Page 70 of Party Favors

Oh, I liked him so much. So, so much. I didn’t want to be just friends. I never had.

I’d been so busy protecting my heart that I’d done exactly what Vella accused me of—I’d had Prince Charming waltz into my life and I’d told him I wasn’t interested in becoming his princess.

“Max—” I said, but I lost my ability to speak when he reached up to stroke the side of my face. He ran his fingertips along my chin and down to the bottom edge of my lip. I wondered if he even knew he was doing it.

“Are you sure you’re okay? The car didn’t clip you?” His voice was rough and laced with something I couldn’t quite identify.

“I’m fine,” I promised him. “Thank you for saving me.”

He cupped my face again. I reached up and wrapped my hands around his wrists. I held on to him as we breathed together.

Was he going to kiss me?

My pulse had recently returned to a normal rhythm, but now that I thought there was a possibility that I’d finally get to know what it was like to kiss Max Colby, it started racing like it was in the Indy 500.

I hadn’t had anything to drink tonight, but I felt very drunk on Max. My brain was hazy, I wasn’t reacting as quickly as I should, and it seemed like I was about to make a very poor decision.

And I don’t know how long we would have stayed in that moment if it hadn’t suddenly started pouring. The forecast hadn’t predicted bad weather, but the skies opened up and rain was barreling down onto us, like little heat-seeking water missiles.

“This way!” I said, grabbing his hand and running for the diner.

This time I made sure to look both ways before I went into the street. It took us a couple of minutes and we were completely drenched by the time we got to the diner. We ran inside and a bell chimed. Nearly everyone turned to stare at us as we came in.

I turned to look at Max, ready to share a laugh with him about having to dart through the rain, when stuff started happening in slow motion.

Max reached up to push his soaked hair away from his forehead and I practically heard music watching him do it. He smiled at me while rivulets of water ran down his face, tracing paths I wished I could follow with my fingers.

Or my mouth.

I wasn’t picky.

“I’m so wet,” he said, shaking the rain off.

All I could do was nod, shivering. And whether that was from being cold or my brain stem being detached from the rest of my body due to the overwhelming amount of sexiness I was witnessing, I wasn’t sure.

“Grab a table anywhere,” a waitress said as she passed by with a pot of coffee.

“How about over there?” Max said, pointing to a booth near the back.

“Sure.” My teeth were chattering as I followed him to the table. He slid in on one side and I took the other, resisting the urge to follow him in so that we would be seated side by side.

As soon as we sat, a different waitress came over and handed us some menus. We thanked her and I pretended to look it over while I was actively trying to calm myself down.

Had we nearly kissed out there? Or was that a product of my overactive and wishful imagination?

Why was he so gorgeous? And why was he even hotter soaking wet? It was disconcerting.

As I pretended to read the menu, my brain floundered for something to talk about. I couldn’t bring up what had almost just happeneda few minutes ago. I didn’t have the ability to shrug it off and pretend like it was nothing. As if it didn’t matter to me, like the entire earth hadn’t temporarily shifted off its axis completely.

Oh hey, we almost kissed, right? Or was I making that up?

Nope, not a suitable conversation for people who were supposed to be friends.

“What are you in the mood for?” he asked, and although it had been a perfectly normal and innocent question, it still had my blood pounding in my veins.

Because I was in the mood for Max and to follow through on where things had been going until Mother Nature had decided to personally interrupt us.

I finally settled on, “I always love getting breakfast for dinner. It was a big treat for me growing up. My meemaw used to do it the first Sunday of every month.”

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