Page 89 of Hoax and Kisses
“And instead of being honest with herself and with me,” he continues, “she looked for things that’d hurt me. That’d put distance between us.”
“Like Daphne.”
He nods, his eyes flicking down to where my fingers are still grazing his hand. “Sometimes,” he starts, a carefulness in his voice, “I wonder what it’d be like to try again… to get back out there.” He peers at me for the briefest moment before his gaze flits away. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.”
My heart picks up its pace, matching the tempo of the rain spattering on the café windows. “You have?”
He locks his eyes on mine, raw intensity smoldering in them and melting me from the inside. “More than I could ever admit. It petrifies me. Some days I want to say fuck it. Most days, I remember how low I was after the breakup, and it’s enough to pin me in place.”
He reaches up and gently tucks a lock of damp hair behind my ear. It’s such a simple touch, and yet my heart takes off in a way I’m not prepared for. “You’re not the only one who’s afraid, Zoey,” he says, his voice steady.
I swallow, searching his face for any sign of doubt. All I find is the same brutal sincerity he’s been offering me since the day we met. I want to believe him. Ineedto believe him.
Am I ready for this? To stand in front of my fears, to let go of the walls I’ve spent years building?
“I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know where to begin, how this,” I wave a hand between us desperately, “could ever work.”
He tightens his hold on my fingers, the warmth of his touch anchoring me. “We don’t have to have it all figured out now. We still have time, right?”
The reminder of our looming deadline sends my stomach plummeting to the floor.
Do we? The vote is next week, and then what? If the locals approve my proposal, I’ll be around for a while, in and out to oversee the progress. But after that? I’ll be appointed CEO, and the sliver of free time I have now will be whittled down to nothing. If I don’t get the hotel? Well, why would I stay?
How would any of that be sustainable for either of us? To entertain the possibility of a relationship would only feed our delusions of a positive outcome.
And yet I can’t put an end to that possibility. I can’t ignore the thread he’s been weaving around my heart since I met him. Can’t bring myself to sever it.
I peer outside, at the rain that’s finally slowing, my mind racing in a hundred directions. But when I look back at him, there’s nothing but raw hope in his eyes. And I’m too weak to fight that.
“One day at a time?”
Matt grins, wide and bright, dimples and all. “One day at a time.”
Chapter Twenty
MATT
“You know I don’t like when you pick me up in that,” Daphne complains when she sees the shop van at the back of the school’s parking lot. Her nose scrunches up. “It makes the road too bumpy.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder. “But I was stuck in the rain all day and didn’t have time to run home to get my truck.”
She halts, frowning. “Why couldn’t you get out of the rain?”
“What? No, I did.”
Head tilted, she scrutinizes me in only the way she can. “You said you werestuckall day.”
Oh. I chuckle. That brain of hers. “No, I meant because it rained so hard. I was at the market in Brookhaven, and I had to wait at Rosie’s café until it stopped.”
Her brow lifts slightly. “That’s why you smell weird.”
What? I give my shoulder a quick sniff. Okay, yeah. I stink like a wet dog.
“I didn’t realize I smelled that bad,” I say, rubbing her back the way she likes.
She wrinkles her nose again. “It’s notthatbad. But next time, could you please shower before you come get me? Now I have to sit next to you in the bumpy van while you smell like soggy cardboard.”
Amusement courses through me. “I’ll do my best to avoid every single raindrop. How was school today?”
