Page 29 of Broken Hearts
“I have type one, which means both physical and emotional stress can trigger episodes. If I wanted to be completely safe, I’d have to avoid basically everything. Sometimes I can feel my heart get out of rhythm when I’m working out, other times I’m just sitting around doing nothing.”
“Freaky. What’s an episode like?”
“Usually it’s just a fluttering in my chest or a lightheaded feeling.” She shrugs and a small smile pulls at her lips. “I’ve gotten really good at listening to my body and knowing when to take breaks. I can do most things, in moderation. No roller coasters, though.” She sticks out her bottom lip. “I haven’t been to a carnival in forever. I miss cotton candy.” She angles her legs toward mine. “Did you mean what you said about not usually doing that type of thing?”
I chuckle at the topic change. “Yeah, of course.”
Her gaze narrows.
“You don't believe me?”
“Everything I know about you contradicts that. The day I met you, you hooked up with someone only hours before. Or tried to. Your phone was blowing up with different girls later that day.” She laughs softly. “Then last night...” Her voice trails off, and I’m accosted with hazy visions of Sienna in the bathroom of the basketball house.
“I guess if you’d only known me the past week, I could see where you might get the wrong idea, but that’s not me. I got out of a relationship recently, and last weekend was... well, it was the result of a lot of things, but that’s not something I do on the regular.” I’d certainly like to, though, with her. I leave that part out. “And last night—”
“You were really drunk. I get it.”
“Yes, but sober Rhett would have done the same thing. Minus drenching you in beer.”
An amused smirk plays on her lips.
“Okay, fine, that might have happened anyway.” I bump her knee. “Last night was fucking awesome. I’m only sorry we got interrupted.”
“Just as well. You’d probably have fallen asleep on me,” she teases, but her breathing changes, and tension hangs in the air between us.
“Not a chance.”
Her grin makes my cock twitch. Taking her to my bedroom after I just claimed to not be that kind of guy seems like a bad plan, so I pick up an Xbox controller. “Wanna play?”
She lets out a slow breath and nods. “What do you have?”
I show her the options, including all the other gaming systems. Between my roommates and me, we have pretty much every system and game out there. Sienna picks Mario Kart, and my dick finally gets the idea that we’re not getting any action today. He’s had to accept that a lot. I’m pretty sure he’s ready to remove himself from me and find a new host body.
I’m usually pretty competitive, but we’re firing questions back and forth as we play, getting to know one another.
“Only the one sister?” I ask. I pass her on the game and toss a banana over my shoulder.
She moves her whole body with the controller as she swerves out of the way. “Yeah. What about you?”
“Younger brother.”
“Are you close?”
“Nah. He’s five.”
“That’s quite a gap.”
“Yeah. No kidding. I was seventeen when Ryder was born, and I’ve basically been away for his entire life.”
“I bet he looks up to you.”
“Not really.” I shake my head and focus on staying just ahead of her on the game. I want to win, but I don’t want to blow her out of the water. “When he grows up, he wants to be Spider-Man.”
“It’s good that he’s keeping his expectations reasonable.” She glances over and catches my eye. It’s hard to look away from her when she’s smiling at me like that. She looks away first, but I keep staring.
“I win!” she shrieks.
I glance at the TV screen in time to see her cross the finish line. My dude has crashed into the wall going nowhere, and that feels pretty accurate for the scenario.
