Page 28 of Charlie
He pressed a light kiss on the top of my hair. Acting on instinct, I took his hand and weaved our fingers together. It made his tics act out, and the shoulder I’d been resting my head on bobbed up.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I smiled at him and looked deep into his light brown eyes. We hadn’t even been on the bus for more than an hour and we were sober, but I felt like we were on a dance floor, swaying from side to side in our own little bubble about to kiss each other.
CHAPTER 6
French Pastry
Charles
She wet her pink lips as if inviting me to kiss her. By default, I wet mine too and lowered my eyes to her lips and back to her eyes.
Does she want me to kiss her?
I was scared I’d misinterpret her signals or go too fast, so instead I let my thumb stroke over the back of her hand and squeezed our intertwined fingers. “Your eyes are so pretty.”
“Thank you.” With a soft smile, she returned her head to my shoulder. I focused on the traffic in an attempt to slow down my racing heart and I positioned both my arms over my jacket in my lap to hide the effect her closeness had on me. Dammit, there had been an invitation to a kiss, and I’d blown it.
After ninety minutes of driving we stopped at a gas station with a restaurant and a mini-market.
Liv found a selection of French pastries and took forever to decide among the five different types of croissants. Biting her lip, she stood with the bag in her hand. “I’m torn between the almond and the strawberry croissant – look at how delicious that filling looks – but then I’ve never had a lemon custard croissant either.”
Picking up a bigger bag, I took one of each of the five croissants, and moved to the large fridge to get us two cold waters.
She beat me to the cashier and pointed to the items in my hands. “Five croissants and two waters, please.”
“I’m paying.” I looked at the man behind the counter.
“Nope, I’ve got it.” Liv waved her credit card with her right hand and held out her left to keep me from getting closer.
Shaking my head, I waited until the payment was done and she turned to me with a satisfied smile. “You’d better help me eat all those croissants.”
“I don’t like French pastries.” I kept a straight face and walked out of the mini-mart holding the door open for her.
“That makes no sense. Everyone likes croissants.”
“Nope, they’re too dry and sweet for my taste.”
With a hand to my elbow she stopped me. “Try one right now and tell me that it isn’t delicious. You can’t know if you haven’t tried it. Come on, I dare you.”
My lips lifted in a sly smile. “You dare me? All right, but then I dare you to taste something too.”
“Sure, bring it on.” Her face lit up with a mischievous smile that made tingles run up and down my spine.
Moving closer to her, I lowered my voice. “I’ll sample a croissant if you sample…” My nerves were making my tics act up and I blinked my eyes.
Come on, she called it a date and held my hand in the bus. Be brave!
She waited for me to push out the word.
“Me.”
Her answer came without hesitation and it made me widen my eyes in surprise when she said, “Deal!”
“Yeah?”
Taking the bag from me, she opened it. “Which flavor do you want? Plain, chocolate, almond, strawberry, or lemon?”
