CHAPTER 10 #3
“We were all thinking of going to Downtown.” Dalton’s eyes cut to Jamie. They were doing that boy thing again—fighting each other with their eyes. “Now that Jamie and Nellie are old enough to get in.”
Downtown was an eighteen-plus nightclub in Bayview, a place that we hadn’t been yet since the twins only just turned eighteen last week. “What day?”
“We haven’t really decided yet.” Once more, Dalton glanced at Jamie, who stared him down. “But I’ll let you know when we do.”
Dalton walked off to find his little brother, leaving Jamie and me alone. Jamie watched him for a moment before turning back to me. “What look?”
I sucked in a breath to say nothing, but hesitated. “Crouch down,” I ordered.
Jamie obeyed without hesitation, lowering himself in front of my bench. Even squatting, he wasn’t much shorter than me where I sat. The sun sat behind my shoulder, and he squinted against it, resting his forearm on one of his thighs, his knee pressing into the dirt. “Why?”
It was so like Jamie to do first and then ask questions later. “Look at me.”
“I am looking at you.”
He was. Openly. Steadily. Normally.
He looks like he wants to write about you.
There were a few times it felt like he’d been looking at me strangely, but even when I’d asked, he’d said I’m looking at you the way I’ve always looked at you.
Frowning, I leaned forward and placed my palms on either side of Jamie’s head, holding him there like I could force the answer out of him if I looked long enough.
His wavy hair was warm beneath my fingers.
Jamie didn’t look away, but he didn’t look different, either.
What were people seeing? Because this was the same Jamie who always looked at me like this. Like—
Jamie laid both of his palms down on my bare knees, fingers glancing high enough to brush the hem of my shorts. The touch was light, but it lit through me like an electrical spark. I jolted, fingers tightening reflexively in his hair.
“Are you worried he’s looking?” he asked me in a low voice.
“W-Who?”
“Dalton.” Jamie leaned into my right palm, and the edge of his lips grazed against the heel of my hand. I stared at the connection, feeling oddly short of breath. His eyes never left mine. “Is it working?”
“Is what… working?” Get it together, Daisy.
“This.” His grip steadied, grounding. Intentional. “Us.”
Then Jamie turned his head, almost in slow motion, and pressed his lips to the inside of my right palm.
And kissed.
All while never. Looking. Away.
Fire blazed at the spot his mouth touched, flaring up my arm, catching through my entire body.
The fuzzy, fog-like haze that’d swept through my mind the night of Lydia’s party came back now, along with a soft feeling that unfurled in my chest. This was the third time Jamie kissed me, so easily, so openly, catching me off guard each time—my body reacting each time.
That was what Jamie’s face must’ve looked like when he’d kissed my neck, eyes full of an intensity that would’ve made anyone blush, looking at me like—
Oh. This was the look Dalton meant. Jamie looking at me like he loved me.
It was the same expression he’d been wearing the day at the beach, when I’d undone the buttons on his shirt. The same expression from the party, when he’d lifted me onto the dresser. The one that sent a shiver down my spine now, exactly like it had every other time.
The Romance Switch. He’d flipped it.
They were his romance eyes.
His fake relationship eyes.
And, for some reason, seeing the look now had me jerking my hand back, the weird moment shattering. “Jamie,” I hissed, clenching them into fists, but the pressure of his mouth on my palm was impossible to shake off. “There are children here.”
Jamie’s intense expression cracked apart as he smiled, dimple pressing into his cheek as it transformed his face.
I discreetly pulled in breath after ragged breath as I stared at my best friend, watching his romantic eyes bleed into an amusement I recognized.
The sight, though, strangely, had my heart skipping another beat.
“Speaking of children,” Jamie said, sliding his palms lower on my knees and giving them a squeeze. “Where’s your bunch?”
Now I jolted for an entirely different reason. I hadn’t done a scan in several minutes. My head whipped up, throat closing as I skimmed the playground. The swings were all taken by other kids now, and for a horrible, terrifying second, I couldn’t find a single Carmichael.
And then it was horrible and terrifying for a different reason, because I found them standing a few feet from the bench, staring at Jamie crouched in front of me with his hands on my legs.
It was clear they’d been standing there for a minute, too, as if they’d been coming to tell me they were ready for ice cream and had stopped mid-stride.
Ivy’s jaw was dropped so low that I thought it’d unhinge.
Penn had her hand over Theo’s eyes.
When Junie spoke, her voice practically echoed above all the chatter of children in the entire park. “Since when did you and Jamie start kissing?”