. “So, this is what we need to fix?”

If only it were that simple.

“No.” Despite my stomach telling me not to, I nibble on a muffin. The smell of bacon and cheese too tempting to resist. “I smoothed that over. We ended up chatting and then we danced.”

In my mind I’m back in his arms, floating around the dancefloor, completely safe with his arms around me.

“I take it from that dreamy look on your face that the dance was something special.”

My cheeks heat and I wave my hands in front of them.If this is how I react to telling her about the dance, how am I going to get through describing that kiss?

“It was,” I confirm. “And then we somehow found ourselves outside…” I decide to leave out the part where I hid from bothof the men she’d been attempting to set me up with. Save myself that lecture. “And we went for a walk on the beach…”

“Hold up,”—her pointy elbow jabs me in the ribs—“you went for a moonlit walk on the beachwith Jake?”

I nod and she squeals again, her face alight with excitement. “Tell meeverything.”

With a deep breath, I detail everything that happened, from the honest conversation about that first night we met, to his feelings about me with his brother, to his visits to the café, hoping to see me.

“I knew that’s what he was doing!” I give her a doubtful look. “Well, obviously not at first. But that day you were both there at the same time? I knew from the way he watched you that he came there for you.”

“Actually, I think he came for the brownies.”

She grins. “Why can’t it be both?”

We sit in silence for a minute, while I let her digest all this new information. I can hardly believe all that was said between us, so she must be feeling a similar sort of way.

“None of this is a surprise to me.”OK, maybe not.“When the two of you are together, you both have sparks flying off you.”

There’s that word again. Sparks.

“We kissed.” I blurt it out, now physically unable to hold the information in.

She twinkles at me. “How was it?”

Mind-blowing, earth-shattering, life-changing.

“It was amazing.”

She puts her arm around my shoulder. “So why do you sound so depressed about it?”

I sink into her, accepting the comfort she’s offering. “I’m scared.”

There. I’d said it. The reason I’d bolted away from Jake last night. I’m completely terrified of the way I feel about him. Theway I feel when I’m with him. The way I desperately want him to feel about me.

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