Page 70 of Wild About You
“Oh.” I’m so genuinely shocked that anyone would break up with him for taking in a teammate and his sister when they needed it. What a bitch.
“Please don’t mention it to Ty.” He winces. “Talia and I were probably not going to last anyway. This was just a good excuse for her to duck out and blame it on someone else.”
“She didn’t deserve you.” I reach out and squeeze his forearm. “What you’ve done for them is amazing.”
“Oh, I know.” One side of his mouth pulls up. He drapes an arm around my shoulders. “Everything happens for a reason, right? I mean, if they hadn’t moved in with me, then you and I wouldn’t be roommates either and I’d miss out on your bomb pasta.”
“True,” I say.
Tyler looks up as Ash and I walk into the living room. He stands and flashes Ash a possessive glare that has the guy next to me chuckling.
“Now, I have a very important question.”
“O-kay.”
“What exactly are your intentions with the rookie?”
I hold in a laugh. “My intentions?”
“With Tyler.”
“Uh…”
“When he’s around do you feel like your heart is going to bust out of your chest? Do you find yourself dreaming about him in the middle of the day? Do you see him in crowds of people and then they turn around and it isn’t really him at all but some guy that looks nothing like him, but like your brain is searching for him everywhere?”
“I…” I wait to see if he’s going to start laughing or tell me he’s kidding, but Ash just stares at me and waits for me to respond. “Wow. Umm…yes?”
He finally cracks a smile.
“Good. Now that we got that out of the way, I need to go see if one of those girls over there”—he points with the hand at my shoulder toward two girls at the bar talking to Jack—“wants to console a brokenhearted man for the night.”
He takes off to the other side of the room and I go to Tyler. “Here. Ash said to live a little with your night off.”
At the reminder of Everly, I pull out my phone from my front pocket to make sure I haven’t missed a text from her.
He glances down at the screen. “Anything?”
“Nope. All clear. See? You can relax. She must be having a good time with her new friends.”
“Or she snuck out and is God knows where.” He tips the bottle of beer back and swallows a long drink. “This is my last one. I don’t want to get drunk and then not be able to get to her if she needs something.”
I reach out and stroke his hard jaw, admiring the light stubble that’s grown since this morning. “You’re kind of sexy all overprotective and worried.”
He huffs a laugh. “So, all the damn time?”
He was kidding, but he got it exactly right. “All the damn time.”
The air shifts between us. I close the space between our mouths. His arm comes around me and flattens me against his chest as he takes over the kiss. My head spins and my stomach flutters. God, I missed this. Not just Tyler. I mean, of course Tyler, but it’s more than him. It’s us. I’ve never had this type of insane chemistry with anyone else. My body comes alive when he’s nearby. A hit of dopamine, a rush of adrenaline, and an underlying connection that tugs me toward him.
He pulls back, drops his forehead against mine, and groans. “Cherries. You always taste like cherries.”
“It’s my favorite Chapstick,” I say and pull out the tube from my pocket. It’s true it had been my favorite when I’d met him, but now I don’t know if I continued to wear it all these years because I really liked it or because I knew he had.
An embarrassed smile takes over his face. “The amount of cherry-flavored stuff I’ve eaten just for a reminder of what you taste like is damn right embarrassing. Ice cream, pie, taffy, protein bars with little bits of cherries.”
A happy laugh bubbles up my throat. “Why didn’t you just eat cherries?”
“I never really liked them.”
