Page 11 of Half-Hearted
“That’s such a lie!”
“But can you prove it?”
I won that one. She moved on with a stubbornly held-back smile. “Fine. Whatever. Point number… something: Marta adores me.” There was an extra, slurredlin the word “adore.” but it didn’t take away from her point.
Alexis was the daughter my mother never had. She’d been telling us so before Alexis was even old enough to understand what the words meant. The two of them got alongtoo well, if anything. Always had.
My mother had worked for the Milanis for the better part of two decades as a personal chef, so I’d been around the siblings almost my whole life. I knew how absent their parents had been growing up. Their mother—the ever so ethereal and elusive Tanya Milani—had been too busy with her charities and social groups to pay much attention to her children. And their father…
Let’s just say I’d never really been a fan.
They’d died in a car accident a few years back, and somewhat unsurprisingly, none of the three kids had shed a single tear at the funeral. Grey had left early to go back to the office.
“I’m pretty sure my mom likes you more than she likes me,” I confirmed.
“S’cause I call her more than you do.”
“I call her three times a week.”
“That’s not what she says.”
“Mostweeks,” I clarified. “Sometimes I get busy.”
“‘Too busy to call your own moth—’”
Alexis cut off with a huffed laugh when I poked her stomach. “No quoting her. Next point.”
We were so close on the bed that I could individually make out every single one of her long, dark eyelashes. She blinked up at me, pausing for a long time. A really long time.
“Are you done? Was that it?” I said. Except my voice came out all low and… whispery, which sometimes happened if I looked into her eyes for too long. But it wasn’t my fault.
They were just so…
She was just so…
“You’re attracted to me.”
There was no questioning curl to her sentence. It came out confident and even, the most sober-sounding thing she’d said all night.
I didn’t respond.
“I don’t think you want to be. But you are.”
“Lex.” She was inching way too close. I was running out of room to breathe. Think. “Don’t.”
I thought she was going to do it anyway. Kiss me again. But she halted a half breath away, and I didn’t know whether to be relieved or angry with myself at putting a stop to it.
“And now I have the proof,” she murmured, “s’cause you kissed me back.”
“I did no such thing,” I lied.
“Joel…”
“Mmm?”
“Your tongue was inside my mouth.” She pointed a finger at said gorgeous mouth.
“That was purely accidental.”
