Page 114 of Mixed Signals
“Kindness,” she breathes. “8 out of 10, and the comments say that’s only because you’re kind to a fault. And you should do more to protect yourself against things that might hurt you.”
“Hm.” I take another step closer and reach for her left hand. I gently guide her fist open and trace the tip of my fingertip over her knuckles.
I don’t have to ask this time. She just tells me.
“I say that your kindness, your open heart, your capacity to care and love—those are all the best things about you. I’ve been—I’ve been having such a tough time, Caleb, trying to find the courage to trust myself. To trust us. I want this to be real so bad.”
I thread my fingers through hers. “It is, sweetheart. It’s real, I promise.”
She squeezes my hand. “Which brings me to my last point. The random bonus category.” She swallows and drops the paper to her side, letting it go. I watch it drift on the edges of a wind before my gaze is swallowed up by Layla beneath the afternoon sun, painted in golds and pinks and bright, summer blues. A tentative smile and love shining like a beacon in her pretty eyes. My heart feels like it’s going to fall out of my damned chest.
“This whole time—I think I’ve been falling in love with you,” she tells me. “I didn’t recognize it because I’ve never felt it before. And when I did, when I realized, I kind of freaked out. I’m still kind of freaking out about it. It turns out the thing I wanted most is pretty scary when it comes down to it. You’re going to have to be patient with me.”
“I can do that,” I grit out, voice thick. “I think I’ve been falling in love with you for a while, Layla. One butter croissant at a time.”
One smile, one secret, one soft touch at a time.
Her smile is a soft, tremulous thing. I want to trace it with my thumb. I want to paint it in the sky. I want it iced on top of a cake.
“Good,” she says. “Because I’d like to discuss terms for a new arrangement.”
I move closer and reach for a strand of her caramel hair. I rub it carefully between my thumb and forefinger then twirl it around twice and tug. She smiles at me and something cascades through my chest, warm and lovely.
“A new arrangement, huh?”
She nods and grabs two fistfuls of my t-shirt, tugging me even closer. “Yeah.”
My nose bumps hers. “I thought you didn’t want any more arrangements between us.”
“This one is different.”
“Tell me.”
“Well, to start—” She nudges me with her nose until I tip my chin up, her mouth at the space just above my heart. She curls her arms around my waist and presses a soft kiss just there.
“Dates,” she says into my t-shirt. “I want lots of them.”
I hum and rock us back and forth lightly. “I think we can do that.” I pause. “As long as it’s not the escape room again.”
“No promises on that. Minus the black eye, I think that went very well.”
“Oh yes, besides that.”
She grins, and her eyes soften. “No more grading. No more pretense. It’s just going to be me and you from here on out. Honest with ourselves and with each other.”
I press my nose against her temple. I slip my palm to the small of her back and tuck her even closer. We stand together in the middle of the trees. “I like how that sounds.”
One of her hands releases my shirt to curl around the back of my neck. Her palm is cool in the sticky summer heat, fingers drumming. “Vanilla ice cream on the beach,” she adds. “Kisses in the rain. The sound you make, right here …” She trails one finger down the line of my neck and taps at the hollow of my throat. “When I make you feel good.”
I make a smaller version of that sound right now, something deep and wanting. I tug her tighter against me. “Butter croissants,” I say, my voice low. “Strawberry shortcake. You tell me what you need, when you need it. I’ll be right here next to you.”
She nods. She tips her head back until her eyes can search mine, wide and open beneath the endless summer sky. My heart lurches, and everything I am belongs to her.
“One more thing,” she says.
I nod and tuck her hair carefully behind her ears. “What is it?”
“Falling in love,” she says. “Falling together.”
