The Crush (25)

The intimacy of the position, the surety in how he faced me, had my heart thundering erratically.

“I came here because your brother invited me.” His face was smooth and calm. But his eyes … his eyes were searing.

Right. It was the answer I needed.

“But,” he added, “the opportunity to see you … it was too good to pass up. Is that okay for me to admit?”

“Is that…?” My voice trailed off. I couldn’t even finish repeating his question.

Was it okay?

The guy basically just dropped a bomb over my head and expected me to have rational thoughts about rational things like … why my former crush was on the swings with me, giving me intense sex eyes and asking if it was okay that he was excited to see me.

Like he hadn’t gone five years without seeing me.

Not once had this man ever hinted that he might have feelings for me.

No, there were no rational thoughts about anything happening in my brain.

My heart, though … my heart was screaming, catapulting into some oxygen-thin stratosphere of girlish excitement. My heart wanted me to lean forward and see if his lips tasted as good as they looked.

My heart wanted.

But my brain, it kept me right where I was, a single seed of caution whispering through that thick pulse of attraction.

My brain remembered.

“Emmett,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know what to do with that.” I had to force a dry swallow around the most truthful answer I could give him. “I’m not ready for anything. Not right now.”

Inexplicably, he smiled. Then he raised his hand to tuck an errant strand of hair behind my ear. “That’s all right.”

“But it is good to see you too,” I whispered.

His finger delicately tracing along the shell of my ear had my eyes fluttering shut, and when I heard his unsteady exhale, I took comfort in not being the only one affected. But I thought that before too. That was the thread of caution, something as flimsy as cotton candy, holding back an entire ocean of want.

When I opened my eyes, he straightened the swing and stood. He held out his hand, which I took while he helped me out of the swing.

His fingers were warm and long and firm. Calloused from hard work. They felt amazing. I wanted them everywhere. On all body parts.

And this was why I shouldn’t be allowed to be around this man.

With a hammering heart and only the weakest grip on my self-control, I pulled my hand out of his.

“Wanna go for that walk now? Or do you need to hide for a little bit?”

I managed a laugh.

“Both,” I admitted.

My sister opened the back door of the house. “Cameron wants to go play some football with Parker and Emmett. Want to go over there with us?”

Instead of checking with Emmett, I gave her a thumbs-up. “We’ll wait out here.”

Greer nodded. “Poppy should be home soon; she’s going to meet us at the field. She texted, asking if we could do a bonfire tonight while we’re all home.”

“Only if we have s’more stuff,” I said. “Otherwise, it’s just sitting around a smoky, gross fire that will make my hair stink the next day.”

Emmett laughed. “The sugar makes it all worthwhile, huh?”

I cut him a look. “Marshmallows and chocolate make everything worth it.”

“Duly noted,” he murmured.

Greer was smirking when I pulled my attention from Emmett. She raised her eyebrows knowingly. “We have s’more stuff. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

I scratched my nose with my middle finger, and she laughed.

Cameron and Parker came out of the house. “Emmett, we’ll ride over in Cameron’s truck. Girls, you can take the four-wheeler if you want. I gassed it up earlier,” Parker called, tossing a football over to Emmett.

“I’m driving,” I yelled at Greer. “You are dangerous behind the wheel of that thing.”

“One tree,” she muttered as she stomped down the porch steps. “I hit one tree, and everyone thinks I’m a hazard.”

She tossed me the keys, and before we walked to the garage, I glanced over at Emmett.

His eyes were fixed on mine, and the smile he gave me before he turned to get into the truck sent a sharp, sweet bolt of longing through my body.

It was a smile that held promise. And intention.

And suddenly, I wasn’t even sure I could make it through a single night under the same roof as that man.





Adaline



It was unnerving, how it felt like someone whirled me up in a tornado and dumped me back five years.

We spent a few hours on the football field, Greer and I settled comfortably in the back of Cameron’s massive work truck with Poppy once she arrived. Snuggled up with my sisters, it was no hardship to watch Emmett play football with my brothers.

Parker heaved a football toward the end of the field where Emmett waited, and as he adjusted his position, he stretched one long arm over his head to catch the ball.

That stretch, with a strong gust of wind that picked up, gave a tantalizing glimpse of his abdomen. Stacks of muscles, the clean line of the V cutting down into the waistband of his shorts, and the line of dark golden hair disappeared in that general direction too, it was all right there.