“Whoa. Um…” Trent falters at the sight of me.
“What?” I say, blinking my yogurt-covered eyelashes up at him. “Did I take your breath away?”
He shakes his head, then finds my eyes somewhere under the mess. “Always.”
My heart flutters like it belongs to an adolescent.
Trent steps forward and lifts his hand to my face. He swipes his thumb over my cheek, and then examines it. He sniffs it, then plops his whole thumb in his mouth. And…why is it that sexy?
“Yogurt?” He raises his brows. “Do I dare ask what happened?”
“I was watchingStranger Things! When you rang the doorbell, it scared me!” I shoot back.
“Which season?”
“Four.”
He’s about to ask more when his forehead scrunches. “So youweren’tcoming over?”
Oh. Shoot. “Trent, it’s…” I swallow. ”I can’t…”
“What on earth happened in here?”
I jump at the newcomer’s extremely familiar voice.
“Juliet?” I back away from Trent. “What are you doing here?”
“He didn’t know where you lived, so I had to play chauffeur.” She pushes past me into the apartment, studying the ceiling and the floor. “Karli, what did you do?”
Trent looks frustrated by the interruption, but he steps inside and closes the door behind him, giving me a reassuring smile, a promise that he’s not going to leave until we finish our discussion.
He grabs my hand and gives it a quick squeeze. “You go get cleaned up and I’ll take care of the yogurt on the couch. And the ceiling.”
“No, that’s…” far more than he bargained for here.I’mfar more than he bargained for.
“Great idea,” Juliet says and pushes me toward the bathroom. I love my best friend, but I kind of want her to leave. “I’ll get you some clothes.”
“Okay,” I say, only because the yogurt is cold and uncomfortable, and I need all the help I can get to make it through my conversation with Trent without falling apart.
I turn on the water and strip off my clothes. The water feels like heaven, but I don’t take the time to enjoy it. Trent is out there, and I won’t make him wait. He has a family to get back to.
I scrub off as fast as I can and am wrapping up in a towel as Juliet comes in with my clothes.
“Impeccable timing, showing up when you did,” I mutter as I take the offered clothes. “He didn’t know where you lived?Admit it, you came to meddle.”
She shrugs. “What? He didn’t.”
“You could have given him the address.”
“I couldn't remember it.”
“Up until six months ago, you lived here too.”
“I was waiting outside, and it sounded like you were about to reject him, so I intervened before you could.” She pulls at a strand of her long brown hair and twists it around her finger.
“I was not going to reject him.” Maybe. Possibly not. Fine, there was a good chance that is exactly what was going to happen.
“I know because I did the same thing to Michael.” She squeezes my arm. “So, I came in to remind you how amazing you are and that you deserve good things, too. Your mom has taken a lot from you, don’t let her take any more.”
