His brows slam together, but not in anger.
It’s confusion that fill his expression.
Curious, I glance down.
Oh god.
My heart rate soars when I realize what cup I’ve grabbed from the cabinet: my alumni mug, the only one I have from my college days…the one that boasts we have the best baseball team around…the one with23on it to highlight our most valuable player in the college’s history.
Shep’s number.
I don’t own a single sweatshirt or pair of sweatpants from my time spent at college, but the moment I saw this mug in the campus shop, I knew I had to have it.
Even though I hated his guts, it called to me.
So, I bought it, and I use it every single day.
I just wish today I’d have paid a little more attention to my routine.
“It was a gift,” I lie. “I couldn’t very well turn down a gift.”
“Right,” Shep mutters, his eyes back on the mug, mind whirling.
I lift the mug and he follows my movements, swallowing thickly the moment my lips graze the rim like it’s his skin they’re touching.
His stare doesn’t leave the mug, not even as I lower it.
“It doesn’t mean anything, Shep.”
Finally, he snaps his attention back to my face.
“I said right, Denny.”
He clears his throat and glances around my apartment. It’s small but cozy and perfectly me.
I know the moment he spots my collection of comic-book-based movies because he grins and shakes his head.
When he’s done surveying the small space, he turns back to me, still smiling.
How in the hell can he be so smiley this early in the morning?
“So, Allie and AJ.”
“Yep, Allie and AJ,” I repeat.
“You know what this means, don’t you?”
I sigh, because I know exactly what this means. It means all those thoughts I was trying to avoid earlier.
“It means we’re probably going to be spending a lot of time together over the next year or so, helping them plan and attending to our best man and maid of honor duties…unfortunately.”
His grin grows. “Try again.”
“Try what again?”
“That timeline.”
“What about it? Most couples are engaged for about a year. They need the time to prepare, to make book venues, to…”
