“Two weeks is too long,” he said, voice muffled from his mouth being buried in my hair.
“Way too long,” I agreed. I gave him a final squeeze and stepped back. “Thanks for bringing me food. You didn’t have to.”
He extended the bag in his hands my way. “Needed an excuse to see my—” he paused. “You. Wanted to see you.”
Why did he cut himself off? What was he about to call me? I supposed it didn’t matter, since we were only fake dating. Otherwise, we were still our no-label selves.
“You could have just come to say hi. I do usually have something packed. I fed myself the whole ten days you were gone. I’m very grown up like that.”
“But what’s more exciting: whatever you packed, or a burger and fries?”
I wrinkled my nose and tipped my head to the side. “You know the answer to that.” I studied him from his crispy sneakers up to his shy smile. “How are you?”
His eyes cast down. “Been better. Could really go for a win.”
I reached between us and took his hand. “You’ll get one.”
His face darkened so fast that it threw me off.
“Easy for you to say,” he snapped.
His hand was a stiff plank in mine, so I let it drop. I raised my eyebrows at him.
“Sorry. You didn’t deserve that. I’m just . . . really frustrated. Overwhelmed. I feel like everyone’s mad at me. This shit sucks.”
“Probably not who you mean, but I’m not mad at you,” I offered.
“I mean, I just snapped at you.”
I shrugged. “Wasn’t that long ago that I snapped at you. Getting overwhelmed and snapping isn’t the worst thing you can do.”
“You’re too nice to me,” he said.
I twisted my lips. “And just recently, I said that to someone, and they said I’m too mean to myself.”
He chuckled. “Please see my prior argument about you being smart and it being annoying.”
I grinned. “You’re probably tired of hearing me say it, but no one’s ever lost all fifty games.”
Colt placed his hand on top of his head. “Eighty-two. You know it’s not—oh. You’re fucking with me.”
I gave him a smug smile. “You know I’m a fantasy league champ. I have to know how many games there are. Trying to make you laugh. But, probably not what you need right now.”
He studied the ground between us.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“To win,” he sulked.
“Well, I can’t do that part. But I can do hugs, and food, andcuddles. Trash-talking the other team. Coming to your games when I can. The occasional jersey picture.”
Colton’s voice was feeble. “What about kisses?”
I grinned at him as my heart fluttered. This wasn’t in a book. This was our first time kissing outside of the confines of our pre-arranged hookups. This was starting to feel dangerous, but exhilarating. “I can do kisses.”
He opened his arms and I stepped into them, looping my hands behind his neck. Colt lifted a hand to brush my hair behind my ear, then settled it on my waist. His blue eyes were stunning in the bright fall sun. “Missed you, pretty girl.”
My cheeks warmed and I rubbed my nose with his. “I missed you too.”
