“Want to be alone?”
“Nah. Come on out.”
He joined me and bent to rest his elbows on the balcony railing.
“I hate New York City,” he said out of the blue. “Big, noisy, too much light. I’d rather be on Opa’s boat in the middle of the lake. On a night like this, you can count a thousand stars in the Milky Way.”
“I’d like to see that.”
“Then it’s a date.”
“What?” My eyes widened.
“Spring break is coming up in a few weeks.” He smiled at me. “You can go home with me.”
“Um.”
Meet his oma and opa? I had feelings for the guy, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for that yet. I mean, I’d only known him for how long? A few weeks?
Oh, stop it, girl!If he asked you to, you’d leave right now!
“No pressure, Mira.” He stood up and slid one arm around my waist. “I’m not asking for anything other than for you and me to go out on a boat and watch the stars one night.”
I raised my eyes to his and couldn’t breathe. How many other girls had seen that tenderness in his face? Or such gentleness? Surely none, because only an idiot woulda let him slip through her fingers.
“If you want to, that is,” he said when I didn’t answer. “I know you’re probably anxious to get your life back on track. You don’t have to waste spring break hanging out with me. Someday, though, I’d like you to come. Home with me, that is. Um.”
God bless his adorable, awkward heart. I wanna eat it all up.
“I would love that,” I whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I would love to kiss you.” His other arm went around me, and he linked his fingers at the small of my back.
“Sounds good to me.”
Looping my arms around his neck, I pulled his head down. The soft, sweet kiss was everything I’d dreamed it would be.
I smoothed my hands up his neck to the back of his head, loving the prickle of his close-cropped hair on my palms. In response, his hands slid down my backside, and the dense muscles in his arms tightened before he lifted me up.
Shocked, I stiffened, and his lips broke away from mine.
“Ope! I’m sorry. I’m scaring you?”
“Of course not. It’s just I, uh, I’ve never been picked up by a guy before.”
He blushed.
My heart, already thudding away, went into overdrive.
Oh my goodness. How did you stay so pure and wholesome in this nasty ole world?
“You want down?” He nudged my nose with his.
“No! I like it! I was, um, surprised, that’s all. It feels good. Like I’m surrounded by your strength.”Like nothing can hurt me.“I haven’t been held by someone who cared about me in a long time.”
