Page 66 of No Rings Attached
He shrugged. “That’s what good boyfriends are for.”
“Drew, seriously.” There weren’t enough ways or hours in the day to truly explain to him how much I appreciated every little thing he was doing for me.
“I know.” A shadow lingered under his eyes, more pronounced in the faint garage light. He stared at me like there was something he wanted to say, but didn’t know how to say it.
Was he feeling something for me, too? I knew he had to be attracted to me. There was no way to fake the physical response from him when we kissed. All I had to do was ask. Right? We were friends and if I was bold enough maybe we could be more than the ‘fake’ label we’d given ourselves.
“Drew … ”
“Yeah?”
Panic rushed from the top of my head to my toes. A coldness, like a waterfall of icy cold water, froze my veins. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t chance losing him. Losingthis,even if it wasn’t real.
I wanted to revel in whatever this was between us before I had to come crashing back down to reality. “Thanks again. I know I already said that, but I mean it. You’ve been great. Like Olympic-gold medal great. Champion of rolling-with-the-punches great. Honestly, just fantastic.” I snapped my mouth shut before it could betray me further.
Abort. Abort.
“You’re welcome.” He tapped his fingertips on the steering wheel like he could type out an SOS message. “Let’s go inside. Glamma texted and said she put your suitcases in the guest room.”
“Right. Inside. Mm-hm.” Casual. Nailed it.
We headed in, and he did the tour-guide thing. “Kitchen, dining room, fridge, cabinets—you can help yourself.” His house was narrow with a living room behind the kitchen and a powder room beneath the staircase. It was modern and the perfect size for one or two people.
“Perfect,” I chirped.
Why did it suddenly feel like we were on a very boring Airbnb walkthrough instead of whatever … this was?
He smiled awkwardly. “I apologize for the state of my place. I have more packed boxes than unpacked, and even less furniture, which thankfully is coming Friday.”
“It’s totally fine.” His sparsely-furnished townhome was the least of my worries.
We walked side-by-side down the hall toward the stairs. Each step up echoed like a countdown to disaster. Thirteen original steps seemed like a hundred, each one reminding me that this was the floor where his bedroom was.
At the top, we froze.
“That’s my room.” He pointed. “Before that is a closet with a washer and dryer.”
“Perfect. I’m sure I’ll need that.”Gah.Then I realized ‘perfect’ was the only word I managed to keep saying all day, like a broken doll with limited settings.
“My office will go there.” He gestured to the open space before us.
“Cool.” I said. My brain had clearly vacated and was now mocking me from afar. I needed to say something funny or smart. Not justcool.
“Your bedroom’s there on the left. I have a mattress on the floor. Glamma put sheets and blankets on it for you. And I got most of the boxes out of there, so you don’t need to deal with that.”
“Awesome.”
Kill me now.
“Perfect,” I added. I wanted to fling myself off the staircase.
He started toward my end of the hall, but panic made me grab his arm. “It’s fine. Bedroom. Bathroom. I’ve got it. And I can proudly say I’ve used both before. I mean—not yours, obviously. I’m not like creeping around your house when you’re not home or anything. Okay. Wow. I’m going to shut up now.”
He stuck his hands in his back pockets and rocked on his heels, making me think of his cousin the night we met. Which reminded me, I had a message from Adam that I hadn’t listened to today. A slow grin spread across Drew’s face—boyish and completely charmed rather than horrified by my verbal disaster.
“You know,” he said, his voice warm with barely suppressed laughter, “for someone who handles my entire schedule and keeps a multi-million dollar expansion on track, you’re surprisingly bad at this.”
“Bad at what? Being a normal human?” I buried my face in my hands. “Yeah, I’m aware.”
