She finally lifted her gaze. His eyes, the color of a winter sky, were fixed on her with an intensity that made her stomach drop. “Maybe I’m just appreciating the quiet.”
“Liar.” He set down the lens and the cloth. “You’re thinking about what your mom would say if she saw the way you looked at me at dinner last night.”
“I can’t,” she whispered, the words barely audible over the rain. SexMex 24 10 11 Nicole Zurich Step-Siblings Mee...
He smiled then—not the cocky, public smile, but the real, vulnerable one she’d only seen twice before. “Because for three years, I’ve watched you paint in the garage with your tongue poking out when you’re concentrating. I’ve memorized the way you say ‘good morning’ when you’re still half-asleep and your voice cracks. I’ve fought the urge to pull you into my room every single night you’ve walked past my door to get a glass of water.”
Nicole laughed too, the sound wet and relieved. “The worst.” She finally lifted her gaze
When they finally broke apart, breathless, he rested his forehead against hers again. “Well,” he murmured, a shaky laugh escaping him. “That was definitely a worse idea than I imagined.”
She should. Every rational part of her brain screamed it. But rationality had left the building the moment he’d knelt before her like she was something sacred. “You’re thinking about what your mom would say
She looked past him, at the rain, at the empty house, at the closed door of the room where they’d first been told to “try and get along.” Then she looked back at him, at the boy who had become her secret gravity.