13. Mia #2
Chelsea also wants cupcakes in a variety of colors to go with the nail polish colors, and Delaney texts my mom to place the order from the bakery as we’re all sitting together.
It occurs to me to worry that she’ll say something about me being here. But then I realize that I’m here helping with manicures. It’s completely innocent. David just happened to be here too. But this is hardly a date.
It still feels like a date in a strange way.
I feel closer to him than we were yesterday.
I know him better.
I definitely like him even more.
I want him more.
So when Sloan and I head out to my car and David says he needs to get going at the same time, I’m thrilled.
Sloan goes to the car, leaving me on the porch with David.
“I saw the books you brought out,” he says before I can say anything.
I brought Jack an adult-focused book about nail care and manicures—we surprisingly only had one—but the other two are for kids.
One is a story about an alligator getting a manicure on her day off, and the other is about how nail art, hair color, tattoos, and other personal expressions can help people enhance their self-confidence.
It’s more age-appropriate for Chelsea than for the other two, so I told Jack to be sure to read it first.
“Jack stopped in asking about manicures.”
“I didn’t realize the librarian delivered.”
I smile up at him. “Now you know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
I would really love for David to ‘place an order’ at the library and ask me to bring it out to his house.
What books would he ask for?
I feel a curl of heat and anticipation in my belly.
That could be really sexy. Especially if he wants to read together. Or read out loud to me…
“Thanks for doing this,” he says. “It was really great of you. And Sloan.”
“I enjoyed it,” I tell him honestly. I add, “You’re a really good uncle. And brother.”
“It’s easy with them.”
“You would do it even if it was difficult.”
He shrugs. “Of course.”
I know David would do anything for his brothers and, by extension, their kids.
I smile. “Can I do something I really wanted to do inside, but I resisted even though it was really difficult?”
He lifts a brow. “Is it a bad idea?”
“Not bad ,” I say. “But you’re going to think I shouldn’t do it.”
He just looks at me for a long moment. Then he shocks me by saying, “Yes.”
I don’t give him a second to re-think it. I step forward, slip my arms around his waist, press my cheek to his chest, and hug him tightly.
I feel his surprise in the way he stiffens for a moment, but then his arms come around me and he brings me against him more fully.
I close my eyes and just absorb the moment.
“I thought you were going to kiss me,” he says against my head after a few seconds of holding me.
I smile. Then realize that he said yes to that.
I tip my head back. “I’m afraid to ruin how great the kiss last Friday was.”
Surprise flickers through his eyes. Then they narrow. “Excuse me?”
I fight my smile. “It was a really good kiss. I don’t want to do it again and ruin it.”
“You don’t want to do it again?” he repeats. “Ever?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
I know he knows I’m lying.
This could go either way.
He’s either going to kiss my pants off—maybe not literally on his mom’s porch but very metaphorically—or he’s going to call me on my crap.
His gaze roams over my face, almost as if he’s trying to memorize my features.
Then he says, “You’ve got a point.”
And he lets me go.
Calling me on my crap.
Got it.
I can’t hide my smile.
“So I’ll see you…Oh, I guess not tomorrow night. Since I don’t need four-wheeler lessons.” I shrug. “So, see you around sometime?” I move toward the steps.
“Yes,” he says.
I look back at him.
“You will see me around, Mia.”
And that promise sends tingles skittering down my spine and adds a bounce to my step that I can’t deny even when I slide behind the steering wheel and Sloan looks over and simply laughs at my enormous grin.
The grin that doesn’t leave my face on the entire drive back to town, or after dropping Sloan off, or after getting home, showering, and slipping into bed.
And definitely not after my phone pings with a text from David that reads book delivery request from the Sapphire Falls Community Library for the following titles: Caleb’s Camping Catastrophe. The Most Horrifying Camping Trips Ever.
Then he includes my address as the delivery destination.
I laugh out loud as I look up both. Caleb’s Camping Catastrophe is a children’s book about a boy named Caleb who goes camping with his parents and hates the entire trip.
The other is non-fiction and actually chronicles about fifty truly horrifying stories of real camping trips that went terribly wrong.
There are four actual murders and the discovery of three dead bodies among the stories.
And I can’t help it… I download both to my e-reader app on my phone because that’s funny.
I wonder if David’s intended outcome was for me to like him even more.
If not, he’s screwing this all up.
Because I think I’m actually falling for him.