Page 26 of Teach Me to Laugh

“Thanks,”

“Any time.”

“You know you’ll be my best man, right?” His voice cracked and I knew he was thinking about his younger brother who was no longer here with him. It was while Kaiden was mourning Austin in Europe that I’d met him. He’d become the brother I never had and I hoped that, to him, I was a brother, even if he’d already had one and lost.

“I’d be honored.”

Me:Don’t worry about dinner. Picking up pizza.

I stared down at my phone, waiting for Amara to reply as I stood in line waiting to pick up my order. It wasn’t until I was in the truck, about to drive, that my phone chimed.

Amara:Sounds great!

Me:You home?

Amara:About 2 leave Library.

Me:Stay. I’m close. Pick u up.

Amara:K.

I wasted no time in driving from the pizza place to the Library. It was only just past six so I didn’t know what she was doing at work. Amara typically had Wednesday’s off, but things changed; she could have gotten called in. She loved being at the Library so I suspected that if she were called in, she’d take it.

It was when I pulled up to the big brick building and saw her standing on the stairs waiting for me, that I realized Kaiden was right. She thought we’d had a fight and even though it hadn’t been intentional, I had been avoiding her. I was an ass. Being an ass unintentionally didn’t change the facts. I was still an ass.

She wore a gray beanie with a knit flower on the side and her dark gray winter jacket. Purple mittens hid her hands; I knew they were purple because everything the girl picked for herself was some shade or another of purple. And her cheeks were rosy from the cold. Big white flakes had started falling from the sky to coat the ground, and I thought that she’d never been more beautiful as my headlights grazed over her body before I pulled up next to the big set of concrete stairs.

I watched as she climbed down the stairs, jolting into gentleman mode just in time to jump down and run for the passenger door. I opened it and she gave me a curious look, her head tipped back and her lips positioned in a pouty frown.

I counted my lucky stars that she wasn’t glaring at me. The woman had the glare to scare a man mastered.

“You know I can open my own door.”

“I happen to remember a sassy little thing asking me where on the gentleman scale I capped out.”

“I wouldn’t say that’s how it was worded.”

“It was something like that,” I leaned down and caught sight of the small parting of her pretty lips. Every male hormone in my body flared to life with the evidence of just how my nearness affected her. “And I made it my mission that day to show you, that when it comes to you, I’ll never cap out.”

“Every guy caps out.”

“Not me. Not with you.”

Her eyes broke the connection with mine. Her flushed cheeks turned even pinker as she breathed out a low breath. Then she looked back up at me. “What do you want from me, Beckett?”

Well, shit. Of all the words that could have come from those lips, I wasn’t prepared for these. Not even a little bit.

“I want what you want.”

“I don’t want anything.”

A lie. We both knew it. She wanted so much more, but she wasn’t ready to admit it to me or to herself.

I could wait.I would wait.For this woman I would wait as long as it took.

“I want your friendship. I want your honesty. I want you to be happy and I wouldn’t mind being your reason one day.”

“My reason?”

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