He chuckled, then stepped closer when someone passed behind him.
Heat flushed over her skin. She wanted to press into him and forget about everything else. When he dipped his head, she lost her breath.Not a date. Not a date. Not a date.But oh…
“And you pull off a cardigan like no other.”
Now, why did that sound sexy? Will. She’d bet that Will saying anything—describing the weather, reading a grocery list, citing facts—would be sexy.
She poked him in the chest. “Two can play at this game. I can tellyou, you’re an incredible woman.”
He frowned. “I’m a woman? That’s it? That’s not a clue.”
Lexi smirked. “An incredible woman who impacted the world for a lot more than eight years.”
“Hmm. Maybe this is harder than I thought,” he said, facing the patio doors.
Lexi couldn’t help but stare at his profile thinking the exact opposite.
Seven
Jackie, Becca, her boyfriend, Lena, her wife, and a couple of other nameless faces formed a half circle around Will and Lexi. Music pumped through the speakers outside while the space heaters glowed orange, making the crispness of the evening air tolerable. The stars wouldn’t show themselves for a bit but the lanterns cast twinkling lights all around them.
“Jackie said you two are engaged as well. Tell us how you met,” Lena said, her voice soft. She glanced pointedly at Lexi, then added, “Were you twoneighbors?”
Lexi was stuck on the clue but also sidetracked by how quickly Jackie had passed that little bit of gossip through the crowd. Lena’s wife, Amelia, gestured to her wife as she spoke to Lexi. “She’s giving you a clue but we still want to know the story.”
Lexi looked up at Will, eyes wide as her mind scrambled for something believable. And how was “neighbor” a clue?Famous neighbors?All that came to mind wasFriends,which she and her mom frequently watched old episodes of.
Little creases formed at the corners of Will’s dark, expressive eyes. Only the slightest twitch of his eyebrows revealed his uncertainty at how to respond. He smiled at her, their arms brushing casually. A nothingtouch that felt like a hell of a lot at the moment. Her mom might have been right about getting out more. If every whisper of a touch set her skin alight, she was spending too much time alone. Or maybe it was just her—he didn’t seem affected by their casual touches. From the little he said, he spent a lot more time socializing at functions like this than she did. Her socialization tended to come from apologizing to customers in between making them laugh, texting with her bestie, convincing seventy-year-old women that any age was a good age to wear what you wanted, or working in small, online groups for her class. She was too tired to do more at the end of most days so it surprised her to feel somewhat energized in this setting even if the low-key anxiety never fully faded.
All eyes were on her, including Will’s.
His fingers brushed hers; maybe an accident, maybe a show of support. Maybe a reminder to say something so people would stop staring at them. She was starting to when he linked their hands together, lifted them, and pressed his lips to the back of her hand. Her lungs filled but didn’t empty out. Her breath froze in her chest painfully. It was one of those things long-term couples did without thinking because it was part of who they were. That simple kiss reminded her it’d been a hell of a long time—too long—since she’d gotten lost in a man, felt the pressure of his mouth on hers, his body against hers, skin to skin. The gentle press ofWill’slips toLexi’sskin felt like fireworks dancing in little bursts of light up and down her arms.
Will’s arched brows suggested he had some insight into where her brain had wandered but was also waiting for her to fill in the blanks.
How had they met? She took her hand back and looked at the group. “It’s a funny story, actually. We were both seated at the same table in a restaurant. The hostess mixed up and thought we were together even though we were both alone.”
Jackie’s eyes widened as Nigel came up and wrapped his arms around her from behind. “That’s so adorable,” she said, looking back and forth between Will and Lexi.
Lexi nodded in agreement. It was somewhere in the vicinity of the truth. “A classic meet cute.” Just because she didn’t gush over romance books or build little scenes out of them like her mom didn’t mean she was completely unaware.
“A what?” Nigel asked.
Lexi grinned. “When two people meet and it’s cute and the start of their story, it’s called a meet cute. Sorry. My mom reads more romance novels than anyone I’ve ever met so I’m familiar.”
“An apt term,” Will said, taking a sip of his beer.
“Speaking of,” Becca said, her voice soft, especially in the crowd of partygoers, “I’m so sorry about your dad. How is your mom?”
Before Lexi could answer or swallow the lump that immediately lodged in her throat, Jackie reached out, squeezed her arm.
“Me too. I’m sorry we couldn’t come to the funeral.”
Lexi hated the uncomfortable looks, the mood shift, and the piece of her heart that still felt so goddamn fragile.
She felt Will’s solid presence more acutely than she had seconds before, like he’d stepped closer when he heard. She didn’t look at him, knowing, though not knowing why, that if she did she’d lose her weak grasp on composure.
Instead she smiled, nodded her head. “Thank you. I understand. You were at Stanford. That’s a far way to travel and it was honestly so unexpected.”
