Page 151 of Save Your Breath
“Yetbeing the keyword.”
“I do have a European leg kicking off in February, though. What do you think about London?”
“I think anywhere with you is exactly where I’m meant to be.”
My eyes flicked between his, heart swelling at his words, at the sincerity I saw behind them.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” he said, voice soft as he swept my hair back with glove-covered hands. “I can’t believe you said yes.”
“I’ve always crushed on you. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that.”
“I thought you did in high school,” he said, his breath visible against the dark night. “But after that drunken attempt at a kiss, you blew it off like it was nothing. And then you were dating every guy who was the exact opposite of me.”
“You wouldn’t touch me.” I argued, poking his rib.
“Your father made it clear I couldn’t.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Trust me, that was the hardest night of my life.”
“What about after?”
“Well,” he said, sighing like there were a hundred regrets in that one word, “like I said, you blew off what happened like it was a mistake. I thought it was just a drunken slip. And the one time I did get the nerve…”
“You flew to L.A., and I was with Ian,” I finished for him, remembering our conversation the night we’d finally admitted our feelings. “God, I wish I’d have known. Ian was such a loser. The guy only wanted to talk about his music or how saintly he was for all his charity work — that I’m pretty sure he only did to hear people tell him how amazing he was.”
“I was going to tell you everything,” he said. “I had this whole speech…”
“Oh?” I snuggled into him as we wound closer to the lake. “I’d love to hear it.”
“Don’t get greedy. You’ve had enough of me groveling at your feet, haven’t you?”
“Never enough.”
He smirked. “My question is why didn’tyouever say anything?”
“After you rejected me?! Yeah, wasn’t exactly in the mood to get told you saw me more like a little sister.”
“I never saw you as a sister,” he said darkly.
“Well, I know thatnow. But… I saw you with all these gorgeous models and women who lived out loud, and I… I just assumed I wasn’t your type.”
“And I assumed I wasn’t yours.”
“Remember how we saidfuck our thoughts? Well, I’m pretty pissed at our assumptions, too.”
Aleks chuckled, warming my arm with his hand as he pulled me to a stop at the side of the house. We’d walked the path and circled back, but I guessed he wasn’t ready to go inside just yet.
“I don’t regret much in my life, but I do regret not telling you how I felt sooner. Then again… this whole pretending to date thing has been pretty fun.”
I threaded my arms around his shoulders, and his hands found my waist and pulled me flush against him. “If you could have read my mind when you kissed me on that beach…”
“You were wet, weren’t you? Dirty girl.”
I shoved at him playfully, rolling my eyes, but he held me tighter.
“Maybe I should write Garrett Orange a thank-you card. If it weren’t for him being a little twat, this might have never happened.Wemight have never happened.”
