Page 11 of Fall Into You
“I blame you, you know,” I say to him in mock horror.
“Moi?” He points to himself. “What did I do?”
“You gave him the doughnuts, and now he’s on a full-blown sugar high. You’re gonna have to answer to Danielle when we get home, and he crashes.”
He smiles back and raises his hands as if I were about to shoot. “I have no issues with that. Danielle seems to really like me, for some reason.”
I noticed this too. She practically pushed me out the door, claiming to want to spend “alone time” with my mom and that I needed to bond with my niece and nephew. But I know that woman. She was trying to push me and Matt together.
Something I have no issue with, by the way.
“Picture!” Leo demands, stomping his foot.
“Alright, alright,” I sigh and pull out my phone to take a picture of him with his arms and legs spread wide in front of the turkey. “Perfect,” I say, about to pull him off the bale.
“Hold on,” Matt says, smirking. “What about you? You need to be in a picture with him, too.” He pushes me and Leo back toward the bale of hay and asks us to sit, taking out his phone.
“Okay,” he says to us both. “I want to see your best duck-faces, people.”
“What’s a duck-face?” Leo asks.
I’ve never felt so old in my life.
“What’s a—? I can’t believe you don’t know this. It’s the expression you absolutelyhaveto do in every picture,” he says. I snort at how serious he sounds. Their mom is going tolovethis. “You gotta put your lips like this.” Matt purses his lips into the most beautiful duck-face imaginable. I never thought it would be possible for anyone to look good like that, but here I stand corrected.
I burst out laughing as he starts taking pictures of us.
“Stay still!” he tells me with a laugh.
“Do you need me to take a picture of you three?” an older woman with white hair pulled up into a perfect bun asks.
“Excuse me?” Matt replies, phone still in hand and pointed at us.
“Do you want me to take the picture so that you can be in it?” she asks.
Matt hands her the phone with a, “Sure,” and a dazzling smile, leaving the woman momentarily awestruck.
Totally feel you, lady. It’s been happening to me all freaking afternoon.
He sits down closely beside me and wraps an arm around my waist. My skin ignites, and my heart starts beating wildly. I know he’s looking down at me right now, but I can’t stand to make eye contact with him. Between his touch, woodsy scent, and just overall general proximity, my mind has momentarily turned to mush, and I just can’t process anything that’s happening right now. I’m barely able to keep a hand wrapped tight around Leo to make sure he doesn’t run away. I cannot lose my focus by looking at Matt now. I’m so dizzy. My brain is so foggy… This man should probably come with a warning to avoid operating heavy machinery while in his proximity.
“Hey.” He shakes me a little. “You need to smile. Pretend like you’re not having the worst time ever sitting next to me and your nephew.”
I have to look up at him now and smile because he sounds nervous, like he actually thinks there might be even a small chance that I’m currently not having the time of my life. He doesn’t know that if I were someone who journaled, I’d spend the next two monthsDear Diary-ingabout this exact moment in time over and over and over again.
When my eyes meet his, he holds my gaze until the stranger taking the pictures interrupts us. “Well, I think that does it,” she says proudly, handing Matt back his phone. “You three make such a cute family.”
“Oh, actually—” I start to say, but she quickly walks away, leaving the sentence in the air. I run my fingers through my loose hair over my shoulder and help Leo stand.
Do not look at Matt. Do not look at Matt.
“Hey,” he says as he picks up the wheelbarrow handles. I can hear his breathing speed up a little, voice shaking like he’s nervous. He wipes one hand on his jeans before continuing. “I was wondering… Maybe when we’re both back in the city, we might be able to, I don’t know—”
“Hey,” I hear my brother’s voice behind us.
I’ve never wanted to commit murder in my life, but I can say with absolute certainty that today is the closest I’ve ever come to doing it.
I want to kill Vinny.
