Page 125 of Really Truly Yours

“Hey, Sydnee?”

“Hmm?”

“I need to say something.”

My stomach tightens. Wow, that was shorter than even I could have predicted. A date and a magical afternoon do not a future make. I hold my inner sigh hostage. “Yes?”

“I realized something this morning.”

I wait.

“I’ll have to leave this week.”

Everything inside me sinks. So that’s it? He pursues. I relent. Boom. Over. Done. Don’t let the door hit ya?

I squirm to wriggle free, heaven and its wonder slipping away.

Pressure along his arm begs me to hold still. “Chill, Syd. Hear me out.”

Chill? Easy for him to say.

He presses his mouth to a spot above my ear. “I have to go back to Houston. The games…”

I stop wrestling. Of course, he does.

“I need to be with my team.”

But I need you.

Sydnee Renee! I open my mouth to tell him I understand.

“Come with me.”

This time, I do drag myself from his arms and gawk. “You’re joking.”

His eyes, warm chocolate, meet mine. “Not in the slightest.”

I scoot to the opposite armrest. Go with him? Travel with him? Away from here? Like a couple?

Overnight?

He twirls his finger in the air. “Stuff’s going through that head of yours again.”

Maaay-be.

“Two words, Sydnee Lou. Separate accommodations.”

Of course that’s what he meant. I am such a flake. One minute I’m all woe-is-me rejected, and the next…

In my head, I growl. But, I do know the right answer here. “No.”

His mouth flattens. “That was definitive.”

“I can’t, Gray. I don’t know that it would be a great idea for us so soon, and besides, I do have a job.”

He bends one arm across his rock-hard abs and rests his chin in his palm.

I shift beneath his stare. “What?”

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