Kiss and Don't Tell(99)

Winnie: Not sure. God, Max, I really like him. Is that crazy?

Katherine: Yes, it is crazy. What’s even crazier is that you’re driving across Canada with this man, and that you actually let him drive your car.

Max: You shouldn’t have texted to group chat. What were you thinking?

Winnie: That maybe Katherine has taken a valium since we spoke.

Max: I wish.

Katherine: The irresponsibility and total disregard for personal safety during this entire trip is frankly disturbing. I’m not sure I can stand to be your friend anymore if you continue to make these kinds of decisions.

Max: She doesn’t mean that. She was telling me this morning how much she misses you.

Katherine: I miss her muffins.

Max: She’s putting on a brave face.

I snort, and Pacey glances at me. “Everything okay over there?”

“Yes, sorry, was just texting with Max and Katherine. Max is obviously thrilled about my decision to stay in Vancouver for a few days—”

“More than a few days, but we won’t argue about that right now.”

I smile inwardly and continue, “But Katherine is putting up a front about wanting to divorce me as a friend for not looking out for my personal safety.”

“She’s the one who thought you were going to be abducted, right?” Pacey asks, his hand slipping from the steering wheel and back to my thigh. There’s something about a man driving with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his girl’s thigh that’s so . . . ugh, sexy. I can’t take it.

I also can’t take the way the lights from other cars flash through the windows, highlighting Pacey’s carved jaw, or the way the muscles in his forearm flex when he’s driving, or the scruff on his jaw from not shaving for a few days.

It makes my pulse pick up and my need for him reach crazy levels of begging. I’ve never experienced such lust. I’m insatiable and have no idea how that happened—well, that’s a lie because Pacey is a god in bed, clearly—nor that I was capable of that level of sexual attraction. My libido is through the roof. How is this me?

“Yes, Katherine is the crazy one.”

“Think she’ll ever like me?”

“Want me to ask her?” I hold up my phone.

“Yeah, I do.”

Smiling, I type away on my phone.

Winnie: Pacey wants to know if you’ll ever like him.

My phone beeps with a response right away. “That was quick,” Pacey says.

“It was from Max. He says—” I pause and laugh. “God, he’s such a horndog. He says, ‘Tell Pacey I liked him from day one and I’ll like him even more if he follows through on the whole Ian Rivers thing.’”

“Text me a picture of Max. I’ll send it over to Ian.”

“No,” I say with a shake to my head. “No way am I doing that. Max will ruin any sort of relationship you have with Ian.”

“Ahh, I don’t know. It sounds as if there could be something there.”

“What does Ian even look like?” I ask as I pull up my browser and type in his name. The first picture that comes up takes my breath away. “Oh my God.”

“He’s gay,” Pacey’s quick to say.

“I know.” I chuckle. “But, oh my God, I can understand Max’s obsession. Ian has that whole dark, bad-boy look about him. Super hot.”

“You’re going to give me a complex.”

I lean into him and press a kiss to his cheek. “Ian is hot, but you take my breath away,” I whisper.

His hand grips my thigh more tightly and he rumbles with a low growl. “I like it when you stroke my ego like that.”

“I’m sure you do.” I laugh as my phone buzzes with a text. “Oh, Katherine wrote back.”

“Give it to me. What does she have to say?”

“‘How could I possibly like someone when I’ve only experienced their character secondhand? If I intend on making any sort of judgment on the man, I need to spend at least a combined total of thirty-six hours with him, making my own assessment, and even at that, he’ll need to earn my trust through action.’”

Pacey chuckles. “Man, tough crowd. But since I seem to be falling for her best friend”—he looks at me—“then I’ll put in the time.”

I swallow hard.

Falling for . . .

Did he just say that?

I believe he did, and he said it so effortlessly. I’m pretty sure if I ever made such a confession, I would be stumbling over my words.

Not Pacey. He’s so confident, as if he knows exactly why we met. I’m still trying to figure that out, but I know I’m not going to take our time together for granted.

My phone buzzes again. “Another text,” I say, going to read it out loud. But then I see that it’s not from Max or Katherine, but rather Josh.

Panic washes over me and a thin veil of sweat breaks out on the back of my neck. “Did Katherine up her restrictions?” Pacey asks with a laugh.

But I don’t answer.

Instead, in a great panic, I read Josh’s text silently to myself.

Josh: Haven’t heard from you in a bit. I know my recent texts have caught you off guard, but I really want a chance to explain things to you. Please, Winnie. I truly believe letting you go was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. Let me prove it to you.