Page 97 of Friendshipped
I can barely believe Lexi just told me she notices me in any way that isn’t platonic. Granted, she’s not talking about herself, but she noticed me. That has to mean something.
“If she’s got eyeballs, she will,” she says.
“I’m narrowing that down as a pretty strong prerequisite. I usually date women with eyeballs. Not that I’m against women without eyeballs. I’m totally equal opportunity when it comes to these things.”
Lexi looks up at me and gives me a strong eye roll. One of her finest.
I push my luck. “So, you’re saying I’m hot?”
“I’m saying you’re good husband material and any woman would be lucky to have you,” she says with a half-hearted swat at my arm.
I sit back. Lexi’s not just any woman. But this is the closest she’s ever come to saying she thinks I’m capable of being more than a friend and I’m going to eat that fact up like a kid with a triple scoop of his favorite ice cream.
The emergency radio emits a long beep followed by an update about some damage a few miles away. Lexi stiffens.
I rub my hand gently up and down her arm in an assuring way and say, “How about I tell you all about the party we planned?”
I’m trying to think of ways to distract her from the storm outside.
“My party?” she asks. “I was going to have a party?”
“Yes,” I say, wishing we could have made it happen somehow. “We were going to throw you a party here in the yard tonight. It was the last item on the scavenger hunt—to come to our back yard.”
“Not just tomorrow at Pop’s Pizza?”
“Nope. This event was a whole other level. Laura level. You know?”
“Do I?” she asks with a smile I can feel even though I can’t see her face from here.
Lexi’s calmer already and I allow myself to revel in the feeling of being the man who comforts her in times like this.
“So, Laura had arranged for some male dancers,” I tease, drawing from Laura’s running joke during our week of planning.
“What!” Lexi asks, horrified.
When she tilts her head up, her lips come to a stop literally less than five inches from mine, taunting me. Our eyes lock and my breath hitches. We stare at one another. If I moved down a little, would she respond by kissing me back?
But Lexi needs me to be a strong tower tonight—her shelter from the storm—so I give my head a light shake and push down the urge to take her soft lips with mine.
Then I say, “It was actually only me and Rob doing dad dances,”
My words break the intensity of her nearness. Lexi playfully slaps my stomach with her hand and laughs as she returns her head and burrows into the spot at my neck.
“Oh! Those kinds of male dancers,” she says on an exhaled laugh.
“Only the best for you, birthday girl. I was even going to do the robot.”
“Well, you still can.”
“Oh, no. I don’t do private shows.”
The wind whips against the house like a living creature intent on entering. A loud bang resounds from outside and Lexi’s body tenses and her hands grab my shirt and clench it in her fists.
“Hey,” I say softly, followed by a repeated shushing sound. “We’re okay. Even if the tornado comes right through the yard, we’re safe down here.”
“We’re not one-hundred percent safe.”
“Okay,” I admit. “That’s true. But we’re way more than ninety percent safe, and I like those odds. Don’t you?”
