Page 150 of Pick-Up
“I couldn’t help it! It’s hilarious!” He smiles. And it’s dreamy. Asymmetrical dimple and all. I could get lost in that smile. Who needs a map?
“But you liked it?” I say. “Derek said you liked how it turned out?” I’m surprisingly anxious to hear his thoughts.
He nods. “Not just me.”
“Corporate? The publisher?!”
He smiles. “Our jobs are all safe, for now.”
“Ethan! That’s amazing!” I grab his hands. They’re warm and strong.
“Sasha,” he says, hanging on.
“You know it kills me when you say my name.”
“Sasha. Sasha. Sasha.”
“Are you trying to destroy me?” I pretend to faint into his arms.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he says, looking down at me as I turn to face him, pressing my body up against his. He smells like him. And I missed it.
“You sure about this?” he asks.
I nod, my lips now inches from his mouth. I am hypnotized. “I was afraid and all over the place,” I say quietly. “And you were an idiot. But now I’d like to get on top of things. On top ofyou.”
His eyes crinkle and spark. He narrows his gaze. “That can be arranged.”
Then, he leans in and kisses me, in the middle of that park for all the moms and dads and their vests to see. And I am all about it. It starts shallow and goes deep, his arms encircling me, his hands pressed into the small of my back. It hits me at my core and I melt into him on every level. This is the kind of daily workout routine I can get behind.
This, I dare say, could be love.
When we finally pull apart, reluctantly as hell, he says, “We should get going. Before this gets obscene.” His lids are heavy.
“Or after,” I suggest, and wiggle my eyebrows. “Give the people a show!”
“Did you finish your three miles?”
“I actually don’t know! But I am definitely done running for today.”
“Wow,” he says. “You broke your rule! You didn’t runexactlythree miles.”
“I’m rewriting lots of rules these days.” I give him one of my signature winks. It is terrible.
He shakes his head, laughs. “You should never do that. Not in public.”
I realize I love his laugh. And his T-shirts and his generosity and even his stupid-ass lectures. Well, sort of. I think back to our time on the island. How hard I tried to fight it.
“You look tired,” I say now, sweeping my fingers over his jaw. “We should go to bed.”
“Ah, I wish,” he says, his hand drifting lower on my back. “You have no idea how much. But I have somewhere to be. And so do you.”
“What? Where?” I look at my phone. “Oh, damn! It’s time for pick-up.”
“Want to go together?”
“Ethan. Are you asking me out to pick-up? Our first date!”
“So, this is a date, but dinner on the moonlit beach wasn’t? You’re a very strange woman,” he says. Then he stops short. “Oh, wait! I almost forgot!”
