Page 55 of The Nice Guy
The way we hold each other, so innocently after what we’ve just done, has my feelings bubbling to the surface. The words are right there on the tip of my tongue.I love you. I love you so much I think I might burst if I don’t say it right this second.Instead, I look into his eyes to see that intense gaze that leaves me breathless and my knees shaking.
I wish he’d say it already. When he looks at me, I feel it. I know I do, but if he’s not ready to say it, I have to wait.
Why can’t I just tell him? Why can’t I say the words? It’s not as though Rhett’s going to run away and leave me behind if he doesn’t feel the same way yet. It would flatter him, and he would kiss me. He’d give me all sorts of platitudes to tell me he cares for me, but I don’t think I can say it without knowing he’ll say it back.
It’s a line that can’t be uncrossed. Once I step over it, that’s it. It’s done. And if he doesn’t step with me, I don’t know how I could face him afterwards. To know I’m the only one in love. I think I might die inside, and I know I can’t take the risk.
I haven’t been in love like this before. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in love, actually. Not like the movies, and this, with him, feels like a movie. One I don’t ever want to stop watching.
“What’re you thinkin’?” Rhett asks.
“What’re you thinking?” I ask back.
He smiles. “I’m thinkin’ about how lucky I am to have come across you in that ditch that first day.”
“You saved me,” I say and smile back. “It was like fate.”
“That’s what Carter said, too.”
It really does feel like the world stepped in. What are the odds that I’d spin out to have Rhett drive by shortly after? The universe works in mysterious ways, and who am I to argue with it?
“I still can’t get over how much this feels like something I’d watch on the big screen. Most girls don’t get to experience this in real life and believe it only exists in the movies. I’m a lucky girl.”
There, I got as close to saying the words as I can without actually saying them. But rather than confess his love, he brushes my hair away from my face before his lips claim mine.
It’s not a needy kiss filled with sexual desire. It’s a loving, sweet kiss. Patient and kind. The type of kiss you give someone when you know you have forever.
“Do you miss Chicago?”
The question takes me by surprise. “Sometimes.”
His body tenses beneath my touch. “What do you miss about it?”
“Being able to be invisible. I feel like a freak show on display here, but it’s getting better. In fact, I think having you walking into the bar looking like you do tonight dimmed the spotlight that seems to always be aimed at me. Tonight was almost perfect.”
“What would make it perfect?”
Telling me you love me!“I don’t know.”
“How would you like to come to Thanksgiving with me?”
Thanksgiving. That’s not even a month away. Something you do with someone you either do or could love. “Really?”
“It’s kind of a miracle you haven’t met any of my family yet as it stands, but you’ll get to meet them all at once.”
He wants me to meet his family! A man doesn’t do that unless he’s serious about a woman. Not around here, and I’m suddenly very nervous. “I’d love to.”
“Good,” Rhett whispers.
His phone vibrates against my leg from his pocket, and he groans. I frown at him, turning my lips into a pout. “I thought you weren’t on call.”
“I’m not,” he says and pulls it out. “It’s from Darla.”
We look at the screen together, and I can’t stop the smile. Someone snapped a picture of us from the bar with me on his lap. We’re looking at each other with deliriously happy expressions on our faces.
“She says she thought we might want this.”
“This is such a good picture. Did she send it to me, too?” I ask.
